Happy almost weekend sunshines! If you follow me on Instagram {@southernheather} you already know we have been enjoying the sand and sun in Hilton Head, SC this week. I love this annual tradition with the family.
Since I have been poolside this week, I figured I would share my Poolside Southern Sipper recipe with you today. We discovered this drink a few months back when we were down in Sea Island. If you like watermelon Jolly Ranchers, you will love this drink as it is tart and sweet.
My girlfriends and I really enjoyed these toddies while we were poolside, and I figured the ingredients seemed easy enough to recreate. Hey why not pretend we were sitting by the Sea Island pool again?!? (they had so many fun cocktails on their bar menu!)
Ingredients:
- Cucumber Infused Vodka (1 part)
- Jolly Rancher Watermelon Singles to Go (2-3 parts)
- Lemon Juice (splash)
- Sliced Limes (squeezed)
For my recipe recreation, I wanted a low-cal replacement for the Watermelon Monin they used at Sea Island since that is basically like infusing sugar into your veins. (and let’s face it, I always find a way to make up the calories with queso and chips). We kept commenting on how these tasted like watermelon Jolly Ranchers so I was pretty excited when my search came up with low-cal/sugar-free watermelon Jolly Rancher drink mix at my local grocery store. No worries if you can’t find this exactly, I did see several different watermelon powder mixes in the Crystal Light/Kool-aid aisle.
The most intimidating ingredient was the “cucumber-infused” vodka. But a quick search proved that this was simply slicing up some cucumbers and letting them sit in vodka for a couple days. (I did remove the seeds to avoid having them float in the vodka).
Then I just garnished with some watermelon and cucumber slices to make it festive.
If you were anywhere in Southern USA circa 1994 you may recall the country song “Watermelon Crawl”… which is pretty much all I have been able to sing when I drink these. Cheers to the weekend!
xoxo-
Heather
For other Southern State of Mind Happy Hour recipes:
That sounds like a fun summer cocktail Heather! I make a batch of pineapple infused vodka every summer but have never tried cucumber infused. I’ll have to try it! Thanks for sharing and hope you enjoyed your vaca!
UMMMMMM, pineapple vodka sounds so good! That will definitely be my next concoction! Thanks.
Well I’ve tried cucumber infused water but never Vodka! Any summer drink sounds refreshing when it is so HOT outside! Thanks for sharing.
This looks great! I was just having a hankerin’ for watermelon mojito’s but will have to try this. We are heading to Hilton Head next month- can’t wait!
Yum Lee- Watermelon mojitos sound amazing! I was in Trader Joes yesterday and noticed they have a sparkling watermelon drink and grabbed it. I am going to try it this weekend with some vodka and limes- I love the idea of some fizz! Happy travels- and yay for Hilton Head!!!! We had a GREAT time there last week!