How to Make the US Open’s Signature “Honey Deuce” Cocktail at Home
If there’s one thing the American tennis public loves, it’s a kitschy themed cocktail. The US Open has an “official drink” and it’s not Gatorade, it’s Honey Deuce. If you can’t make it to the match or just want to avoid having to say that awkward name in public, you can easily make this cocktail at home.
For reference: The US Open is one of four Grand Slam tennis tournaments held in Queens, New York. Tens of thousands of fans come to watch the matches, and this fruity smoothie sells for $23 each at The Open. He is expected to earn approximately $10 million over the course of the nearly two-week tennis tournament.
The “official” drink is made with Gray Goose vodka, lemonade and raspberry liqueur. To get the pun right, you must add melons disguised as tennis balls as a garnish. Otherwise, it’s just a raspberry-spiced lemonade that only tennis haters drink. (As you can see, I don’t have a melon ball, but I did use melon pieces, so you can decide how I feel about the tennis.)
How to make a Honey Deuce (or fake it)
The recipe and method are extremely simple. Gray Goose doesn’t even ask you to make your own lemonade, it only specifies that it must be “fresh.” So I think a freshly opened bottle of Simply Lemonade is fine if you don’t have lemons or sugar on hand.
In the meantime, you can make this smoothie with the ingredients listed on the Gray Goose website, or do what I did and work with what you can get. The biggest problem I had with this recipe was finding raspberry liqueur. Oddly enough, raspberries aren’t popular in small liquor stores near me, but cherries are, so that’s what I chose. If you can’t find raspberry liqueur but want the taste of Honey Deuce, you can either make your own and drink it in two weeks , or heat raspberry jam with a little water in a saucepan and then pour it in. hot liquid through a sieve and use it.
There’s little not to like about fruit lemonade, especially in the summer. I enjoyed every mouthful of the cherry honey deuce (the melon appetizer was a huge bonus). Bright, not aggressively alcoholic taste and not too sweet. When the day comes that I come across a bottle of raspberry liqueur, I’ll try again. At the very least, this cocktail is a great excuse to grab some of your leftover summer honeydew before the end of September blows it away.
Recipe for Honey Deuce (ish)
Ingredients:
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3 ounces lemonade
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1 ¼ ounces vodka
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½ ounce raspberry (or cherry) liqueur
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Honey melon slices for decoration
1. Fill a highball glass with ice and pour vodka and lemonade into it.
2. Add fruit liqueur and stir. For garnish, add a couple of pieces of melon or thread a few melon balls onto a skewer.