Don’t Let Go of Summer Just Yet!! - Mojito Cocktail, Watermelon Muddle

We know Autumn is coming – so let’s grab the remaining warm weather and enjoy ourselves! Let’s take advantage of fresh seasonal fruit by creating some attractive and tasty mixology.

This recipe uses: Lime Tree Cove Sweet Mint Cocktail Sugar  

Mojito Fruit Cocktail:

Ingredients Needed:

• Lime juice
• Bacardi Superior Rum
• Lime Tree Cove Sweet Mint Cocktail Sugar
• Fresh Fruit Salad – fresh blueberries, coarse diced fresh watermelon, coarsely diced fresh peaches, and any other juicy ingredients (pineapple, melon, etc.)

Directions:

1. Prepare the fruit salad, add lime juice to taste, and chill in the refrigerator (this removes the need for ice).
2. Wet the rim of each glass with a lime wedge, and use your Barmaid to garnish the rim with Lime Tree Cove Sweet Mint Cocktail Sugar
3. Spoon in the fruit salad, and slowly pour in the alcohol (to taste).
4. Top with a generous sprinkle of Lime Tree Cove Sweet Mint Cocktail Sugar, and serve with small spoons.

This is simple to prepare, exploding with flavor, and elegant to impress your quests! For advanced preparation (to make life easier), you can make the salad a day in advance; add the alcohol to just cover the fruit and tightly seal in a plastic or glass container.

Filed under: Mojito Cocktail Recipes.

This recipe uses: Lime Tree Cove Fresh Lemon Cocktail Sugar  

We've made several watermelon cocktails this summer, perhaps the watermelon crop has been too good to pass up everytime we go to the market. We've done watermelon mojitos and margaritas; however, here is a new take with new spirits:

Watermelon Muddle

Ingredients Needed:

• Watermelon, coarsely diced, about 1/3 cup per serving; reserve one thin wedge with the rind per serving
• Grey Goose Vodka or Bombay Gin (gin is great, if you like the boldness of the spirit; the botanicals in gin really wake up with the fruit, but not everybody likes gin)
• Lime Tree Cove Fresh Lemon Cocktail Sugar  
• Lime slices or wedges (whichever you prefer to muddle)
• Lemon-Lime Club Soda

Barware Needed:

• Rocks glass or Collins glass
• Largest diameter straws you can find

Directions:

1. Cut up the watermelon into a coarse dice (pieces no larger than ¾ inch each).
2. In each serving glass, add 1/3 cup of the watermelon, one lime slice/wedge, and a shot of the spirit of your choice.
3. Muddle thoroughly until the watermelon is juiced.
4. Wet the rim of each glass with a lime wedge or slice, and use your and use your Barmaid to garnish the rim with Lime Tree Cove Fresh Lemon Cocktail Sugar  
5. Add ice, and top with club or lemon-lime soda.
6. Garnish with the watermelon wedge, and serve with a straw.

Very ripe soft local honeydew can also work for the muddling, but this fruit often disappears as locally available before the end of summer; imported honeydews are frequently too firm to use. You will also have to muddle a lot more than with the watermelon.

Watermelon does not tolerate a small dicing; it falls apart and just creates a huge mess. HOWEVER, you can use a food processor to thoroughly juice the watermelon, add lime juice to taste (be gentle! You can add more lime juice, but you can’t take it out), and store it in a sealed container a few hours before using (overnight can cause this mixture to lose flavor). Pour about 1/3 cup into each glass, add the rum, ice, soda, and garnish. A regular straw can usually handle this processed watermelon.

Filed under: Fun Cocktail Recipes.

Paul Artrip ‘The Rum Daddy’ is a rum and cane spirits judge, brand ambassador, mixologist and writer. You can reach him at his website The Rum Daddy.

Article Posted September 20, 2010