Watermelon Cooler
Blended watermelon, lime and mint, with the soda added at the last moment.
Photo: Watermelon juice in a glass by Susan Slater · CC BY-SA 4.0 · All credits
Ingredients
Measures below are multiplied for 6 drinks. Unmeasurable amounts such as “a splash” are left as written.
- 1200 gs Watermelon - A thick slice, deseeded - roughly a quarter of a small melon
- 120 ml Measuring jug A measuring jug: pour to the 120 ml line. Lime juice
- 60 ml Jigger One large side (50 ml) of a standard jigger, plus two teaspoons. Simple syrup - Only needed if the melon is a bland one
- 36 leaves Mint
- 360 ml Measuring jug A measuring jug: pour to the 360 ml line. Soda water
- 6 wedges Lime wedge (optional)
Measured in Millilitres (UK). Sign in to read these in American measures. Print a kitchen card at this size.
What the jigger, the spoons and the jug hold, in millilitres and in fluid ounces, is on the measures reference.
Quick version
- Blend the melon with lime and mint, pour over ice and top with soda.
Method
Pitcher (6 drinks)Pitcher (6 drinks) - about 540 ml of measured ingredients, before ice and dilution.
Timings and per-glass steps below are written for one drink and are not scaled. A full jug takes longer to chill, so stir or shake until it is properly cold rather than by the clock, and pour over fresh ice one glass at a time.
- Blend the watermelon with the lime juice, syrup and mint until it is completely liquid.
- Strain it into a jug if you would rather the drink were clear, and leave it as it is if you would not.
- Pour over fresh ice in a highball glass, filling it two-thirds of the way.
- Top with soda water, add a wedge of lime and a sprig of mint, and stir once.
Serve it
Volumes in this story are multiplied for the size above, along with the ingredients. Years, ratios and the capacities of glasses and jugs are left as written.
Watermelon Cooler
Watermelon is mostly water, which sounds like a disadvantage in a cocktail and is the reason it works in one: the fruit gives you a sweet, faintly floral base at very low cost, and the soda gives it the lift that a spirit would otherwise have brought. It is also the drink most likely to be made in a blender with a jug and four people standing around it.
Getting it right
Use a ripe melon and taste it before you commit: a pale, watery one needs the syrup and a good squeeze of lime, and a ripe one needs neither. Blend it properly - a drink with lumps of melon in it is a fruit salad - and chill everything first, because this is one drink that is not improved by ice melting into it. Add the soda at the table.
Tasting notes
Light, clean and gently sweet, with the lime doing the work of holding it all up and the mint sitting on top. Refreshing in the way that only a drink that is mostly fruit can be.