It’s summertime, and the best fruits are in season! Watermelon, mango, lychee, strawberry, pineapple, and more *drool*. I was so happy to see little watermelons next to the Whole Foods entrance and I picked one that felt heavy, had a yellow spot, and some scratches. Supposedly that’s what you must look for when picking a sweet and juicy watermelon. Not even 1 hour after arriving home with my perfect little watermelon, my mom dropped off a whole container of cut up watermelon from one that she just bought!
I was stuck with basically 2 mini watermelons, and it was up to me to finish the fruits. I decided to try my hand at making a refreshing cocktail with watermelon juice. I checked my cabinet and I had the ingredients to make a basic margarita, so I decided to make a Watermelon Margarita.
Hear me out, I am by no means a cocktail expert, nor do I even know where to begin with the different liquors or bartending terms. I think this will be a fun series to teach myself how to make simple cocktails with common ingredients. I’ll need to think of a name for this series eventually. Maybe Tasty, Tipsy, Turnt? Like what I experience when I drink cocktails. Hmm, we’ll see..
Watermelon Margarita
Recipe by: Alexa Weibel with New York Times Cooking
Ingredients:
6 oz. Watermelon juice
2 oz. Tequila of choice
2 oz. Triple sec or Cointreau
Limes
Salt (for rim of the glass)
Ice
Directions:
- I cut the watermelon into cubes so I could fit them into my little blender. Blend until smooth.
- Strain watermelon juice to separate pulp. If you want to get all the pulp out, skim the froth off the top of the strained juice. Otherwise, the strainer will get a good amount out on its own. Set juice aside.
- Fill shaker half-full of ice.
- Pour in juice.
- Pour in your tequila and triple sec. In my video, I filled the large side of the cocktail jigger twice because the recipe calls for 2 oz. of each liquor. Honestly, I have no idea how many ounces it holds! So, I may have put 8 oz. of liquor into my little margarita… Like I said, I am far from even a self-proclaimed bartender.
- Cover cocktail shaker and shake vigorously until the outside of the shaker is frosty or very cold.
- Cut lime wedges and swipe it around the rim of the glass. This will help the salt to adhere to the rim and achieve a classic margarita “salted rim”. I think next time I want to try sugar with a little bit of salt, or li hing mui powder (dried Japanese plum powder, a local treat here in Hawaii).
- Pour your shaken cocktail into the dressed glass.
- Add a garnish if you want; I had a mint sprig, so I garnished with that.
- Enjoy!
The margarita was refreshing, and the prettiest shade of pink. I think adding frozen watermelon cubes would’ve been a nice touch if you want some sort of ice to keep your drink chilled. The margarita that I made in the video was strong, but tasty. I should really figure out how many ounces my jigger has. If you add the (possibly) 8 oz. of liquor like I did, you’ll experience “Tasty, Tipsy, Turnt”. Next time I’ll try with half the amount of alcohol and pace myself, haha!
If you give this a try, let me know how you like it! What cocktail should I do next? Until next time…
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