Watermelon Vodka Highballs

Cool and refreshing, Watermelon Vodka Highballs are a summertime favorite year round. This recipe offers a sugar-free version, plus it’s low in calories. Pulling from Smirnoff’s Zero Sugar line, we mix their Watermelon Mint flavor with a diet soda as the mixer. Together, they keep the sugar out of your highball glass. Drink it sugar-free, or add some watermelon ice cubes, which have a trace of sugar, but let’s face it, they look super cool.

Enjoy the refreshing watermelon and mint flavored vodka with the bright citrus notes of a Diet Sprite in this invigorating highball. All the fun of vodka is in this highball, which is a quick and easy, no fuss cocktail. Watermelon Vodka Highballs have only 2 ingredients unless you add in the cool watermelon ice cubes. 

That’s the kind of shopping list I like, only 2 items. I don’t like to over-complicate things if I don’t have to. 

Watermelon Ice Cubes

Before you grab your highball glass from the cupboard, if you want to use watermelon ice cubes, you need to make them first.

Cut some watermelon slices about 1″ – 2″ thick. Remove the rind, then cut the slice into squares. You should end up with lots of little cubes. 

Place the watermelon cubes on a plate where they are NOT touching each other. Cover them with some plastic wrap and pop them into the freezer for about 2 hours. 

If you’re in a hurry for your watermelon ice cubes, and who isn’t, you can freeze them slightly faster by not covering them. The clear wrap insulates them, so they freeze faster without the wrap. They will look a little more frosted than if they had been covered, but the frost goes away as soon as they get wet from the soda. 

I was pleasantly surprised how long the watermelon ice cubes stayed frozen. Then again, they are 92% water, so makes sense.

As shown above, the top picture shows the cubes wrapped, the bottom cubes were not. There’s a little ice that forms on them, but that disappears as soon as you put them in the drink. 

Also, I had fun cutting some into a French Fry shape. Just make sure you don’t cut them longer than your glass is tall.

What is a highball anyway?

A highball is a drink with an alcoholic base spirit mixed with a larger portion non-alcoholic mixer. Typical non-alcoholic mixers would include water, soda, juice, etc.

In addition, these drinks are usually served in a highball glass. That would be a tumbler that holds between 8 and 12 fluid ounces. It’s taller than an Old Fashioned glass, and shorter and wider than a Collins glass.

More useless information, it’s believed they called them “tumblers” because the glasses had pointed or rounded bottoms and would “tumble” if not held onto. Guess that’s one way of not getting glass rings on your wooden tables. 

Let’s make a Watermelon Vodka Highball.

Holding a few mint leaves in your hand, smack them with your other hand to release the flavors. Drop them into your highball glass with which ever ice cubes your prefer (water or watermelon). 

Pour in your shot of vodka (1 oz.) followed by 5 oz. (or to the top of the glass) of Diet Sprite. Give it a stir. Garnish with a mint spring, a slice of watermelon, or a lime wedge. Yummy! I’ll take 2, please. 

For another low-calorie, sugar-free highball, check out my Cucumber Mint Highballs recipe. It’s just as cool and refreshing. 

You don’t have to lean to the healthier side of eating to enjoy the following recipes, but they’re also low in calories. Check them out:

• Tilapia and Asparagus Foil Packets 
• Grilled Lemon Shrimp and Veggie Kabobs
• Skinny Dark Chocolate Cake

Have a beautiful day and thanks for stopping by and making it to the end of my blog. Here’s a couple more pics to choose from if you haven’t already pinned one to your Pinterest Board. 

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