All-natural vodka watermelon coolers...the next big thing

In the interest of your weekend entertainment, I'm posting a drink recipe that I stumbled upon serendipitously a couple of days ago.  The story goes a little like this:

Last Friday night, I saw that jumbo seedless watermelon was on sale for about $5.60 apiece; good deal!  I felt like I was lifting furniture when I placed my selection in the cart.  On my way home, I tried to think about how the hell my fiancee, Michelle, and I were going to eat the 25-lb monstrosity.

That evening I cut it in half (bisecting at the 'equator' rather than the 'poles') and then then prepared each half differently.  The first half I cut into slices to maximize the two-handed over-the-sink slurping that I love to do about as much as anything.  The next half was cut into cubes, green part be damned.  I placed the sliced wedges into a covered bowl in the fridge and placed the cubes into gallon-sized freezer bags.

The wedges went quickly and I was busting into my first bag of cubes by Saturday afternoon.  Michelle, wanting to celebrate the nice weather daiquiris, asked me to run to the liquor store.  After picking up a few essentials, I made her a daiquiri.  And seeing the fresh bottle of vodka on the counter reminded me that I had always wanted to try making a vodka watermelon.  I got to work...

I poured 8-10 shots of vodka into one of my full freezer bags, sucked the air out to ensure complete coverage, and stuck the bag back in the fridge.  The next day, I took a bite.  "Not bad," I thought, but I wasn't about to blog about it.  Over the next couple of days, I ate a couple pieces of watermelon here and there, but didn't make much of a dent in the bag (hey, these were weeknights!).  By Wednesday, the watermelon started to break down and look a little soft and questionable.  The bag that once held juicy chunks of watermelon now contained a pretty pink liquid with matching meaty pulp.  Then it hit me...

Now most of that liquid left in the bag is actually vodka.  It still smelled fine (well, depending on your tolerance for alcohol) and it looked pretty tasty if you could stop imagining the pulpy texture.  I grabbed a metal strainer and large measuring cup from the cupboard and called Michelle, who was on her way home from work, and asked her to pick up a two-liter bottle of Sprite.

What happened next will go down in the history of my drinking career.  I've always been a jeans and t-shirt beer-drinking kind of guy, enjoying the occasional mixed drink, depending on the situation...But the strained vodka watermelon pulp over ice and mixed with Sprite was a wild success!  The naturally flavored pink goodness gave the drink a beautiful color and w

as able to be mixed in to strengthen the beverage to taste.  Of course, the higher the watermelon juice-to-Sprite ratio, the pinker the drink became.

We're having a huge July 4th BBQ next month, and you can bet that this drink will be in our coolers satisfying all.  Mom, your Kool-Aid has officially been replaced!  Oh, and in the interest of exploration, I have had a bag of strawberries soaking in some rum in the refrigerator for a few days.  Maybe we'll try that juice with some Sprite or Coke and discover another fruity delight.