A refreshing glass of lemonade doesn’t necessarily scream Southwest, unless you are getting it from somewhere like local food trailer, .
Mary Sue Wood, BlackJack’s owner, makes her own simple syrups and looks to local flavors and flavors from Mexico to make her lemonade pop.
Among her drink selections, you’ll find lemonade flavored with prickly pear, jalapeño, mango and tamarind, which Wood said you can mix and match with other flavors to make more than 100 drink combinations.
“I learned from my grandmother to use simple syrups as a sweetener,†Wood said. “That is how she sweetened her iced tea.â€
Adding to Wood’s Southwest flair is the fact that the structure from which she is selling her lemonade used to be a horse trailer.
People are also reading…
“It belonged to my aunt,†Wood said. “She gifted it to us. Black Jack was the name of her horse.â€
Wood’s background is in nonprofit work. Before that, she was a florist, and owner of Mary’s Downtown Flower Market for about five years.
She started BlackJack, first as a canopied pop-up in 2019, because she felt it filled a need.
Mary Sue Wood ices one of her specialty flavored lemonades from the two-horse trailer she converted for her BlackJack Citrus Infusions business.
“I wanted to provide a quality drink at some of these places that was not coffee,†she said.
Wood moved into the trailer last summer, which gave her the freedom to travel farther and sell just about anywhere with “no more hour set-up,†she said.
She makes regular appearances at the Picture Rocks Food Fest, happenings at Medella Vina Ranch, 4450 S. Houghton Road, and has traveled to the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds in Sonoita for rodeo events.
“When I was younger, we had horses up through high school,†Wood said. “I love the ranch, the rodeo scene, all that stuff.â€
Wood said 2020 was a challenge, with many major events that support the food truck/trailer community canceling, but she hopes that the second half of 2021 will see ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ return to normal.
In addition to her drinks on-site, including mocktails, hot chocolate and “glitterbomb†lemonades made with cotton candy inside, she hopes to soon start selling her simple syrups, so that people can infuse their own lemonade at home.
She’s also planning to incorporate frozen lemonades into her menu rotation.
“I love it,†she said. “It is a lot of work and there are exhausting days, but they are also fun and exciting.â€
