How To Make Watermelon Mojito

How To Make Watermelon Mojito

It is super simple to prepare. Muddle a few pieces of watermelon with fresh mint leaves and you are set! And for this non-alcoholic drink, I combined this muddled watermelon with lime juice and sparkling apple cider. However, you can use rum if you want to make it a traditional alcoholic mojito drink

How To Store Watermelon Juice:

Once you make the watermelon juice, make sure to either use it right away, store it in the refrigerator, or even pop it in the freezer. Pour your fresh watermelon juice into a glass jar with a lid.

I highly recommend using jars that have plastic, glass, or coated lids, not just metal lids. When storing acidic food, acid tends to reacts with metal lids. These are the jars that I use at home : with coated lids and with hinged lids.

When storing watermelon juice in the refrigerator, make sure to store it in a container with an airtight lid. Properly stored, it should last 5 days and even up to a week. If you want to make more and store it for even longer, simply freeze the juice.

Pour watermelon juice into a freezer proof zip-top bag, get the air out, and close it tight. Label and freeze the juice for up to 4 months. You can always portion it into smaller batches and freeze them separately. That way, you can always take it out and thaw just enough for a couple of cocktails.

How To Choose A Watermelon

To make the perfect mojito, you need a watermelon thats sweet and juicy when cut. Here are a few tips to keep in mind while buying watermelons

• The watermelon should have a big yellow spot or patch on it just like shown in the picture below. If the spot is white, its a sign that the melon is still not ripe
• It should be heavy for its size when lifted. The heavier the melon, the more juicy it is
• The skin of the watermelon should be dark green. The darker, the better
• The oval or round watermelons are normally better than the elongated ones and are perfect to make this watermelon cocktail too

Once your a pro with selecting the perfect watermelon, you can even try our Sunset mocktail using some fresh watermelon juice

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The Perfect Summer Libation These Watermelon Mint Mojito Cocktails Are A Great Antidote To The Heat Of The Day Best To Wait Until Watermelons Are At Their Peak

The thing about summer fruit and veggies that you dont grow yourself that drives me nuts? How to tell if their quality will be summer fresh or just as bad as winter produce.

I will never have a watermelon patch in my small garden area so I rely on the grocers and farmers markets to provide a melon that lives up to expectations. I made my first watermelon plunge last week at Sprouts when I decided I wanted to make these Watermelon Mint Mojito Cocktails.

You can knock them and sniff them and perform voodoo I suppose but I always feel like Im lucky when I get a perfect specimen. I do have a checklist I use to try and find the best fruit and the melon I bought was so perfectly ripe and red and juicy and filled with flavor that this cocktail finally won the opportunity to shine.

How to determine if you have found a good watermelon? These are some good indicators:

• Find the field spot, it should be a yellowish creamy color on the outside where the watermelon was resting on the ground.
• Pick a dull looking watermelon shiny melons are not yet ripe.
• Knock on it with your knuckles the surface should be hard/firm. A dull thud indicates the flesh inside is getting softput that one back!
• Get the heaviest one for its size water is heavy and a lot of water in a watermelon is a good indicator!
• Check for uniform shape round or oval is finebut irregular edges might indicate an inconsistent water source

All I can say is bless this mess!

More Watermelon!

What Is A Mojito

Mojito is a Cuban cocktail that originated from Cuba but now popular all around the world

It is originally made with white rum, soda, lime, sugar and minty flavors. Known to be super refreshing due to the perfect balance of sweetness with citrus and mint flavors

Traditionally, the mint leaves are muddled with lime & sugar and then topped with white rum & club soda

There are so many variations to this traditional cocktail. Some use fresh fruit juices and even make it alcohol-free calling it the Virgin mojito recipe

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Expert Tips For Making The Best Watermelon Mojitos

Chill your ingredients thoroughly before making this drink. They won’t dilute as quickly in the ice-filled glass if already chilled.

Use a highball or collins glass for this drink and fill it completely with ice. If you try to cram all the ingredients into a lowball, you won’t have the right ice to ingredient ratio and you’ll end up with an unbalanced drink.

Sugar substitutions: If you dont have any superfine sugar on hand when the watermelon mojito craving hits, feel free to swap in a generous ½ ounce of simple syrup instead. Or if you only have regular sugar on hand, you can use that, too. Just make sure you dissolve it completely in the lime juice before adding the remaining ingredients. No one likes a slightly gritty mojito.

Acid is a must in most cocktail recipes to keep the flavor balanced. In this drink, you definitely want to use freshly squeezed lime juice. The bottled stuff contains additives that alter the taste of the juice in order to give it more shelf life. I like to freeze fresh juices in ice cube trays and then pull out cubes when I need them.

