Pumpkin Passion

Name: Pumpkin Agua Fresca
Purchased At: Mitsitam Native Foods Café at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington DC
Price: $3.99ish
Availability: Year Round

There are lots of reasons to envy Harry Potter: he has magical powers, he gets to go to school at Hogwarts, he has a Nimbus 2000, and he gets to drink pumpkin juice. Of course there’s the whole Voldemort trying to kill him thing but the rest of it is all pretty awesome. After reading several references to pumpkin juice in the series, I did a little research and tried to find out if pumpkin juice really does exist. I couldn’t find anything other than references to pumpkin juice in the Harry Potter books.

It was on a trip to Washington DC that I made the amazing discovery. A friend of mine (Hi Alli) told me that the café at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian was the best she’d ever visited, which is kind of a strange comment. Who says a museum café is an absolute MUST to visit? I’d been to the museum a few times but never to the café. So, when my stomach started grumbling at the National Arboretum we walked across the street to have lunch.

The café was PACKED but the food was great. It’s called the Mitsitam Native Foods Café and it features Native foods found throughout the Western Hemisphere , including the Northern Woodlands, South America , the Northwest Coast , Meso America , and the Great Plains . The food is somewhat more expensive than most Smithsonian cafes but it was soo worth it. While I was waiting for my roasted vegetable tamale I saw it on the list of beverages “Pumpkin Agua Fresca,” aka Pumpkin Juice!!!

The taste is extremely difficult to describe. It’s not at all like drinking a pumpkin pie. The taste is fairly mellow but very unique and the texture is somewhat thick. I’m sure the pumpkin is mixed with other fruits. In fact, the bottom of the cup was covered in tiny black seeds that I think were from a fig.

I enjoyed it. I would have it again but if it was available at my local grocery store I probably wouldn’t buy it very often. It’s hard to knock it when drinking the Pumpkin Agua Fresca is the closest I’ve come to being enrolled in Hogwarts.

Rating: 4 out of 5