Eat your melons and drink them, too, with this refreshing recipe for a Melon Ball Cocktail, starring lemonade and vodka-soaked fruit.
It’s been a scorcher of a summer here in southern California. For the past few weeks, our menus have consisted of salads, gazpacho and frosty beverages. Lots and lots of frosty beverages.
Smoothies and milkshakes for Julian, and wine slushies for me (no shame in my Mommy Juice game!). We’ve also crafted many a food into popsicle form, from veggie-packed green juice to peanut butter frozen yogurt. Basically, if you can fit it into a popsicle mold, we’ve frozen it and devoured it.
Enter this Melon Ball Cocktail. It’s the best of both the cocktail and mocktail worlds, with fresh fruit, citrusy lemonade and a splash of soda water for that refreshing tickle-your-nose fizz.
It’s the epitome of summer in a glass, and it couldn’t be easier to concoct thanks to a simple shortcut: swapping the traditional lemon juice and simple syrup combo (à la a Lemon Drop cocktail) to my go-to Florida’s Natural® Brand Lemonade.
This is where the kid-friendly component of this cocktail-slash-mocktail comes into play. I’m always dreaming up inventive ways to get Julian (and soon, Evan!) to eat a rainbow of fruits and veggies. Julian caught a glimpse of me portioning out the giant melons into balls and he begged for a big ol’ bowl of “mellies,” as he calls them.
I had previously frozen a bunch while creating this recipe for my ongoing partnership with the Florida’s Natural Brunch Club, so I gave him a bowl of frozen melon balls to snack on. He was occupied for a whole 14 minutes.
For the grownup friendly version of this recipe, I soaked the melon balls in vodka prior to freezing them solid. The result? Colorful, frozen melon balls that are MUCH tastier than the typical ice cube. Win!
Another big win? Each purchase of Florida’s Natural lemonades helps support Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation, which funds childhood cancer research. Florida’s Natural donates all profits from the sales of their lemonades (six awesome flavors) to Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation. So now you can sip on a colorful summer cocktail and know that your grocery store purchase was for a spectacular, kid-focused cause. Now that is a big mom win!
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Ingredients
- 12 watermelon balls
- 12 cantaloupe balls
- 12 honeydew melon balls
- 1 cup vodka
- 2 cups Florida’s Natural® Lemonade
- 1/3 cup triple sec (or other orange-flavored liquor)
- Soda water
Instructions
- Add the watermelon balls, cantaloupe balls and melon balls to a large bowl. Pour the vodka on top and stir to combine. Transfer the melon balls into a single layer on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, then place the baking sheet in the freezer for a minimum of 15 minutes.
- In a pitcher, combine the lemonade and triple sec.
- When ready to serve, divide the frozen melon balls among glasses and pour in the lemonade mixture. Top each glass with a splash of soda water and serve.
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Recipe by Kelly Senyei of Just a Taste. Please do not reprint this recipe without my permission. If you'd like to feature this recipe on your site, please rewrite the method of preparation and link to this post as the original source.
Disclosure: I’ve partnered with Florida’s Natural for an exclusive endorsement of not-from-concentrate Florida’s Natural® Orange Juice and Florida’s Natural® Lemonade. This blog post is sponsored by Florida’s Natural Growers. All opinions are my own.
This cocktail is so fun and refreshing! I like adding a basil leaf as a garnish :)
I’m thrilled you enjoyed the recipe, Jane!