Mezcal & Mango & Tonic

Add frozen fruit to your something & tonic for a fun, summery kick.

Now that you’ve made a superior Gin & Tonic — sorry, a Gin & Tonic & Lime — let’s play around with the format. 

In some ways the format doesn’t really need improvement: Gin. Tonic. The right ratio. A bit of muddled lime. A glass full of crushed ice. That’s a perfect lazy summer afternoon.

But if, for example, you’ve never been much of a gin drinker, or you just want to go deeper on this class of drink, there are several ways you can, er, fruitfully experiment. 

The first is to add modifiers — fruit flavors, in particular, go well with the bite of gin and the gently bitter bubbles of tonic water. You can incorporate fruit modifiers into your drink any number of ways, from adding fruit liqueur to the mix to swapping out the lime for fresh or frozen fruit. 

The second is to switch out the booze: Gin & Tonic is the cocktail you’ve all heard of. But Something & Tonic — where “Something” is pretty much any decent bottle of liquor — tends to work quite well too. 

In this week, we’ll do both.

We’ll start by discussing a frozen-watermelon-accented version of the Gin & Tonic.

Then we’ll use the same technique to make a Mezcal & Mango & Tonic using chunks of frozen fruit. It’s absurdly easy and incredibly tasty, with a hint of smoke and a stone-fruit zip. It will keep you smiling all summer long.

And then, at the end, we’ll look at ways you can adapt this concept to your own favorite spirit and fruit combo. 

A Custom-Cut Pillar of Frozen Watermelon

Yes, really. This all started with a giant, frozen rod of custom-cut watermelon.