Chilli, Watermelon & Lime Tequila Granita
Winter is starting to feel kinda…well, wintry so I need a bit of a spicy smack in the face to heat me up and save me from the grey-sky gloom! Which can mean only one thing: tequila! Today’s cocktail is a watermelon, lime, chilli and tequila granita. One word to the wise - don’t do what I did and brazenly throw in THE ENTIRE CHILLI without taste-testing to see how hot it is. No one needs that much of a smack in the face.
If you’re looking for a tune to play that pairs perfectly with today’s cocktail, I recommend you try this little ditty from one of my all time favourite bands, Little Joy. With the same infuriating genius as Harper Lee (who wrote only one book: To Kill A Mockingbird) and John Cleese (who made 12 episodes of Fawlty Towers then just…stopped??), they’ve left me eternally frustrated by only ever making one album. And it’s beautiful and it makes me think of some little island with bendy palm trees and a big orange sun hanging in the sky and tiny waves lapping unobtrusively against gentle soft-sand shorelines, where there’s no such thing as a Real Job or winter or the End of the Financial Year or sun damage and everything smells like coconuts and salt water. This cocktail belongs there. Pour yourself a tall, bright glass and let it zip you away.
Chilli, Watermelon & Lime Tequila Granita
Makes 1 cocktail
Ingredients
1/2 cup of ice
Juice of 1 lime (plus a slice of lime to garnish)
1 cup of cubed watermelon
1 1/2 tsp castor sugar
1 shot of tequila
1 long red chilli (to taste!! careful now!)
A sprig of mint (to garnish)
Method
Chill the watermelon and tequila before you start.
Put all ingredients apart from the chilli in a blender and blend until a slighty-slushy-icy-granita forms.
(If you are feeling brave you can blend a little of the chilli into the cocktail as well, but make SURE you’ve tasted it first in case it’s super hot. If it’s quite mild, a little chilli in the cocktail mix is fabulous!)
Pour into a cocktail glass and garnish with some slices of the red chilli, a slice of lime and a sprig of mint. Drink while frosty and icy!
