Watermelon Martini
A Watermelon Martini is fresh watermelon shaken with vodka and lime: four cubes of ripe melon muddled to juice, then 50ml vodka, 15ml fresh lime juice and up to 10ml sugar syrup, shaken hard and fine strained into a chilled martini glass with a small wedge on the rim. Martini here describes the glass only. Difford’s Guide says the Watermelon Martini emerged in London in the 1990s as one of many fresh fruit martinis made at The Met Bar. We have found no source that names its creator. Another drink shares the name, made with watermelon liqueur; this one uses the fruit. The melon sets the sweetness, so taste it before measuring the syrup. A ripe summer melon may need none. Expect about 2.0 UK units in each glass.
Glassware: Martini Glass
Garnish: Small watermelon wedge on the rim
Ingredients
4 cubes, plus a wedge
Four cubes from a ripe melon, plus a small wedge for the rim. USDA FoodData Central gives raw watermelon as 91.4 g water per 100 g, so it supplies the juice, the colour and nearly all the sweetness at once.
50ml
Any clean, unflavoured vodka. It brings strength and stays out of the melon’s way; one with a character of its own competes.
15ml
Squeezed the same day. Watermelon has almost no acid of its own, and 15ml of lime lends the melon some bite.
10ml
Sugar and water, one to one by weight. Up to 10ml, set by the fruit: a ripe melon needs little or none.
Instructions
Chill a martini glass.
Muddle the watermelon cubes in the base of a shaker until fully juiced.
Taste the juice, then add the vodka, lime juice and as much simple syrup as the melon needs, up to 10ml.
Fill with cubed ice and shake hard for 10 to 12 seconds.
Fine strain into the chilled glass and set a small watermelon wedge on the rim.
Our version
No standard specification exists for the fresh-fruit version. Ours is four cubes of ripe watermelon muddled with 50ml vodka, 15ml lime and up to 10ml sugar syrup, the syrup set by the fruit.
Source: our own specification. Last checked 9 October 2026.
Expert Tip
Taste a piece of the melon first. If it is sweet and dripping, leave the syrup out; if it is pale and firm, use the full 10ml, and out of season think about a different drink. Muddle until the cubes are liquid, not merely broken. Watermelon is soft, so it feels finished before it is, and unpressed flesh holds its juice back. Pour through a tea strainer as well as the shaker’s own. Pulp and seeds floating in a martini glass make the drink look like a fruit cup.
Behind the Watermelon Martini
Flavour Profile
A Martini in the Glass Only
There is no gin or vermouth in a Watermelon Martini. It takes the name from the glass, as the fresh fruit martinis Difford’s Guide places at The Met Bar in London in the 1990s did: real fruit muddled into vodka and served up. We have found no source that names its creator.
The name also covers a liqueur version, stirred and sweeter. The fresh-fruit drink is the one made here.
The Melon Sets the Sweetness
The USDA FoodData Central record gives raw watermelon as 91.4 g water and 6.2 g total sugars per 100 g. Four cubes muddled to juice give it colour, volume beside the vodka and most of its sugar, which makes ripeness the variable that matters.
Matching the syrup to the melon
Ripe, in summer
- What it tastes like
- Sweet and dripping, deep pink
- Syrup to add
- None, or 5ml
Average
- What it tastes like
- Mild, pale pink
- Syrup to add
- 5ml to 10ml
Hard and pale
- What it tastes like
- Watery, little sugar
- Syrup to add
- 10ml, or make a different drink
| The melon | What it tastes like | Syrup to add |
|---|---|---|
| Ripe, in summer | Sweet and dripping, deep pink | None, or 5ml |
| Average | Mild, pale pink | 5ml to 10ml |
| Hard and pale | Watery, little sugar | 10ml, or make a different drink |
The syrup corrects weak fruit rather than seasoning good fruit. Tasting the juice before adding it is the step that changes the result most.
Lime and Vodka
Watermelon has almost no acidity, and without lime it tastes flat and sweet. Fifteen millilitres sharpens it without making it a sour.
The vodka should be clean. At 50ml it brings the strength and carries the melon’s flavour; a vodka with its own character competes with a fruit this light. For a vodka drink in the same glass with more bite, the Cosmopolitan uses cranberry and Cointreau.
Muddle Hard, Strain Fine
Soft fruit fools people into stopping early. Keep pressing until the cubes have turned to juice and pulp. Then shake hard for 10 to 12 seconds and pour through a fine strainer, so the drink arrives clear, pink and smooth.
