Watermelon Rose Fizz

I know I said that last week was my final summery drink recipe, but this week I recreated a watermelon drink I made back in July and wanted to share it. This is another simple one, but it’s fun and good so I’m going to walk you through it. Also, watermelon juice is available from a few different brands year-round, so while this is summery in essence, it isn’t relegated to any specific seasonal enjoyment. I juiced this watermelon myself, but if you need a store-bought recommendation, Wonder Melon makes a great watermelon juice. They have a couple of flavors but I really like the watermelon-cucumber-basil one. This was a more spur of the moment recipe, so it was only prepared for one, but the measurements are so simple that you could easily make this for more people.

You will need:

• ½ cup watermelon juice
• 1 teaspoon rose syrup
• food grade rose petals
• ice tray (I used a silicone tray with tiny ice cubes)
• cherry pomegranate san pellegrino seltzer

I think I’ve mentioned this before, but I live in a small town right now. Small as in... a cowboy lives down the street from me and there’s an actual video store here. It’s like another world. I like it. It does make finding certain drink ingredients more difficult, though. If I have an idea for something, I typically have to call around to different places to see whether or not they carry it. I usually end up having to buy ingredients online if they’re too “rare.” This past summer, I ordered a few pantry ingredients from different online retailers so I could experiment in my spare time. In general, I treat cooking as a necessity, but I like to have fun with it. I came up with this drink after I ordered food-grade rose buds and some rose syrup. I made watermelon juice the previous day and wanted to do something with it. I don’t like throwing food out. I’m always determined to find a use. I had a lot of fruit I could’ve used with the watermelon juice, but melon is one of those flavors that can overpower other ingredients in a drink. It’s hard to get the right combination without everything tasting imbalanced. I decided to use food-grade rosebuds and make some ice cubes. I placed each tiny little bud in each tiny square and ran water over it. I wasn’t sure if this was going to work. I’d never done it before, but sometimes I’m just overcome with an idea and I have to try it for myself without doing any research. I was worried that the rosebuds would expand once they got wet and force the water out of the tray. That didn’t happen, though. They froze nicely. Once the cubes were made, I filled a glass with cubes and poured watermelon juice over them. Then I added the rose syrup, stirred, and topped with some cherry-pomegranate seltzer. The rosebuds open up beautifully. You can use less cubes than I did, or a bigger mold. That's your choice. You will need a straw to drink this with. That's OK.

It was simple. There wasn’t a ton of brainwork that went into coming up with this. I just used a bunch of shit I already had. I think that’s the best way to come up with something new. That’s usually how I come up with drinks that become staples for me when I’m alone. I don’t have to think about serving other people, and can just throw a little of whatever into a glass to see what it’s like. There’s no pressure or embarrassment or anyone to impress. If anything, it’s a singular joy that I reserve for myself; standing in the kitchen in a big t-shirt and tossing ingredients into a blender like a mad scientist. That’s fun. Life is so short. Taste what you can.