SUMMER WATERMELON COCKTAIL 

 
 
 
 

Summertime in the PNW to us means eating your weight in whatever fresh produce you can get your hands on: sweet corn, fresh blackberries, summer squash the size of footballs, vine ripened tomatoes and, Ju’s personal favorite: watermelon. There’s something nostalgic about slicing up a juicy, bright pink melon and eating it in the sunshine at the park — we wanted to take that memory and give it an adult-beverage spin. Our summer watermelon cocktail is everything you want in a cocktail: light and refreshing, a touch of sweetness, a hint of herbacious freshness from the mint and an almost savory finish thanks to the hearty pinch of salt. This cocktail is so good you might forget you’re drinking a cocktail until, as Dak says, it goes straight to the back of your eyeballs. We recommend drinking this with friends on a porch somewhere. —Ju

 

Ingredients

  • 1 small watermelon (for two cocktails :2 1/2 cups watermelon, roughly cubed)

  • 2 oz vodka

  • 1 oz simple syrup

  • 1 oz lime juice

  • About 5 leaves of fresh mint

  • kosher salt to taste

  • Splash of soda water

 

Instructions

  1. Cut the top and bottom of your watermelon to create a flat cutting surface for yourself. Trim off the outsides green skin as well as most of the white flesh of the melon, leaving behind mostly just the pink flesh.

  2. Slice your melon in half and then into quarters to create more manageable chunks. Roughly chop your watermelon into cubes - no exact science here as we will be blending it in the next step.

  3. Place roughly 2 1/2 cups of cubed watermelon into a blender for about 30 seconds, until smooth. Strain the melon purée through a fine mesh strainer into a bowl. Add a generous pinch of salt.

    To make the cocktail:

  4. In a shaker, combine ice, 3 oz watermelon purée, vodka, simple syrup, lime juice, mint leaves. Shake until the outside of the shaker is cold to the touch, about 30 seconds.

  5. Divide shaker over two glasses with ice (salted rim optional).

Makes 2 cocktails