Many moons ago, we were booked to run a cocktail party for Hannah’s 40th birthday. She asked us to include a watermelon martini on her cocktail menu. Rarely do we get asked to include something that we’ve not worked with before. But this was one occasion.
I experimented with a few recipes online and came up with this. The star ingredient is the watermelon juice. I opted for Rubicon watermelon juice. There are other brands available and I’m sure many of them are as good. But I’ve worked with the range of Rubicon juices over the years in many cocktails and mocktails and I like them. So they were my natural go-to brand for this cocktail. The slight issue now is that this product isn’t easy to buy retail any longer. Buying online means you’ll have to buy a quantity of them. They have a reasonable shelf life though. 7 months though on the 4 pack I’ve just bought. I’ll probably struggle to use them all up by then.
Watermelon Martini – the recipe
This cocktail includes a vodka base which is good as it won’t take anything away from the delicate and refreshing watermelon flavour. Then you simply add some sugar syrup which is excellent at bringing out flavour. Plus a little citrus bite from the lime juice. Citrus and sugar is a great flavour combination in many great cocktails. It works in the Whiskey Sour, the French 75 and the Mojito so it’ll work in your Watermelon Martini. Try this
- 50 ml vodka
- 100 ml watermelon juice
- 25 ml sugar syrup
- 25 ml lime juice (although halve this if you’re using bottled concentrate)
Shake all the ingredients together in your cocktail shaker with ice. Pour into a martini glass. This is as you’d expect – a refreshing, summer cocktail.
And with over one half of it being fruit juice, it’s probably good for you too!