Recipe: Halloween Fizzy Blood aka Watermelon Refresher

The heat has hit Ahmedabad again, now that the monsoons seem to have passed us by and I'm back to wanting light meals and refreshing drinks.

This is one of my favourites, its very easy to put together and if you want to serve it in a fancy manner for friends/guests, just muddle some lemon chunks and mint leaves at the bottom of the glass before mixing the drink.

While I've given approximate quantities here, its completely dependent on your taste buds, whether you prefer a stronger flavour of watermelon or lemon and how sweet you actually want it.

Ingredients:
2 tbsp Monin Watermelon syrup
60ml 7up
soda (sparkling water) to top up.
lemon wedges & mint leaves (optional)

Method:
Muddle together the lemon wedges and mint leaves at the bottom of glass if using.
Add the watermelon syrup to the glass, then add the 7up.
Top up with soda.
Check the taste. If its too sweet for you add more soda. If its not sweet enough add more 7up or watermelon syrup if you want a stronger flavour.

Kim's Halloween / Party Tips:
1. If you are having a Halloween party, this is a great non alcoholic drink that you can serve as fizzy blood with its dark red colour.

2. And for an even gorier drink, you can put in a few black jelly / licorice worms into a punch bowl, the fizz will make the worms wiggle around in the bowl.

3. If you are making it for adults and want an alcoholic version then vodka or white rum will go well with these flavours.

Note:
Monin syrups may seem expensive, when you look at the bigger bottles, but they are quite concentrated and hence last quite long.

The only syrup of theirs that I haven't liked, is the mojito mix because the sugar completely overpowers the flavour of lime and mint. You might as well use a homemade sugar syrup.