mamey

Zepeda tops it with mamey curd, brown butter almond cake, and a pinole crumble.

Popular in Southern Mexico and other tropical regions, the mamey sapote is an orange-fleshed fruit with flavor notes including apricot, sweet potato, nuts and spices.

The man orders coconut, mamey and tamarindo paletas, “and one of these,” he says pointing to a nutty drumstick.

Our route takes us through woods of mamey, bitter orange, coffee and banana, shaded by avocado and the royal palm, past ferns and flittering butterflies.

It’s the drink of the ancients, made from corn, cacao, cinnamon and mamey fruit and served in a bowl.