Chp 683. Experimental Intoxication

Recently, Indigo Delicatessen had opened a new branch at Lane no.6 Koregaon Park, and so I went with my school and college mate Vara to check it out.

One of the cocktails I ordered was called "Boozy Lemonade - Watermelon, basil and ginger with vodka". It was bloody amazing!

What I really loved about this drink was that, there were large chunks of watermelon in the concoction, and taking a bite overwhelmed me with this awesome sensation of watermelon and vodka taste. It was obvious the fruit pieces had been dipped and infused in vodka for a long time.

I decided to try it for myself too!

And so one day, I bought a watermelon and a bottle of Smirnoff :D

Gently slice the watermelon in half. Speaking of slicing, I just watched "Blade Of The Immortal" last night and it was AMAZING, I really recommend you watch it too, definitely movie of the year for me. Directed by the legendary Takashi Miike (Crows Zero, 13 Assassins, Ichi the killer, Visitor Q, Gozu etc etc).

Scoop out some of the watermelon and pour a shitload of vodka in its place.

Why waste the scooped-out pieces? Pour vodka into that as well. Why so much vodka? Because, cyka blyat :D

Freeze it for 30 minutes.

After that, take it out from the fridge. Grind some of the pulp into juice and pour into a glass along with large chunks of the vodka-infused watermelon pieces.

Enjoy!

Looks awesome right?

Well, wanna know a little secret?

It was horrible, lolzzzz.

The vodka was too strong so it completely killed the taste of the watermelon! I mean it was still drinkable, and you'll like it if you love vodka, but this was not what I intended on making. And the taste was FAR from the drink I had at Indigo Deli.

So I googled and found out that apart from adding too much vodka, I made two other big mistakes.

Mistake number 1. This wasn't how a vodka-infused watermelon was supposed to be made. For that, I was actually supposed to make a small hole on a watermelon without cutting it up, and through the help of a funnel or direct insertion, let the vodka slowly seep inside the watermelon. And then plug the hole and leave it as it is for a couple of hours as the vodka slowly infuses with the watermelon inside. Some people even wait 12-24 hours for this process to take place! And I did it for 30 minutes, lolzzz.

This is how it's actually supposed to be done [source: rachel's pinterest]

Mistake number 2. Lack of other ingredients. As I read up more on all the other recipes and ingredients of making different vodka-based watermelon cocktails, I realized I should have added a lot of other stuff like Triple Sec, Sugar syrup, Mint, Lemon etc.

Ahhh Rookie mistake indeed.

Next time, I promise I will be ready with all those stuff and will update you again on how it turned out :)

Since I had vodka lying around in the house anyway, the other day I decided to make Bloody Mary.

And to make sure I didn't repeat the same mistake again, I read up a lot on all the ingredients and method of making it. I noted down all the basic ingredients and then went to Nature's Basket with a long shopping list. Finally I was ready:

Vodka. check.

Tomato juice. check.

Lemoneez juice. check.

Tabasco sauce. check.

Celery salt. check.

Black salt. check.

Ground black pepper. check.

Paprika. check.

Thai bird chilly. check.

I bought all the requirements, except for Worcestershire sauce because they didn't have it. I got Sriracha Extra Hot Chili sauce instead as a substitute.

I followed every instruction by the book, not just about the preparation of the cocktail but on how to correctly salt the glass rim.

Shake shake shake. I worked my magic on the shaker. I also realized it was really hard not to shake one's ass while shaking the mixture :P

Finally here's the result of my endeavor.

And yes, this turned out awesome!

It was so good that people from all corners of the globe flew in to Pune just to taste my awesome Bloody Mary :D

And so it became a regular thing I made from that day onwards.

One more post for all you teetotalers. I think you will like this very simple mocktail.

Take some lime.

Squeeze them dry.

Pour passionfruit juice into the glass.

Add salt. I would also recommend Black Salt rather than this.

Voilà. A refreshing Summertime non-alcoholic drink!

So that's my quick update for today. I will return later with a better watermelon vodka drink and a few other new cocktails. So until then, cheers everyone! :)