Ethiopian Layered Fruit Drink – $.55

Back in 2004 I spent two months in Ethiopia working with local youth and AIDS patients. I bought two things on a regular basis there: an authentic macchiato  and an Ethiopian “spress”, as they called it…both of which I shouldn’t have been consuming because of the contaminated water & soil, but whatever, they were amazing. A spress is sort of like a smoothie but with no ice using tropical fruits, layered in a clear glass.

In this drink I only used mango, avocado, peaches and blueberries because it’s all I had. However, in Ethiopia they would use papaya, kiwi, banana, and other fruits.

Cut up the fruit and put each one in a different bowl. Put the fruit in a food processor or blender. You may need to add a tiny bit of water to each one, but you really want it as thick as possible so don’t add much. Don’t let the avocado scare you either- if you whip the heck out of it with a little water and a teaspoon or so of honey or sugar, it’s AMAZING with the other fruits. Don’t serve it if it’s chunky, yuck. It should be a light green and quite fluffy.

Layer the fruits according to density

Don’t use fruits like oranges because they’re way too thin. I start with a thick density like avocado on the bottom. Then maybe add your mango. Carefully add more avocado, then peach. I recommend putting the fruit in a pastry bag or Ziploc with a whole in the corner, if you’re really trying to make it look nice. The blueberry dots are simply pulverized blueberries carefully placed on top.

I also recommend putting it in a tall, skinny glass, such as a tall pilsner beer glass and serving with a long spoon. I like it lukewarm, but my mom thought that was nasty. So this is a perfect dessert to make during the day and have cooled in the fridge before your company comes over. Enjoy!

• 1 mango – $.89
• 1 avocado – $.50
• 1 peach – $.27
• ~3 servings – $1.66
• ~1 serving – $.55