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    Cocktail of the Week: Watermelon Spritz

    By | Shine Food – Fri, Jul 13, 2012 2:57 PM EDT

    Maxime IattoniCentral Park was about as close as I ever got to the countryside as a kid. It was there that I enjoyed my first picnics, warm summer afternoons full of delicious, messy food- chief among them watermelon, which captured my imagination with its gargantuan size, its marbled rind, and its vibrant, seed-studded, sticky-sweet fruit. Still, it's been some time since I've actually considered hauling home one of the huge, heavy things, let alone bringing one to a picnic. So it was with with as much surprise as delight that I found myself buying a watermelon for the first time in years in order to make a pitcher of Watermelon Spritz, a gin-based cocktail from Santa Monica chef Jeff Mahin (it's called "The Merchant's Wife" on Mahin's menu) that takes its vibrant pink hue and subtle flavor from the melon's sweet juice.

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    The drink itself is sunny and rich: A bright mix of watermelon, Aperol, and lemon juice, topped with a splash of club soda for something well-balanced and pleasantly effervescent, with a final note that blooms on the tongue. The mild astringency of the Aperol tugs back at the melon's sweetness and reignites the gin, elevating the neon-hued cocktail to the heights of sophistication. Mahin calls it "summertime in a glass." For me, the cocktail evokes more than just the season; it's my mystical picnic glade of childhood, with an age-appropriate touch of booze. - Niki Achitoff-Gray

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    MAKES 1 COCKTAIL

    INGREDIENTS
    2 2"x1" chunks fresh watermelon, plus wedges to garnish
    ¾ oz. simple syrup
    1 oz. gin
    ¾ oz. Aperol
    ¾ oz. lemon juice
    1 oz. club soda

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    INSTRUCTIONS
    Muddle the watermelon chunks and simple syrup together in a cocktail shaker. Add the remaining ingredients, fill shaker with ice, and shake vigorously. Strain over into a wine glass filled with crushed ice and serve garnished with a wedge of watermelon.

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