Watermelon sparkling water, three ways
The unsweetened infusion, the syrup, and the ratio that makes the finished drink.
In season: June to September. The test is weight and the ground spot: a good one feels heavy for its size and has a creamy yellow patch where it sat in the field.
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Infused, unsweetened
Use
3 cups cubed watermelon per 1 litre of water
Method
Watermelon is already 92 percent water, so an infusion is really a dilution and you need a lot of fruit to shift it. Cube it, cover with cold still water, refrigerate. Leave the muddler alone; crushed watermelon turns the jar pink and cloudy without adding flavour.
Time
2 hours. Watermelon gives up everything it has quickly and then just sits there.
Sparkling
Still water for the infusion. The flavour is faint and carbonation talks over it, so finish at about 3 parts infusion to 1 part sparkling.
Keeps
1 day refrigerated. Cut melon turns faster than any other fruit here and the infusion is sour by day two.
The syrup
Ratio
4 cups cubed watermelon : 1 cup sugar : no added water
Method
Blend the cubes and strain through a sieve to get about 2 cups of juice. Combine with the sugar in a pan and simmer 12 minutes until it reduces by roughly a third, skimming the pink foam off the top as it rises.
Keeps
10 days refrigerated, 6 months frozen. Watermelon syrup is a short keeper because the fruit brings no acid of its own.
Note
Adding water to a watermelon syrup gets you sweet pink nothing. The reduction is the entire method.
The finished soda
1 part syrup to 4 parts sparkling water, over ice, with lime and 3 mint leaves
Lime is close to compulsory, a quarter per glass. A pinch of salt does more than you would expect.
The shrub version
2 cups watermelon juice and 1 cup sugar stirred cold until the sugar dissolves, then 3/4 cup white wine vinegar, rested 5 days in the fridge. There is no maceration step because the juice is already free of the fruit.
What doesn't work: Boiling watermelon down hard to make it stronger. Past about 15 minutes it stops tasting like watermelon and starts tasting like cooked squash. Take it to two thirds and stop.
Goes with: LimeMintBasilCucumber