Cantaloupe sparkling water, three ways
The unsweetened infusion, the syrup, and the ratio that makes the finished drink.
In season: June to September. A ripe one smells like cantaloupe at the stem end from a foot away. If you have to put your nose on it, it is not ready.
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Infused, unsweetened
Use
3 cups cubed cantaloupe per 1 litre of water
Method
Scrub the rind with a brush under running water before you cut it. The netting on a cantaloupe holds soil bacteria and the knife carries whatever is on the outside straight through the flesh. Then cube it, cover with cold still water, refrigerate.
Time
3 hours. Cantaloupe infusion turns musky past about 6 hours.
Sparkling
Still water for the infusion. Finish at 2 parts infusion to 1 part sparkling, because heavy carbonation makes melon taste soapy.
Keeps
1 day refrigerated, and it stays cold the entire time. Cut melon is one of the most common fruits behind foodborne illness and it does not belong on a counter.
The syrup
Ratio
3 cups cubed cantaloupe : 1 cup sugar : 1/2 cup water
Method
Simmer 12 minutes until the cubes go translucent and start falling apart, steep 20 minutes off the heat, strain without pressing.
Keeps
10 days refrigerated, 6 months frozen
Note
Cooked cantaloupe smells far stronger than raw and reads as much more perfumed. Make a half batch the first time to find out where you sit on that.
The finished soda
1 part syrup to 5 parts sparkling water, over ice, with a squeeze of lime
Lime and a pinch of salt. Cantaloupe with no acid in it tastes like melted candy.
The shrub version
3 cups cubed cantaloupe and 1 cup sugar, covered in the fridge 2 days, strain, stir in 3/4 cup white wine vinegar, rest 5 days. The vinegar is what cuts the muskiness.
What doesn't work: Leaving the fruit in overnight. Cantaloupe goes from clean and floral to sweaty somewhere around the six hour mark and there is no bringing it back.
Goes with: LimeMintGingerCucumber