All of which happens frightfully infrequently, come summer. Instead, my days look like this: check weather forecast for any hint of fall, crank down the A/C and read Jane Eyre with a cup of Earl Grey, begin planning extravagant Christmas Eve dinner. There’s a lesson in zen there somewhere, but I think we all suffer just a little from seasonal grass-is-greener syndrome–those of us with powerful imaginations, at least. Yet when I made this smoothie, in a simple effort to use up some prepackaged mango slices, I was catapulted into a future wintertime daydream of summer. The star of the reverie? The mango mojito smoothie. I was taken aback by simply how much the smoothie tasted of summer, all at once frothy and sweet, light and creamy, fresh and aromatic. It was like a barefoot childhood traipse through the sprinkler-dotted grass, a messy bite of overripe fruit, picking wild strawberries in the yard and wondering if we’d die if we ate them (this was, of course, B.G.E. – Before the Google Era – so we erred on the side of caution when it came to our contemplations). I’ve lamented my inevitably destructive love of mojitos before with my berry mojito smoothie, but the pairing of mango and mint goes beyond that simple and fresh obsession with dangerously easy-to-drink cocktails. It simply is summer, simply is what I dream about when I’m shivering between the front door and my car. Make it now, if only for fodder for the January reveries.
