Watermelon Mint Vodka Punch

Watermelon is the best value in the summer produce section and almost nobody drinks it. A five- or six-dollar melon yields roughly eight cups of juice once blended and strained, which is more than a gallon of punch by the time everything else goes in. The same volume of bottled juice would run three times that, and it would not taste like anything.

Strain the blended melon, but only through a mesh strainer, not cheesecloth. Watermelon pulp is what gives this punch its body. Push it through a fine-mesh sieve and you remove the grit while keeping the texture that separates a real fruit punch from a flavored drink. If you strain it too aggressively you end up with pink water.

The mint goes into a syrup rather than into the pitcher. Loose mint leaves bruise, blacken, and turn bitter within an hour of sitting in acid, which is why restaurant punches that look good at 6 p.m. look terrible at 8. Steeping the mint in hot syrup pulls the flavor out in ten minutes and leaves you with a clean liquid that holds all night.

Watermelon Mint Vodka Punch

A whole watermelon blended into a gallon of punch with lime, mint syrup, and vodka — twelve servings from a melon that costs five dollars in July.

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Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 5 minutes mins

Total Time 1 hour hr 25 minutes mins

Course Drinks

Cuisine American

Servings 12 drinks

Ingredients

  

• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup fresh mint leaves packed, plus stems
• 1 pinch salt
• 8 cups watermelon seedless, cubed, about half a large melon
• 1 cup lime juice fresh, about 8 limes
• 2 cups vodka
• 3/4 cup mint syrup from above
• 3 cups club soda chilled
• 2 cups watermelon cubes frozen, used as ice
• 12 mint sprigs for serving
• 12 lime wheels for serving

Instructions

 

• Combine the water, sugar, mint, and salt in a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir until the sugar dissolves, then take the pan off the heat immediately.
• Let the mint steep in the hot syrup for 10 minutes, then strain and discard the leaves. Steeping longer turns the syrup grassy and slightly bitter.
• Freeze 2 cups of watermelon cubes on a sheet pan while you work. These become the ice and keep the punch from watering down.
• Blend the remaining 8 cups of watermelon in batches until completely liquid. There is no need to add water.
• Pour the blended melon through a fine-mesh strainer into a large pitcher or drink dispenser, pressing gently with the back of a ladle. Do not use cheesecloth — the light pulp is what gives the punch its body.
• Stir in the lime juice, vodka, 3/4 cup of mint syrup, and the salt. Taste and adjust: melons vary enormously in sweetness, so add syrup a tablespoon at a time if it is thin, or lime if it is flat.
• Refrigerate for at least 1 hour. The punch must be cold before the soda goes in or it will lose its fizz within minutes.
• Add the club soda just before serving, pouring down the inside of the pitcher. Drop in the frozen watermelon cubes and garnish each glass with a mint sprig and a lime wheel.

Notes

Blend and strain the melon up to a day ahead. The juice holds overnight in the refrigerator and separates slightly, which a quick stir fixes.

Buy the whole melon, never the precut tubs. Precut watermelon runs three to four times the price per pound and is usually a day or two past its best.

Pick a melon with a deep yellow field spot and real weight for its size. A pale or white spot means it was cut before it ripened, and no amount of syrup fixes an underripe melon.

The rind is not garbage. Peel off the green skin, slice the white part thin, and quick-pickle it with vinegar, sugar, and a little salt — it is excellent alongside grilled meat and it is free.

Mint is worth a two-dollar plant rather than a bunch. One plant on a windowsill supplies a summer of syrup, iced tea, and garnish, and mint is nearly impossible to kill.

Limes are cheapest by the bag. Roll them hard under your palm before juicing to get noticeably more out of each one.

Frozen watermelon cubes work in place of ice in any drink, and blended straight from frozen they make a passable sorbet with nothing but a squeeze of lime.

Make it alcohol-free: leave the vodka out and add 1 cup of cold brewed green tea plus an extra 2 tablespoons of lime juice. The tea gives the punch a little tannic grip so it reads as a drink rather than as juice, and the full batch still fills the same dispenser.

Serving note: 2 cups of vodka across 12 servings is about 1 1/3 ounces each, just under a standard drink. Blended fruit punches hide alcohol especially well, so say what is in it.

Keyword big-batch cocktail, summer cocktail, vodka punch, watermelon punch