Muddle gently. We like to think that more is always better, but thats not the case with muddling. The goal when muddling is to keep the mint leaves mostly intact. Shredding and smashing them into smaller pieces releases too much of their oils and gives you a bitter cocktail.

No muddler? No problem! Use the end of a wooden spoon to muddle the melon and mint instead.

Why We Love This Recipe

Its Refreshing Watermelon is one of our favorite summer fruits and adds plenty of great flavor to this drink. With the cool mint flavor from the mint leaves and the fizz from the splash of club soda, this is the perfect cocktail to cool off with on a hot summer day.

Its Easy Yet Impressive With fresh ingredients and a delicious flavor combination, this drink will impress your guests .

Use up Extra Watermelon We cant think of a better way to use that huge watermelon you bought on sale and cant finish. Its a shame to let fresh fruit go to waste and this fresh watermelon mojito is a delicious solution to that problem.

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Is Light Rum The Same As White Rum

Light rum and white rum are used to describe the same style of rum. It’s an unaged, clear rum with a neutral flavor and the most commonly used rum in cocktails. However, any mojito can handle an aged rum if you want to add a little depth to the drink’s flavor. Flavored rums can work as well, but avoid spiced rums because the spices can counteract the watermelon mojito’s fruity taste.

How To Garnish A Watermelon Mojito

To take this drink over the top, its all about garnishes! Weve got a few best practices when it comes to making a stellar drink. Heres what to think about when garnishing a watermelon mojito:

• Use clear ice. Clear ice is crystal clear ice cubes you can cut into organic shapes. They make a drink look like its from a fancy bar! You can make it at home or use a special clear ice maker.
• Make mini watermelon wedges. Watermelon drinks are infinitely cuter with mini melon wedges! Simply slice your melon into tiny triangles and add.
• Add fresh mint. Fresh mint sprigs always class up a drink, so make sure to save some for garnish.

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Why You’ll Love This Recipe

Quick & easy: It takes just minutes to make a glass of this bar-worthy Watermelon Mojito recipe. No mixology skills required!

Easy to batch: Serving a crowd? Multiply the number of servings you need and make it in a large pitcher!

A drink for everyone: This refreshing recipe can be either a cocktail or mocktail. Love rum? Add a little extra. Prefer a mocktail? Omit the rum, muddle a few extra watermelon cubes and top with plain or a flavored sparkling water or ginger ale.

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How Much Juice Will I Get From A Watermelon

Its really quite easy to tell how much juice your watermelon will yield since watermelons are made with about 90% liquid, hence the name! The easiest way to tell is to weigh the watermelon chunks without the rind. If you need 16 oz. of watermelon juice, measure out slightly over a pound of watermelon cubes without the rind.

When Im choosing the size of the watermelon to buy, I estimate that a 6-8 lb. watermelon will give me 5-7 cups of watermelon juice.

Tips For Making The Perfect Watermelon Mojito

• Hand-crafted cocktails are only as good as their ingredients. Opt for a sweet, ripe, juicy melon, fresh squeezed lime juice, and quality rum .
• Strain the pulp from the watermelon to remove any bitterness from the blended seeds.
• Dont tear the mint leaves when you muddle them. This can release bitterness into the drink.
• Always use fresh lime juice, not the bottled juice. Its so much more flavorful and zingy.
• Add the club soda just before serving so it doesnt lose its fizz.
• You can make the watermelon juice up to 3 days ahead of time and keep it covered in the fridge. Give it a stir before using it.
• Want to prepare these for a crowd? Its so easy to scale this recipe up! To make pitcher watermelon mojitos, combine 1 cup loosely packed mint leaves, ½ c lime juice and ½ c white sugar in a pitcher. Muddle until the sugar dissolves and the mint leaves are bruised but still intact. Add 1.5 cups white rum and 4 cups watermelon juice. Stir, then chill at least 4 hours. Pour the mojitos over tall collins glasses filled with ice, top with club soda, and garnish.

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Tips For The Best Cocktails

Since its Friday, Im not going to wax poetic too much longer about these drinks since I want you to welcome in the weekend as soon as possible , but before I let you go, lets go over a few quick tips on how to help these cocktails live their best lives:

1. Use cold ingredients. Nobody likes a lukewarm cocktail , so if you have the time, chill all the prepped ingredients in the refrigerator until youre ready to make them. Bonus points if you chill the glasses in the freezer, too!

