Watermelon sugar syrup cocktails!

These drinks use a great homemade ingredient, watermelon sugar syrup. I came up with it as I found watermelon drinks to be, well, too watery. It is really easy to make, and is great for summer drinks parties, because it is incredibly versatile. It is lovely with vodka, gin, rum, tequila and cognac, and also with pineapple, orange, apple, cranberry and pomegranate juices. It even goes well in a white wine spritzer, or in a Pimms and lemonade. It doesn’t really matter what booze your friends bought on special offer at the off-license. So have some fun and just play around!

To make the syrup, cut up a watermelon into chunks, and push it by hand through a sieve to juice it. If you have a centrifugal juicer, you can use that. Half fill a bottle with sugar and then fill up with the juice. Shake it until it dissolves. Then it’s ready to use. It lasts for about 5 days in the fridge.

When using the syrup, you will need to balance out the sweetness with some fresh lemon or lime juice.

Melonius Funk

2 parts Vodka
1 part watermelon sugar syrup
1 part lemon juice
3 parts pineapple juice

Shake all the ingredients in a cocktail shaker on ice. Strain into an ice filled tall glass.
Garnish with a piece of watermelon.

Little Miss Margarithai

2 parts Arette Blanco Tequila
¾ part watermelon sugar syrup
¾ part lime juice
1 stick lemongrass.

Crush the lemongrass at the bottom of your shaker. Shake all the ingredients over ice, and double strain into a chilled martini glass.

Nice Sidecar

2 parts Courvoisier Exclusif
¾ part watermelon sugar syrup
¾ part lemon juice

Shake all the ingredients over ice, and double strain into a chilled martini glass.
Watermelon Spritzer

To a large white wine and soda spritzer, add watermelon sugar syrup to taste. There is no need for any lemon or lime in this one.