Minty Strawberry Watermelon Daiquiris

I never knew a blender could be so satisfying!!! < This is a triple exclamation mark occasion.

My $20 no-name blender was a pretty bad ass appliance. It was a champ; it lasted about a decade and got me through my early cooking years with little to no problems. It had 10 buttons labelled with fancy sounding commands like puree, grate, and aerate, but really it only did one thing: ice chop until you smell the burning motor. It had a set of rickety blades that sort of blended ice and kind of blended spinach.

I thought it was normal to have to sip around big chunks of ice or chew through gobs of spinach in my green smoothies.

Oh man, how I was wrong.

I never thought I’d be the type of person to shell out an abnormally big chunk of change on a simple blender, because, well, let’s face it, it’s a blender. It’s not going to change the world or help pay my mortgage. It’s sole purpose is to blend crap up. It wasn’t until I started using my blender semi-regularly that I was tempted with the idea of upgrading.

After a LOT of deliberating, I splurged and bought a high-quality, high-powered blender. It may not have changed the world, but it certainly changed my world.

I have never been so in love with a kitchen tool. This blender is right on par with my Kitchen-Aid stand mixer; it does everything, it make my life so much easier, and I use it every day. 

Soups, smoothies, sauces, iced drinks… you name it. The first time I blended ice, it took about 10 seconds. I pressed the button, and just like that I had crushed ice. No more setting my blender on high and letting it toss the ice for a whole 8 minutes. The first time I used it, I actually squealed in amazement. Even Matt, who’s pretty unenthused when it comes to stuff like this, said it’s an “amazing machine”. We tossed everything we could think of into the thing that whole afternoon, just to see what it could do.

I feel like there’s a whole new food world waiting out there for me, and I can’t wait to start experimenting!

These delicious daiquiris are a product of playing around with my new blender. Juicy watermelon, frozen strawberries, and a handful of mint get whipped together with ice and booze (optional, but recommended) for a refreshing summer sipper. The watermelon packs a subtle but surprising punch of flavour!

If you like, try using all watermelon instead of strawberries. I would recommend freezing half of the watermelon first, as the frozen fruits helps act as ice to create the perfect drink without watering it down with just more ice.

I’ve also omitted sugar from the recipe. I find the fruit is a great natural sweetener, but if you feel it’s a bit too tart, feel free to add some in!

Taste test to your liking – add more rum, more mint, some sugar – that’s the fun part! And oh, make a double batch, because these things disappear FAST.