Inspired by food blogger David Lebovitz, with his recipe for a strawberry-infused vodka, I decided to give it a go myself substituting with the fragrant Charentais melon.

The recipe couldn’t be simpler: In a large jar place chunks of fragrant melon flesh (1 small melon), cover with 1 bottle (750ml) of vodka. Cover and store in a cool, dark place for around 4 days (depending on the ripeness and flavour of the fruit this may need an extra couple more days).

Strain through a cheesecloth, discard the fruit (most of its flavour will have been transferred to the vodka) and pour back into the vodka bottle.

Cocktails recipe using vodka melon will appear in upcoming diary entries.

Note: you can use a relatively inexpensive vodka for this recipe as the fruit will be doing all the work to add the flavour.