I’ve mentioned that I’ve put in time in restaurants. I probably haven’t mentioned that I also used to bartend once upon a time.
I was drawn to it by the romance of the idea and by, quite honestly, boredom. At the time, I was stuck in Middle of Nowhere, Missouri, near enough to Springfield where I could go get ABC certified as a bartender, with plenty of spare time on my hands.
It seemed like a fun thing to do in my spare time. So I got certified and prepared to head off to excitement.
I pulled tap on a lot of beer.
I headed to Hawaii shortly after, and I figured that in Hawaii, I would get to actually learn some flare bartending and mix some exotic martinis at least.
I served a lot of Vodka and Red Bull.
If my work hadn’t picked up a lot at that time, I’d have quit anyway out of sheer disillusionment.
But I still had one more venue where I could practice my skills and dust off my cocktail shaker – home!
Neither Scott nor I are big cocktail drinkers, but we do enjoy the occasional mix. I like an old fashioned, he likes a margarita, we both love mimosas and mojitos. So recently, looking at a few ingredients we had in the fridge that I was looking to use creatively, inspiration struck.
My son loves watermelon, so we always have a ton of it. I end up snacking on it when he doesn’t. I started thinking about other ways to use it so that we wouldn’t let it go to waste if Baby Bean decided he no longer liked watermelon {which he does on occasion, because toddler}.
Remember when watermelon blueberry feta salad was such a huge thing, and it seemed like everyone and their brother had a watermelon blueberry feta salad posted? I didn’t want to do that. I’m not sold on the combo.
But watermelon and blueberry I could get behind. I started thinking about a spritzer of some kind. And then I started thinking about sweetening the whole thing up just a little more and adding lime. And then mint.
That spritzer in my mind suddenly became a mojito.
And it is beautiful, cool, refreshing, and everything you could want on a warm balmy afternoon as you put your feet up and soak up the sun.
Not that we have all that much time to do that with a toddler in the house, but we can imagine, right?
Watermelon Blueberry Mojito
Serves 2.
What You’ll Need:
- 1 cup ice
- 1-1/3 cup watermelon juice
- 2 oz/4 tbsp rum
- 1-2 tbsp sugar
- 10-12 fresh mint leaves
- Juice of 1 lime (2 tbsp)
- 1/3 cup blueberries
- sparkling water
How to Make It:
1. Start by juicing the watermelon. You’ll need probably about 2- 2 1/2 cups of diced watermelon to get the juice you need. I dice mine, throw it in my blender for a quick minute, and then strain out the seeds and pulp.
2. Combine the watermelon juice, rum, the ice, half of the mint, and the lime juice in a shaker or a large jar with a lid. Shake it up to combine.
3. Pour the mixture into a tall glass and top with sparkling water. Stir gently to combine.
4. Test, and add sugar as needed. Sometimes, as sweet as the watermelon is, you don’t need any, but if you like a sweet mojito, you can drop a little in for a sweetness boost.
5. Garnish with mint, blueberries, and lime wedges as desired. And enjoy!
The greatest thing about summer drinks is that they’re beautiful and they help you take advantage of that lingering summer evening light!
What’s your favorite summer refresher?
