Watermelon Ginger Cooler

It’s summertime, which of course means it’s time to whip up some refreshing drafts. Here’s how I approach my cocktailage:

1. Use ingredients that that are, themselves, inherently restorative under wilting conditions.*
2. Keep it simple. Try to keep your concoctions to five ingredients or less.
3. Locate your fine self a cabana/pool/palm-draped hammock.** Relax. Imbibe.

* This might seem like obvious advice, but you’d be surprised. Super sugary drinks don’t make for great cocktails–they lead to nothing but misery in the morning.
**If you live in New York like me, you might have to settle for your bathtub.

The following is my first drink of summer 2012, and it’s currently enjoying heavy rotation at chez moi. The recipe is for one cocktail, but it can easily be scaled up, if you’re serving a whole slew of people.

If you can’t find key limes, sub 1/2 a small, normal lime. If you can’t find ginger syrup, you can make your own with fresh ginger, water and sugar. (Fine, fine you could also just sub a dash of ginger ale.)

Makes 1 drink

Ingredients:

1 cup cubed watermelon
2 key limes (one juiced, one sliced as garnish)
1/2 ounce ginger syrup
1 ounce white rum

Procedure:

1. Toss the watermelon into a blender or food processor, and blitz for a minute or two. After that you, you can run the juice through a sieve (which will ensure you have a smooth watermelon juice), or leave it a little chunky.

2. Juice one of the key limes into the watermelon juice. Give it a little stir. Slice the other, thinly and crosswise, and set it aside.

3. Empty some ice into a cocktail shaker. Pour the ginger syrup and the rum directly over the ice. Add the watermelon-key lime juice. Attach the cap, and give the cocktail a brisk shake, until the metal feels quite cold to the touch.