Watermelon Negronis
We adopted a dog! (Or maybe we haven't technically finalized it yet, but it's in the works). His name is Fox, and he's a total fox. He's a three-year-old chihuahua, and he's calm and quiet and super cute. He does this thing where he tries to stand on two feet like a human and shakes his front paws at your knees like he's trying to fan you. I think that's how he says "You're cool!" or maybe it's just "Scratch me!"
Fox started staying with us as a foster pup a couple weeks ago. We hadn't really been looking for a dog, but we (especially Beau) just fell for him. HARD. Like it's kind of pathetic how much we've been doting on this dog. And he seems to really like us and where we live--if you're familiar with the Bywater in New Orleans, you'll agree that our neighborhood is full of smells that dogs would find fascinating, even if they present a huge hurdle for my very fragile gag reflex. Imagine hipster grunge, mixed with run-off from the French Quarter, and the world's most delicious pizza. Oh and coffee. It smells like all of those things.
We took him around earlier to get a whiff, and in honor of us being so drunk in love with him, I thought we should be drinking watermelon. Fox tried some of the plain watermelon juice (with NONE of the alcohol duh) and didn't really like it. Which is fine because now we have more juice for these negronis.
If you don't know, a classic negroni is made of equal parts London dry gin, sweet (red) vermouth, and Campari. I thought for this summery drink I might use some lighter, sweeter, more floral instances of those ingredients. For the gin, I've used Hayman's Old Tom Gin, old tom style gins having a lower prevalence of herbs and juniper and more citrus and white flower notes. I went with a white sweet vermouth, looking for this to bring more lightness in both color and flavor than the red variety. And instead of Campari, I opted for its sweeter, brunchier, easier cousin, Aperol. Cheers, y'all! Oh, and Fox is doing that thing I was talking about--"You're cool!/Scratch me!"
Watermelon Negroni
Makes one
- .75oz Hayman's Old Tom Gin
- .75oz Dolin Vermouth Blanc
- .75oz Aperol
- 1oz watermelon juice (from about 1/3 cup fresh watermelon)
- 1 lime
- Cut the watermelon into chunks and remove seeds.
- Run the watermelon through a juicer, or simply puree it in a blender and strain out the solid matter.
- If you like, cut some triangles from the rind for garnish.
- Combine gin, vermouth, Aperol, and watermelon juice in a mixing glass. Add ice and stir until some of the ice has melted, about 30-45 seconds of continuous stirring.
- Strain into a glass over fresh ice, or serve up.
- Cut a twist of lime peel and express the oils into the drink by squeezing the peel about 2-3 inches above the surface of the liquid. Dub the rim of the drink with the outside part of the lime peel. Discard the peel.
- Garnish with watermelon rind.
