Back when I was a kid, I really didn’t like melons. Most other fruit, I really liked, since I’ve always had a sweet tooth. But honeydew and cantaloupe, for some reason, didn’t do it for me. Maybe my mom just always fed me bad melons that weren’t that sweet, or something. I just never got used to the taste.
That is, until now. Well, to tell you the truth, I much prefer a lot of other fruits. Strawberries, mangoes, grapefruit… but once in a while, I eat some melon. It’s supposed to be good for you, right? Plus it’s summertime, and for some reason, melons remind me of summer. Even though honeydew isn’t in season until August.
Anyway, after taking some honeydew to a potluck in the park, I decided to make some cocktails with Midori, Japan’s melon-flavored liqueur. Unfortunately, no alcohol was allowed at the park, so these cocktails were just for me!
First, I tried making a Midori-based martini.
Melon Martini
1.5 oz Midori
1.5 oz vodka
1/2 cup honeydew, muddled
I muddled the honeydew in a glass, and then added all the ingredients to a cocktail shaker with ice, before straining into a cocktail glass. A bit strong, as a martini should be. Maybe some more melon juice. Some simple syrup may have helped as well, although the Midori is quite sweet on its own. Using a blender for the honeydew might have also gotten more juice into the drink.
Next I tried making a Tokyo Tea, which I think I ordered once at a bar.
Tokyo Tea
0.5 oz vodka
0.5 oz rum
0.5 oz gin
0.5 oz tequila
0.5 oz triple sec
1 oz Midori
0.5 oz lemon juice
0.5 oz simple syrup
lemon slice
I added the six different types of alcohol into a cocktail shaker with ice, along with the lemon juice and simple syrup, and strained that into a tall glass with ice, garnished with a lemon slice. It was pretty potent. But what would you expect from six different types of alcohol in one drink? Pretty good considering the amount of alcohol, though. It’s basically like a Long Island Iced Tea, with Midori. Minus the Coke. Plus some lemon juice and simple syrup. The Midori flavor is actually noticeable, although I’m not sure that the other five types of alcohol needed to all be there. I mean, when tequila is 1/9 of the volume of the whole drink, couldn’t it just be replaced with, say, vodka? Well, that’s the standard recipe, so I stuck with it.
I noticed the Japanese Slipper on the IBA list of cocktails once, so I gave that one a try, too.
Japanese Slipper
1 oz Midori
1 oz Cointreau
1 oz lemon juice
maraschino cherry
I put the Midori, Cointreau, and lemon juice into a cocktail shaker filled with ice, and strained that into a cocktail glass with a maraschino cherry. The lemon juice gives it this nice refreshing taste that goes well with the sweetness of the Midori. A nice balance. Definitely good to use fresh lemon juice for this. I juiced one lemon with my reamer, and I got pretty much exactly an ounce of lemon juice out of it.
“Midori” is called that just because it’s the Japanese word for “green,” and the liqueur is quite radioactively green. I wonder if they’ll ever make a cantaloupe-based liqueur that’s bright orange. Would they call it Orenji?