Chef Lupita
Agua de Alfalfa
Ciudad de México's highland market agua fresca, fresh alfalfa blended with pineapple and lime until bright green, strained clean, and poured cold from the vitrolero.
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Licuado de Platano del Valle de Mexico
Created by
Ciudad de Mexico's morning licuado, built from ripe platano Tabasco, cold milk, real vanilla, and canela. Breakfast in a glass, made fast because working people have places to be.
Beverages
Mexican
Quick Meal
Budget Friendly
5 min
Active Time
0 min cook•5 min total
Yield2 servings
Ciudad de Mexico and the Valle de Mexico own this version: the market-counter licuado poured into a thick glass before school, before work, before the long ride across the city. This is not a smoothie from a gym menu. It is breakfast economics. Milk, platano, vanilla, canela. Cheap, filling, fast.
The banana matters. Use a ripe platano Tabasco, yellow with brown freckles, the kind stacked in crates at La Merced or Medellin. Green banana gives you starch. Overripe black banana gives you perfume and heaviness. You want the middle: sweet enough to carry the milk, firm enough to keep the licuado clean.
The technique belongs to household kitchens and jugueras, the women behind the market juice counters who can run a blender, take money, slice papaya, and correct your order without looking tired. The Osterizer is part of the recipe now. My mother wrote only four words in her notebook: platano, leche, vainilla, canela. She didn't need more. Saber cocinar es saber vivir, even when cooking means knowing exactly when to stop blending.
Licuados became common in urban Mexican households and market stalls during the mid-20th century, when electric blenders such as the Osterizer entered middle-class and working-class kitchens. The banana itself is not native to Mexico; commercial plantings expanded in tropical states such as Tabasco, Chiapas, and Veracruz in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, making platano Tabasco a reliable fruit in central Mexican markets. The drink reflects a real urban food pattern: tropical produce moving through Mexico City's wholesale markets and becoming everyday breakfast in the highland capital.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
ripe platano Tabasco bananas
Quantity
2
peeled and sliced
cold whole milk
Quantity
2 cups
Mexican vanilla extract
Quantity
1 teaspoon
preferably Papantla-style
ground canela
Quantity
1/8 teaspoon, plus more for serving
fine sea salt
Quantity
1 pinch
sugar (optional)
Quantity
1 to 2 teaspoons
only if the bananas are not sweet enough
ice cubes (optional)
Quantity
4
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| ripe platano Tabasco bananaspeeled and sliced | 2 |
| cold whole milk | 2 cups |
| Mexican vanilla extractpreferably Papantla-style | 1 teaspoon |
| ground canela | 1/8 teaspoon, plus more for serving |
| fine sea salt | 1 pinch |
| sugar (optional)only if the bananas are not sweet enough | 1 to 2 teaspoons |
| ice cubes (optional) | 4 |
Equipment Needed
- •Household blender or Osterizer
- •Small paring knife
- •Two thick glass tumblers from a loncheria-style table
Instructions
- 1
Choose the banana
Use bananas that are yellow with brown freckles. Not green. Not collapsed and black. The fruit should smell sweet when you peel it and slice cleanly without turning mushy. The banana is the body of the licuado, so do not treat it like filler.
- 2
Load the blender
Put the sliced banana, cold whole milk, vanilla, canela, and salt into the blender. Add sugar only if the bananas are not sweet enough. Taste the fruit first. Preguntale a las señoras del mercado, they will tell you the fruit decides the sugar, not the recipe.
- 3
Blend until smooth
Blend on high for 25 to 35 seconds, just until the drink is smooth and lightly frothy on top. Do not run the blender for two minutes like you are punishing it. Too much blending warms the milk and gives the banana a heavy texture. Fast and clean. Asi se hace y punto.
If you want it colder, add the ice cubes before blending. Do not add so much ice that you water down the milk. This is a licuado, not a raspado. - 4
Serve immediately
Pour into two thick glasses and dust the top with a little more canela. Drink it right away, while the foam is still sitting on the surface and the banana has not darkened. Licuado waits badly. Make it, pour it, drink it.
Chef Tips
- •Whole milk gives the right body. Low-fat milk works, but it tastes thin. A licuado should feed you, not just wet your throat.
- •Use real vanilla if you have it, especially Mexican vanilla from Veracruz. Artificial vanilla will make the drink taste like cheap candy. A substitution is a compromise, not an upgrade.
- •Not all Mexican food has chile. This is a Mexican breakfast drink with no chile, no lime, no salsa. This is a 32-state cuisine, and sweetness belongs here.
- •If the bananas at the market are green, buy them and wait a day. Mexican grandmothers do not force bad fruit into breakfast because a calendar said so.
Advance Preparation
- •Do not blend this ahead. Banana oxidizes and the milk loses its clean flavor.
- •You can chill the glasses and milk ahead of time. That is enough planning for a five-minute breakfast.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 370g)
Calories
230 calories
Total Fat
8 g
Saturated Fat
5 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
3 g
Cholesterol
25 mg
Sodium
180 mg
Total Carbohydrates
43 g
Dietary Fiber
3 g
Sugars
31 g
Protein
8 g
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