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Salted Watermelon Paloma. Fresh watermelon juice, Florida’s Natural® orange juice, tequila, lime juice, and a little sparkling water is all you need for this easy, summery cocktail. It’s pretty, refreshing, divinely delicious, and takes only minutes to make!

front on photo of Salted Watermelon Paloma

Hey, hi! Happy cocktail Saturday! It’s been a while since I shared a cocktail Saturday post, so I’m excited to be back today sharing with you this summery watermelon paloma that’s both pretty and delicious.

With the summer days dwindling down, I’m determined to live them out to their fullest. This means plenty of tomatoes, corn, zucchini, berries, stone fruits, and yes, watermelon!

Here’s the deal, when it comes to watermelon, I usually love eating it just as is. It makes for the perfect summer snack that’s cooling, sweet, and so good.

That said, watermelon also makes for a great addition to cocktails, and if you haven’t tried a watermelon cocktail yet, today is the day.

Florida's natural orange juice carton

Enter in this citrus filled watermelon paloma.

It’s quite possibly the easiest and most delicious drink to make. It’s true.

If you’re unfamiliar with the paloma, it’s a traditional Mexican cocktail that consists of a mix of grapefruit juice, silver tequila, lime, and club soda. It’s super simple, but very thirst quenching, and oh so good! It’s also probably my favorite cocktail (even more so than a margarita) for two great reasons…

One, Palomas tend to be much less sweet (which means no sugar hangover the next day).

Two, sparkles! Palomas are always topped off with a little fizz action in the form of sparking water or club soda. I love a fizzy cocktail.

My paloma today uses fresh watermelon juice and swaps grapefruit juice for my favorite orange juice from Florida’s Natural. Not traditional, but so, so good. Florida’s Natural sent me some orange juice to use in this cocktail, and I can tell you that it did not go to waste! Their juice doesn’t have any added sugars (just 100% Florida oranges), which doesn’t add any unnecessary sweetness to this delicious Paloma.

watermelon juice

Here are the details:

To start, you’ll need to make watermelon juice. Don’t worry, all you need is watermelon and a blender. Just blend fresh watermelon and then strain through a mesh strainer. Done. You now have your watermelon juice!

OK, next you’ll need to salt the rim of your cocktail glass. This is very important. I love the salty rim with the sweet watermelon and tangy citrus. It’s an unbeatable pairing.

On to making the Paloma. Just add your fresh watermelon juice, Florida’s Natural Orange Juice, favorite silver tequila, and a little lime juice to a glass filled with ice. Give it a little stir and top with sparkling water. And then make it all pretty any which way you please, I like to garnish with a fresh mint leaf. Then drink up!

Simple and easy as that.

front on photo of pouring Watermelon Paloma into glass

So, what do you guys say? It’s mid-August and we have about a month…ish left in watermelon season. You know what I think? I think we need to be making these palomas every weekend from now until October, because yes, these really are that good. Plus, easy cocktails are always a winner.

Enjoy, and have a great Saturday, filled with salty watermelon palomas!

angled photo of Salted Watermelon Paloma

If you make this Salted Watermelon Paloma, please be sure to leave a comment and/or give this recipe a rating! I love hearing from you guys and always do my best to respond to each and every one of you. And of course, if you do make this drink, don’t forget to also tag me on Instagram so I can see! Looking through the photos of recipes you all have made is my favorite!

Salted Watermelon Paloma

Prep Time 10 minutes
Total Time 10 minutes
Servings: 1 makes drink
Calories Per Serving: 68 kcal

Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.

Ingredients

Instructions

  • 1. Add the watermelon to a blender and pulse until smooth. Strain through a mesh strainer into a glass jar. You should have about 1 cup of watermelon juice. 
    2. Run a lime wedge around the rim of your glass and coat in salt. 
    3. Fill your glass halfway with ice. Add the orange juice, watermelon juice, tequila, and lime juice. Stir to combine and then top with sparkling water. Garnish with fresh mint.
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horizontal photo of Salted Watermelon Paloma

{This post is sponsored by Florida’s Natural. Thank you for supporting the brands that keep Half Baked Harvest cooking!!}

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Comments

  1. Hi, love love your recipes! We are starting a cookbook club and your cookbook is our first! Decided to start make this for the our inaugural event. Any suggestions on expanding the recipe to make it into a pitcher for the group? Thank you!!

    1. Hey Lauren! Try the below measurements for a group. this will serve 4-6. Please let me know if you have any other questions. I hope you love this recipe! Thank you! xTieghan

      8 cups cubed watermelon
      kosher salt
      1 cup Florida’s Natural® Orange Juice
      1 cup fresh watermelon juice
      8 ounces silver tequila
      1/4 cup fresh lime juice
      sparkling water for topping
      fresh mint, for serving

  2. Your watermelon paloma sounds soooo tempting! And I’m super glad that I’ve found the recipe: we were in Mexico in February and my husband had fresh watermelon juice in one of the great restaurants over there. He ordered it but I drank the whole thing. It was so super refreshing! I actually wanted to remake it at home but totally forgot about it! So, your recipe reminded me of this amazing drink. Now I really want to make watermelon juice and want to give your paloma a try!

    Thanks for sharing,
    Eva

    Ginger by Choice I food & lifestyle blog
    http://www.gingerbychoice.de/en/

  3. I’m breastfeeding my 4 month old so I skipped the tequila but it was still delicious! My husband even said “eww watermelon and orange?” but he drank his whole glass!
    Yummy and refreshing!

  4. 5 stars
    Never tried a Paloma before, but this sounds really good (I also always love a sparkling cocktail!) so will definitely try it!

  5. Love how easy it is to make watermelon juice! Will definitely be trying this; the perfect refreshing summer cocktail!