Tunisian Chilled Watermelon and Mint Refresher with Orange Blossom Water

Chill the watermelon thoroughly before you start — at least 4 hours in the refrigerator. Blending cold fruit means you need almost no ice in the drink itself, which keeps the flavor concentrated instead of watery.

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 8 cups seedless watermelon, cubed and well chilled
• 1/4 cup fresh lime juice
• 3 tablespoons honey or sugar, to taste
• 1/2 teaspoon orange blossom water
• 20 fresh mint leaves, plus sprigs to garnish
• Pinch of fine sea salt
• 1 cup cold sparkling water
• Crushed ice, for serving
• 4 small watermelon wedges, to garnish

Instructions

1. Chill the watermelon thoroughly before you start — at least 4 hours in the refrigerator. Blending cold fruit means you need almost no ice in the drink itself, which keeps the flavor concentrated instead of watery.
2. Put the mint leaves in the bottom of your blender with the honey and the pinch of salt, and pulse them together a few times. Bruising the mint against the sugar releases the oils far more effectively than blending it loose with the liquid.
3. Add the watermelon cubes and lime juice and blend on high for 30 to 40 seconds until completely smooth and frothy.
4. Pour the mixture through a fine-mesh strainer into a pitcher, pressing gently with a spoon. Straining removes the fibrous pulp and gives you that clear, jewel-toned pink that makes the drink look as good as it tastes.
5. Stir in the orange blossom water, starting with a scant half teaspoon. It is powerfully floral and easy to overdo — you want a faint perfume hovering behind the fruit, not a mouthful of soap.
6. Taste and adjust: add more lime if it tastes flat, a little more honey if your melon was underripe. A perfectly ripe August watermelon may need almost no sweetener at all.
7. Refrigerate for 30 minutes to let the mint and blossom water settle into the fruit, then stir in the cold sparkling water just before serving.
8. Fill glasses with crushed ice, pour, and garnish each with a slapped mint sprig and a small wedge of watermelon on the rim.
9. In Tunisia, watermelon is the fruit of the deep summer, sold from roadside stacks along the coast road and eaten in enormous quantities through the hottest weeks of the year. Orange blossom water — mai zhar — is the signature perfume of the North African kitchen, distilled from bitter orange flowers in spring and used through the year in pastries, drinks, and even sprinkled on guests' hands as a welcome. Together with mint, which grows in pots on every terrace, they turn plain blended melon into something layered and distinctly Mediterranean. Serve it in the late afternoon, when the heat has peaked and dinner is still hours away.

Nutrition (estimated, per serving)

• Calories: 130 kcal
• Protein: 2g
• Fat: 1g
• Carbohydrates: 32g
• Fiber: 2g
• Sugar: 28g
• Sodium: 60mg