Honeydew Melon Lemonade

If it was possible for a drink to have multiple personality disorder, this would be it.

It's crazy the kind of tricks your tongue plays on you with all of its "taste spots". I never really believed that certain parts of your tongue picked up on different flavors. It always seemed like all the flavors melded into one once I stuck something into my mouth. It could very well be that I tend to eat like a savage animal, shoving food in my face as fast as I can, instead of savoring each and every bite I take. Yeah, that could be it. Maybe I'll have to work on that.

 

For whatever reason, the first time I have ever been able to taste multiple flavors on my tongue was when I made this Honeydew Melon Lemonade. It was a trip! 

Sipping this lemonade literally makes you feel like you are drinking two totally different drinks at once. The moment the drink touches your lips you think it's a regular freshly squeezed lemonade, but then the second you swallow, you get this intensely subtle burst of honeydew melon. It's delicious! Chilling this drink for a few hours with fresh raspberries and mint leaves gives it an added touch of flavor...plus the vibrant colors are fun. We're getting fancy up in here!

I got the idea for this drink because of my mad "waste not, want not" OCD skills. I had lemons in my fridge that were on the verge of being too old. I had just bought an expensive tub of raspberries that nobody was eating, as always. My mint leaves had been chilling out in the fridge just waiting for me to think of something to do with them. And we had a deliciously flavored honeydew melon in the fridge that was just a little too soft for my liking. Too soft, huh? How about I puree it and add it to some lemonade?! Brilliant! Best of all, I completely cleaned out my fridge. Bingo!

 

Honeydew Melon Lemonade

 

Ingredients:

3/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

2 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon honey

3 cups water

1 3/4 cups honeydew melon juice (about 3 cups cubed, before pureed)

1 cup fresh raspberries

7-8 mint leaves

 

Directions:

1. In a pitcher add lemon juice, sugar, honey and water. Set aside.

 

2. Cut honeydew melon into chunks. You'll need about 3-4 cups. Puree the chunks in a food processor until very smooth. In small batches, pour the pulp through a fine mesh strainer with a bowl underneath to catch the juice. Using the bottom of a spatula, push the pulp against the mesh to squeeze out all the juice. Once the juice has been squeezed out, discard the pulp and repeat with the next batch until all the honeydew melon juice has been strained. Once you have 1 3/4 cups honeydew melon juice, add it to the pitcher and stir.

 

3. Add raspberries and mint leaves. Chill in fridge for 3-4 hours. Add ice before serving.

 

Serves 6-8