Watermelon Mint Cooler
Blended watermelon with lime and a mint syrup. No added sugar beyond the syrup, and it takes ten minutes.
Nutrition Info (per serving)
- 110
- Calories
- 1g
- Protein
- 0g
- Fat
- 27g
- Carbs
Ingredients
- 1 kg watermelon flesh
- Large bunch mint
- 3 limes
- 60 g caster sugar
- 60 ml water
- A pinch of salt
- Sparkling water, to top up
- Ice
Instructions
- 1Make the mint syrup first. Heat the sugar and water in a small pan until the sugar dissolves, then take it off the heat, add half the mint, and leave to steep for 10 minutes before straining. Steeping off the heat keeps the mint fresh and green; boiling it turns the syrup grassy and dull.
- 2Cut the watermelon flesh into chunks, removing the seeds if it has them.
- 3Blend the watermelon until completely smooth. Do not add water — watermelon is over 90 percent water already and diluting it makes the drink taste thin.
- 4Strain the purée through a fine sieve, pressing it through with the back of a ladle. This removes the pulp that would otherwise separate into a sludge at the bottom of the glass within minutes.
- 5Stir in the juice of the limes, the cooled mint syrup and the pinch of salt. The salt is not optional — it makes the watermelon taste sweeter and more like itself.
- 6Taste and adjust: more lime if it is flat, more syrup if it is sharp. Watermelons vary enormously in sweetness.
- 7Chill for at least an hour, or pour straight over plenty of ice.
- 8Fill glasses with ice, pour the cooler two-thirds full, top with sparkling water and add the remaining mint leaves, clapped once between your palms to release their oils.
Watermelon juice is almost too easy, which is why the versions people make at home are usually worse than they need to be. Four small decisions cover it.
Do not add water
Watermelon is 92 percent water. Blending it with more water gives you something that tastes faintly of watermelon and mostly of nothing.
If the drink is too thick, it is not — that is the pulp, and straining is the answer, not dilution. Sparkling water at the end adds the lift without flattening the flavour, because it goes in at the last moment.
Strain it
Blended watermelon contains a lot of fine pulp that stays suspended for about five minutes and then falls to the bottom of the glass as a pink sludge.
Pushing the purée through a fine sieve takes two minutes and gives a clear, bright juice that stays that way. Save the pulp for a smoothie if you like.
The pinch of salt
Salt in fruit juice sounds wrong and is standard practice in fruit stalls across Southeast Asia and Mexico. It suppresses bitterness and enhances perceived sweetness, so the watermelon tastes more intensely of watermelon rather than of salt.
Use a genuinely small pinch. You should not be able to identify it.
Steep the mint, do not boil it
Mint's flavour comes from menthol and related volatile oils that boil off fast. Simmering mint in syrup drives them away and leaves behind chlorophyll, which tastes of cut grass.
Making the syrup first, then adding the mint off the heat and leaving it for ten minutes, extracts the aroma without the vegetal edge. Strain it out afterwards.
Clapping the garnish leaves between your palms is the same principle — it bruises them just enough to release the oils without shredding them.
Choosing a watermelon
A ripe one is heavy for its size, sounds hollow when tapped, and has a large creamy-yellow patch where it sat on the ground. A white or absent field spot means it was picked early, and watermelon does not ripen further after picking.
Nutrition
Around 110 calories a glass, most of it natural fruit sugar plus the syrup. Watermelon is a good source of vitamin C and lycopene — it contains more lycopene per gram than raw tomatoes — and it is an efficient way to take on fluid in hot weather.
The base keeps for two days in the fridge, though it separates slightly and needs a stir. Add the sparkling water only at the moment of serving.
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