Wednesday Weekend Warm Up (longing for summer…)

• 2 cups strained watermelon juice
• 10 mint leaves, chopped fine
• 1 cups simple syrup, room temperature
• Juice of 1 lemon or lime
• 1 1/2 cups Bombay Sapphire or Tanqueray gin, chilled (Use good gin. It does make a difference.)
• Fresh mint sprigs for garnish
• Club soda, chilled
• Ice cubes

1. Make simple syrup by bringing 1/2 cup of white sugar and 1/2 cup of water to a boil. Boil until all the sugar is dissolved, remove from heat and let cool
2. Cut up 1/2 small seedless watermelon (remember to cut the rind off!) and with an immersion blender or stand blender, puree it with 10 chopped mint leaves. Strain though cheesecloth or paper towels until you have 2 cups of juice. Tip: Fold a few pieces of paper towel and place it in a colander. Pour the pureed watermelon over it and let it drip through on its own. When it’s almost done draining, gently pull up the soaked paper towels and squeeze the rest of the juice out.
3. Chill watermelon juice, simple syrup and lemon juice until cold.
4. Chill gin until ready to serve.
5. When ready to serve, add cold gin to chilled juice and pour over ice.
6. Add a splash of club soda and garnish with mint sprigs.

Serves a lot!