July Drink of the Month - Smoke on the Water... Melon

Zack mixing up the first batch of our new cocktail

Some of the worst drinks I've ever made come come about because Zack (my drinks collaborator and friend of the blog) and I think we've found a genius new cocktail idea, only to have it blow up in our face. At the end of last month, I bought a whole watermelon as part of a fruit tray for my nephew's baptism. It was a big one, so I still had some melon left after chunking most of the fruit. I juiced about a fifth of the melon and wound up with over 14 ounces of juice - watermelons have an excellent juice yield! So Zack and I went down into the lab and tried out a few ideas for drinks featuring fresh watermelon. One attempt we made with gin was almost undrinkable (but you can't let booze go to waste, so we still drank it). But out of this experimentation also came one of my favorite new drinks, sure to be a a staple in Bar Kiley during the summer months.

We played a riff on a Cadillac Margarita, using Cointreau, lime, simple, and agave spirits. We subbed raicilla and/or mezcal for tequila and added a healthy dose of watermelon juice and a few dashes of kosher sea salt (as salted watermelon is all the rage right now). The resulting blend of sweet, fruity, citrus, salty, and smoky made an excellent summer sipper. Changing out the agave spirits allows the bartender to adjust the level of smoky flavor as well (I'll probably just make this with tequila for Ann, but I loved the super-smoky, almost peaty-Scotch flavor that raicilla imparted). Juicing a watermelon is easy - using a citrus press on chunks of watermelon works in a pinch, but going full-out and using a juicer leads to high yield without too much work or cleanup.

Here is the recipe for our Smoke on the Water...Melon (name credits go to Zack, who insisted I include the ellipses and all):

In a cocktail shaker, combine the following
0.5 oz lime juice
0.5 oz simple syrup
0.5 oz Cointreau
0.75 oz watermelon juice
1.5 oz agave spirit*
3 dashes kosher sea salt (approximately 1/2 tsp)

Shake over ice and strain into a coupe or margarita glass. Garnish with a watermelon chunk.

*For no smoke (in which case you're basically making a salted watermelon margarita), use blanco tequila. Use mezcal for hearty smoke flavor and raicilla for scotch-lover levels of smoke

I hope you enjoy your Smoke on the Water...Melon