2. These make excellent easy mocktails . Just leave out the rum and sip away.

3. If you want to make Watermelon Mojitos for a crowd, heres my suggestion: Multiply the recipe by however many servings you want to make, then add the necessary amount of mint, lime juice and simple syrup to a large, tall glass. Muddle the mixture in said glass, then transfer it to a pitcher with ice. Add the rum, watermelon puree and about 1/4 cup club soda per serving. Stir everything together and serve. SO simple, right? See, I got you.

Cheers to the weekend, cheers to easy-breezy summertime and cheers to these delicious cocktails. You know what Ill be up to come happy hour.

How To Make A Watermelon Mojito Mocktail Without Alcohol

You can make a watermelon mojito without alcohol and still have the same amazing flavor you crave! A virgin mojito is just as good as the real thing.

To make a mojito mocktail, substitute rum with white grape juice, pineapple juice, apple juice or apple cider. Follow the recipe in the printable recipe card below!

You can also simply omit the rum and add more club soda or sparkling water and simple syrup to taste.

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Muddle The Mint Then The Watermelon

This watermelon mojito recipe is so simple: youll just muddle in the mint and fresh watermelon! No need for simmering simple syrups on the stove. Muddling is gently mashing herbs or fruits to release their juices, which helps their flavors to incorporate into the drink. Heres what to know about muddling:

• Use a cocktail muddler. Its the right tool for the job! Heres the cocktail muddler we use. Dont have one? Use an unfinished wooden spoon.
• Gently mash the mint first. This gets out all the oils from the fresh herb.
• Then mash the watermelon until it becomes juice. Youll want it mostly juicy, but it doesnt have to be perfect: youll strain out all the chunks.

Simply shake with ice, then strain. Voila: a watermelon mojito!

How To Make A Watermelon Mojito

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How To Pick A Watermelon

Choosing a watermelon can be tricky, but it doesn’t have to be. Here are three simple tips to help you choose the best one:

• Pick it up. It should feel heavy for its size.
• Look for a yellow spot. This is where the watermelon rested on the ground, and a creamy, yellow spot indicates that it was allowed to fully ripen before picking.
• Give it a thump. The surface should be firm, and a juicy watermelon should have a deep hollow sound.

Need more help? Check out my step-by-step guide, How to Cut a Watermelon, for tons of tips!

How Strong Is A Watermelon Mojito

Party drinks should be a little low-key because you don’t want your guests to get too tipsy. This watermelon mojito follows that philosophy and mixes up to about 7 percent alcohol by volume when served over ice. To put the drink’s strength into perspective, it’s similar to high-point beer but not as strong as the average wine.

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Why Make This Mojito

• It’s a fun and refreshing drink!
• And it really takes just minutes to make from scratch.
• Also, most of the ingredients are easy to find or pantry staples.
• Of course, fresh watermelon is used but feel free to use frozen watermelon too.
• It’s a crowd-pleaser. You can make one drink for yourself or a large pitcher to feed a crowd.
• Sometimes, I freeze watermelon cubes or balls to use instead of ice cubes. It looks so much prettier when serving to guests.

How To Make Watermelon Juice

This cocktail recipe calls for fresh watermelon juice, and its really simple to make at home using a blender. I encourage you to strain the juice through a fine mesh sieve to remove any bitter bites from the blended up seeds. I dont normally encourage extra dishes, so when I do, you know its a worthy step.

• Slice the watermelon in half and divide into cubes. There are a million ways to skin a watermelon, but the most straightforward method can be found here. Protect your fingers, and be sure to use a sharp chefs knife.
• Pile the cubes into a blender and blend on high for 30 seconds, or until the watermelon is completely liquified. There is no need to add any other liquid, since watermelon is more than 90% water.
• Pour the watermelon puree into a fine mesh strainer set over a bowl to collect the juice. Stir up the pulp occasionally to release the juices, then discard the residual pulp.
• Half a personal sized watermelon will produce 3-4 cups of watermelon juice, depending on size.
• Watermelon juice will keep in the fridge for 2-3 days. I like to store it in a lidded pint-sized glass mason jar. Give it a stir or a shake before using after storing.

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Make A Watermelon Mojito Pitcher

Want to make 8 watermelon mojitos at once? Try our Mojito Pitcher! You can add watermelon to the standard pitcher to make give it a fruity flavor. Keep in mind that it will make 2 additional cups of liquid, so youll need a large pitcher. Heres what to do:

• Half and mash 4 cups watermelon cubes. Or, blend up 2 cups of watermelon juice.
• Make the Mojito Pitcher, adding the watermelon juice to the pitcher with the mint syrup.
• Add additional watermelon wedges to the pitcher as a garnish.