Honeydew Cucumber Mint Mojito for Summer

The first warm Saturday of the year does something to a neighborhood. Doors that have been shut all winter prop themselves open. Somebody two houses down fires up a grill before noon. Patrick and I had just enough of a yard in Michigan for a few lawn chairs and a little herb garden along the fence, and the mint in that garden had a habit of taking over everything within reach by the time spring really arrived, which is exactly the kind of problem I like to have.

I started making this mojito as a way to use up some of that mint, and it turned into the drink I make every single year the second it feels like the cold is actually behind us. Honeydew isn’t the melon people reach for first, which is part of why I like it here. It’s quieter than watermelon, a little more floral, and it plays so nicely with cucumber that the two of them together taste like the inside of a greenhouse on a hot day, if that makes any sense at all. Add the mint and a good squeeze of lime and you have something that tastes like the idea of summer before summer has technically arrived.

We’ve served this at more porch get-togethers than I can count, usually in a big glass pitcher so people can help themselves, and I always make a non-alcoholic version alongside it with extra soda water, because somebody always asks. It’s the kind of drink that makes you want to sit a while longer than you planned to.