Making It for a Group
For several glasses, muddle the melon in a jug, press it through a sieve and set the syrup by tasting the juice, not by counting cubes. Add the lime and vodka, then shake every drink to order on fresh ice. Muddled melon separates and dulls as it stands, so do not make the juice far ahead.
How Strong It Is
A 40% vodka at 50ml puts about 2.0 UK units in a Watermelon Martini. The fruit hides the alcohol well, so use a jigger for the vodka.
Make it at home
The Spirit
VodkaVodka is spirit made from a farmed crop, usually grain or potatoes, distilled and refined so that the taste of that crop is deliberately reduced. Under the retained Regulation (EC) 110/2008 its minimum is 37.5% ABV and it may not be given a predominant flavour, which separates it from flavoured vodka and from gin; our recipes count it at 40%. In a mixed drink it adds strength and body while the other ingredients carry the taste.
More to explore
Frequently Asked Questions
What is in a Watermelon Martini?
How strong is a Watermelon Martini?
Can I use watermelon liqueur instead of fresh watermelon?
Do I need sugar syrup in a Watermelon Martini?
Why fine strain a Watermelon Martini?
What is the difference between a Watermelon Martini and a Cosmopolitan?
Sources.
Correct as of 19 October 2026.
- Difford’s Guide, “Watermelon Fruitini” (secondary source: the “Watermelon Martini” emerged during the 1990s in London, England, and was one of many “Fresh Fruit Martinis” made at The Met Bar).
- USDA FoodData Central, “Watermelon, raw (SR Legacy 167765)” (primary source (government database): water 91.4 g and total sugars 6.2 g per 100 g).
You Might Also Like
Tomatini
A Tomatini is three ripe cherry tomatoes muddled in a shaker with 60ml vodka, 10ml fresh lemon juice, 10ml simple syrup, 5ml white balsamic vinegar and two dashes of saline, shaken hard, fine strained into a chilled coupe and finished with black pepper and a cherry tomato on the rim. It is a savoury vodka sour, at about 2.4 UK units. Jimmy Barrat made it for La Petite Maison in Dubai. LPM’s own blog says he gave the restaurant the drink in 2010, its opening year; Difford’s Guide, a secondary source, dates the recipe to 2011. Difford’s also says it was the signature cocktail Barrat made for the 2012 World Class bartenders’ competition. The tomatoes decide it. They should be ripe, kept at room temperature and tasted first: if one is not worth eating on its own, it will not make a good drink.
French Martini
A French Martini is 45ml of vodka, 15ml of raspberry liqueur and 15ml of fresh pineapple juice, shaken very hard with ice for 12 to 15 seconds and double strained into a chilled coupe, where the pineapple settles into a pale foam. No garnish. About 2.0 UK units. The measures are the IBA’s. The longer shake is deliberate. Most shaken drinks want 10 to 12 seconds; this one wants a little more, because fresh pineapple juice foams when it is shaken hard and the foam is the finish. Carton juice gives far less. There is no citrus. Pineapple brings its own acidity, and the raspberry liqueur, usually Chambord, does all the sweetening. Difford’s Guide says it emerged in New York in the late 1980s and reached the menu of Keith McNally’s Pravda in 1996, and it is a Martini in name and glass only.
Cosmopolitan
A Cosmopolitan is 40ml of citrus vodka, 15ml of Cointreau, 15ml of fresh lime juice and 30ml of cranberry juice, shaken hard for 10 to 12 seconds and double strained into a chilled coupe, with an orange twist. About 2.2 UK units. The measures are the IBA’s. The Oxford Companion says the Cosmopolitan has a confused and contested history, that most claims lack supporting evidence, and that the recipe served worldwide was most likely formulated in 1988 by Toby Cecchini at the Odeon in New York, with Absolut Citron, Cointreau, fresh lime and cranberry, after a cruder San Francisco drink of the same name that the San Francisco Chronicle called “a Kamikaze with cranberry juice” in 1987. Cecchini told Punch the same year, 1988. Under the colour it is a sour: vodka, orange liqueur and lime, with cranberry for tint and a little extra acid. Made with fresh lime and served very cold, it is tart and dry, a long way from the sweet pink drink of its reputation.
Where this one sits
Recipe by Jerry Can Spirits · Updated 19 October 2026