Watermelon Fizzy Lifting Drinks
The Last Taste Of Summer?
I made some cocktails about a month ago, in the heat of summer. Ooooh, they were refreshing! I took pictures of the watermelon slices, pureed the watermelon, strained the watermelon, chilled the watermelon, made the watermelon cocktails, and then we drank them without any thought to photograph them! I'll bet you're thinking, "What a ditz!" All I could think of was how good and cold those drinks looked. I wanted one then, not later! It was hot out. The ice would melt!
Hours after they were gone, I glanced over at the camera and sighed...no, I said a naughty word! I was so upset, mostly with myself for forgetting to take pictures. John just laughed and said. "At least we got to drink them before the ice melted! You can always make more!"
One day last week, it was hot again. I had a watermelon in the cooler. I still had half a bottle of gin. I had a lemon. I have a pot of mint growing on the deck. Bingo! I was in the cocktail business again!
This was a great chance to use the new Cuisinart Immersion Blender I got for my birthday from my daughter Kerri. I suppose you could also puree it in a blender, but I didn't have one, so there was no other choice. You do have to strain the juice from the fruit, and that seems to be the biggest time waster, but it needs to be done. I don't have cheesecloth, so I folded a few pieces of paper towel and placed it in a colander. I poured the pureed watermelon over it and let it drip through on its own. When it was almost done draining, I gently pulled up the soaked paper towels and squeezed the rest of the juice out. After that, it's a piece of cake!
Use a good gin like Bombay Sapphire or Tanqueray. It does make a difference.
So, without any more blah, blah, blah, here's my best Watermelon Gin Fizz Cocktail. It's inspired and adapted from Fine Cooking Magazine. Because this drink is cute and pink, it could be classified as a Girly drink or a Chick cocktail, like Cosmopolitans. But you know what? Girly drink or not, John and all the guys at the pizza party loved them too!
Summer's not over yet! Have a virtual Watermelon Gin Fizz with us on our sailboat overlooking the bay!
Watermelon Gin Fizz Cocktail
- 4 cups strained watermelon juice
- 20 mint leaves, chopped fine
- 2 cups simple syrup, room temperature
- Juice of 1 lemon or lime
- 3 cups Bombay Sapphire or Tanqueray gin, chilled
- Mint sprigs for garnish
- Club soda, chilled
- Ice cubes
Directions:
- Make simple syrup by bringing 1 cup of white sugar and 1 cup of water to a boil. Boil until all the sugar is dissolved, remove from heat and let cool.
- Cut up 1 small seedless watermelon (remember to cut the rind off!) and with an immersion blender or stand blender, puree it with 20 chopped mint leaves. Strain though cheesecloth or paper towels until you have 4 cups of juice.
- Chill watermelon juice, simple syrup and lemon juice until cold.
- Chill gin until ready to serve.
- When ready to serve, add cold gin to chilled juice and pour over ice.
- Add a splash of club soda and garnish with mint sprigs.
- Invite some friends over, turn on a Jimmy Buffet CD, put your feet up, and chill!
- Serves a lot!
Those drinks look so cool and refreshing! I could use one right about now!!
Love your photos!
Posted by: Liliana | September 27, 2008 at 08:40 AM
I can't keep my eyes off of those beautiful drinkies! Love the combination of the gin & watermelon... and it's making me think that I might need to try these before the watermelons disappear from the market. SO much to do in so little time!!
Posted by: Lo | September 27, 2008 at 10:01 AM
They look delicious...
and sound easy enough to try.
TFS
Posted by: Dee | September 27, 2008 at 11:59 AM
I could really use one of these now!! What time should I be over :)
Posted by: Cathy - wheresmydamnanswer | September 27, 2008 at 07:50 PM
I was just talking with someone yesterday about this lovely trend of using fresh fruit in cocktails.
I just plucked the last watermelon from the backyard vine, there's plenty of mint and I think there's a bottle of Tangueray somewhere. I am so making these for happy hour tonight.
Posted by: Susan C | September 28, 2008 at 08:56 AM
Hi! I LOVE the pictures! Even though I couldn't imbibe I felt like I had a mini-vacation because they sounded so good and they looked so refreshing! It was nice to spend some time on your blog - you've been up to some amazing things! I am going to make the pumpkin psice donut holes tomorrow!!! And the peanut butter apple dip looks good too! Now, what do you do with your boat in the winter?!?
Posted by: Nan | September 28, 2008 at 11:12 PM
Hi there.....
Yuppeee that was rockin.... ANd u have added all the details too... tat so nice of fu.... i'll try making some myself...
Once again thanx....
Posted by: alpha | October 31, 2008 at 07:10 AM
Just "Stumbled" across this (funny, eh?!?); wish it were still summer!!! Since the old laptop gave up the ghost, get to bookmark you again, and find out what ELSE you've been up to! Happy "almost" Thanksgiving, girlfriend!! *smile*
Posted by: Renee | November 19, 2008 at 10:01 PM
I see you used the cuisinart hand blender to make those drinks. I got the blender myself and I use the blender for all kinds of things not only cooking for my family as well! By the way, can you send me one of those drinks via mail? Haha
Posted by: David At BlogSavy | March 13, 2009 at 05:49 PM