Drinking to that long-awaited summer!

Summer.

After weeks and weeks of dreary grey skies, chilly mornings, afternoons and evenings, bizarrely cold nights and snowed-out hiking trails, we were pretty much ready to give up on warm weather. Global warming is happening for sure, but it seemed to be ignoring the Pacific Northwest, atleast when it comes to warming my nose and toes!

And just when we pretty much gave up on feeling the sunshine again, blue skies broke out! The grey clouds disappeared, we hit 90 F on more than one day, we've even had a couple of weeks of pristine summer skies. Hell, my crazy brown self has gotten crispier! :)

So, now that summer is finally here, we've got to celebrate it, right? We've been indulging in hanging outdoors a lot, but what's celebration without food or libations, right? :) When a friend gave me a super ripe watermelon, it seemed primed for working into a drink.

So, what do you get when you have a watermelon, some fancy-schmancy liqueur, some san pellegrino, some ice and plenty of sunshine?

A yummy drink that has the full potential to make you quite tipsy! :)

This fancy liqueur we're talking about ... we stumbled upon this during our frequent encounters at the fabulous Vij's in Vancouver. They have two standard cocktails on their menu - Dark Army and Mangalore - the latter drink is a concoction of berries steeped in a mildly spicy liqueur called ... Mangalore (creative, eh?) :) Once I was hooked onto this, I trolled the BC liquor stores till I finally found a bottle at the store on 42nd and Cambie. This store is the Costco equivalent of liquor stores - they have every alcohol and liqueur one could think of ... and then some! So, I returned to Seattle, triumphant in my possession of the elusive Mangalore (which we can't find at any store in the U.S.!). We've sampled this in various cocktails, most of them have turned out really tasty, but this summery drink was especially memorable!

Watermelon Mangalore-ade
For lack of a better name! :)

Servings: 4-6 glasses

1/2 medium watermelon
3 T lemon juice
1 bottle San Pellegrino (you won't need all of this) - you could use any other sparkling water too.
Mangalore liqueur
Crushed ice
A few leaves of spanish mint

Cut the watermelon into sections and remove the rind.
If it has seeds, yank those out too.
Puree the watermelon bits with the lemon juice till smooth.

Take a shaker and throw in a handful of crushed ice into it.
Add 2/3 cup of watermelon puree and a shot of Mangalore liqueur.
Shake it ... then shake it some more!

Pour about 1/4 cup of sparkling water into a glass.
Top with the shaker contents.
Gently jiggle the glass before serving.

Garnish with a leaf or two of spanish mint.

Drink up! :)



Opinion?

Perfect for a summer day. The watermelon was at its prime - ripe, juicy and sweet. The Mangalore added the perfect zing to it and the lemon juice lent the tiny bit of tartness that the drink needed. No need for any simple syrup, the natural flavours totally kicked ass!