Hopkins Mango Fest: Treats with a Mango Twist

Mango is a seasonal fruit in Belize, so when the time comes around, some communities maximize their chances of drawing crowds and generating money. Hopkins is one such community and on Saturday, that southern village had on sale food and drinks with a mango twist for people who enjoy the succulent fruit. News Five attended the fest and found that there was mango in all forms, from ice cream to burgers, to mangoritas. And the monies collected from the day’s events will be invested right back into the community. Here’s that report.

 

Marion Ali, Reporting

From about midday on Saturday and up until ten p.m., this was a popular sight and sound on the main street in Hopkins. Villagers and businesses were out offering their most popular beverages and treats made with a mango twist. Blending was a major part of the preparations. Leonela Aranda, owner of Blue Mantarraya Tours, was blending up a refreshing beverage to beat the heat.

 

Leonela Aranda, Owner, Blue Mantarray Tours

“Down south we call the big mango belly full mango or I think it’s known as Apple Mango as well. So I just ordered bellyful mango, diced it up, freeze it to have it like an ice cubes. We just basically put a half cup of ice, a half cup of the mango, put it in.  We get the juice, the two type of juice then we’ll have the squash and the raw mango juice, add it in and then we just blend it. I just actually get my cup and then I just label my logo on it. After all the blending, you add it in. No, before that we would put the lee rim with chamoyada and the tajin around the rim inside, the same thing. And we add it in and it have the lee red color. Just add that in and just put the tambran stick and a little mango sweet on top. And that is how we make our mango chamoyada.”

 

Marion Ali

“And it’s supposed to taste how when you drink it. Mango, slushy, everything, cold, all of that.”

 

Marion Ali

“And the tajin…”

 

Leonela Aranda

“Yeah, it just give it a little sweet and sour taste.”

 

Nice Cream took all their mango-infused ice cream treats and Yahira Maldonado let us in on what the crowd favourite was.

 

Yahira Maldonado, Sales Representative, Nice Cream

“Today it looks like a mango cheesecake, so the mango cheesecake bar and the mango cheesecake. Basically they are the same thing, the only difference is that we prep it in a different way. Like the bars, we cut them and then we make the mango jam at the top, then the whipped cream and then we have the mango ice cream and then we have a filling at the bottom which is made out of the waffle chips and then the mango cheesecake. We just add the chips inside of the mango base.”

 

 

Marion Ali

“So if you don’t taste mango, something wrong?”

 

 

 

 

 

Yahira Maldonado

“You have to taste the mango, but you have to taste the cheesecake too. My boss, she’s the head behind this. She does say, okay mek wi mek something different today. She would go in ah the shop – eena ih lee factory and say, okay, we wa add a lee cheesecake to this. Mek wi see how ih taste and then she wa bring everybody, like the workers deh mek wi sample it and tell ah yeah, that good. And then we make waffles. And then sometimes some ah deh would ah bruk, soh we say, okay, instead ah buy the biscuit, we just crush the waffles, blend it, put ah lee flavour eena it fi add to the bottom for the filling.”

 

Marion Ali

“And then everybody di buy that now?”

 

Yahira Maldonado

“It seems like that’s the hit for today.”

 

 

We came by a booth that made mango chicken burgers and a mango/strawberry popsicle.

 

Lindsay Montgomery, Sale Representative, Mangoes Beach Front Bar

“I have a ground chicken burger with Swiss cheese, bacon, and a homemade mango chutney. It’s like a spicy mango habanero sauce. It’s really good. So it gives that bite, but then with the mango, it’s got a nice sweet to it as well. Then it’s got vinegar, so it’s got a little bit of acidity and then the salt. So it hits all your taste buds and the mangoes and Hopkins are so fresh and delicious and so sweet. And then you add that habanero in for that really good bite. It’s a really good flavor.”

 

 

Marion Ali

“So you just came up with this or it’s been around for a while?”

 

Lindsay Montgomery

“This is the first time I’ve done it. It’s debuting here today at Mango Fest.”

 

Marion Ali

“And it’s popular, I would imagine.”

 

Lindsay Montgomery

“Yeah, oh definitely.”

 

Marion Ali

“And this in your hand?”

 

Lindsay Montgomery

“This is a strawberry mango popsicle with fresh mango blended right into it and frozen. And it’s only $3 and it’s nice to cool down on a hot day like today.”

 

 

Further up the street we bumped into retired media personality, Rodel Beltran Perrera and his friend Kathy Cuellar, who told us it was their first time at the event.

 

Rodel Beltran Pererra, Attendee, Hopkins Mango Fest

“This is called a mango margarita, or a mangorita, I’d call it. It’s so good. This is incredible. This is what I came for here today. I was going to be very upset if I hadn’t gotten one. And I want to thank that young man. He’s the one that makes the best. It’s the first time I’m coming to this festival, but we heard about coming to this tent and tasting their drinks and it is really good.  A very good friend Kathy, said let’s go, what you’re doing today, and I said I’m doing nothing. So let’s go to Hopkins and check out the festival.”

 

 

Kathy Cuellar, Attendee, Hopkins Mango Fest

“It’s great to see so many things, so many people trying out the products, inventing different food, dishes, et cetera, et cetera, with the mango. That’s interesting.”

 

Marion Ali

“How is that?”

 

Kathy Cuellar

“This is a standard – I believe a mango margarita. I got the mango. I’m looking for the “rita” but with the weather, you wouldn’t want to go too strong.”

 

 

 

Except for the halt that COVID brought on almost every activity, the Hopkins Mango Fest has been a yearly event since the early 2000’s. The event was started by Mary Castillo, a villager who passed away in 2008. Treasurer of the Hopkins branch of the Belize Tourism Industry Association, Desiree Rodriguez says that the village boasts well over a dozen types of mangoes. This event has drawn tourists from all over and generates funds that the community can put to good use.

 

 

Desiree Rodriguez, Treasurer, B.T.I.A., Hopkins Branch

“We took over last year, this new chapter, we’re looking at infrastructure. So there’s two things that we want urgently: we need a multipurpose building and we also need a garbage truck. Garbage is a problem in our community, so we’re going we’re pushing towards infrastructure. So coming to these fests will help us You know if we come every year and it gets bigger then we’ll have more funds To go in that pot to put that money back into the community. So we want people to know that it’s not for us to fill our pockets. We’re not getting paid. We’re volunteering 100 percent popular. Is it among the tourists?  Very much popular. It’s Mango Street Fest is now a thing in our community. So looking at this year, I’m already seeing that we’ve doubled the number.”

 

Marion Ali for News Five.