Author Notes: I came up with the recipe for the lemonade first and then discovered that it went amazingly with gin, making it a favorite summer drink in our house! – piccantedolce —piccantedolce
Food52 Review: This tart, pink cocktail is a burst of summer in a glass. You don’t strain the watermelon puree, which gives the drink some texture, and we love that piccantedolce calls for gin instead of a more predictable spirit like vodka. The mineral quality of the gin is echoed in the rosemary infused syrup, which announces its presence clearly without hijacking the whole flavor profile. We recommend you serve this over plenty of ice in Mason jars. – A&M —The Editors
Serves: 6
Prep time: 1 hrs 30 min
Cook time: 20 min
Ingredients
-
3/4
cup sugar
-
2
cups water
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4
sprigs rosemary
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1
cup lemon juice – fresh squeezed
-
7
cups watermelon – cut into a 1″ dice – approx half a medium watermelon
-
8
ounces gin
-
1
lemon – thinly sliced
Directions
- Place sugar and 1 cup of water in a small saucepan, add rosemary sprigs. Cook over medium heat stirring until the sugar dissolves. Once dissolved remove from heat, cover saucepan and let sit for at least an hour to infuse.
- In a blender combine the lemon juice with cubed watermelon. Add the watermelon in batches, blending in between each addition.
- Add in the rosemary simple syrup 1/4 cup at a time until the mixture is at your desired sweetness. I use about a cup.
- Pour the mixture into a large pitcher and add 1 cup of cold water, and the gin. Stir to combine. Serve in jars garnished with a lemon slice and half of a rosemary sprig.
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What you'll need: watermelon, gin, rosemary, sugar and lemon.
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First step: make the rosemary-infused simple syrup.
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The rosemary was lovely and tender — straight from Amanda's windowbox!
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You also need lots of fresh-squeezed lemon juice.
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And a ripe, juicy watermelon. Ours was perfect.
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Cutting the melon into cubes makes it easier to whiz up in the blender.
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Which we did next, with the lemon juice.
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We then added some of the cooled rosemary syrup to taste.
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Into a pitcher — or in our case, a large Mason jar.
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After we added the gin and a little water, we gave it a good stir.
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Serve it over plenty of ice!
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