Lemon Mint Cantaloupe Drink, 2 Ways

Lemon Mint Cantaloupe Drink

Our CSA is bringing us melons!  Lovely lovely melons!  As a reward for our hard work out on the farm, they’ve gifted us with extra melons.  I’ll take payment in the form of food any day, especially good organic produce like this.  While I know the boys can easily eat up all the melon, it’s still a lot of sugar.  Too much fruit can still be too much sugar.  Fermenting it like this will help reduce the amount of sugar significantly.  And it still tastes awesome!

Lemon Mint Cantaloupe Drink

I made mine in a Fido because I did want the carbonation to build to make it a fizzy drink.  I made sure to burp it occasionally just in case because my jar has a very tight lid.  There was A LOT of pressure in there. Yikes!  Be careful to only ferment it for 24-48 hrs, especially if this is meant for children since alcohol can form pretty quickly with the high sugar content.  Like most fruit ferments, this does not store long.  You’ll want to drink it within a couple weeks or it will go to alcohol.  But is that really such a bad thing?

Because my goal was a less sugary drink, this beverage is not a sugary drink.  What I mean is, don’t expect it to taste as sweet as a fresh cantaloupe because it won’t.  Lots of the sugar has been eaten away during fermentation which was my goal.  It still makes for a very refreshing drink.  It will continue to ferment slower in the fridge so if it is too sweet for you after 1-2 days, give it a few more days in the fridge.

For a sweeter drink with no salt, try the second option using water kefir.

Lactofermented Lemon Mint Cantaloupe Drink

• 1 cantaloupe (about 5 cups of fruit), seeded, peeled and cut into large chunks
• 5 cups filtered water
• 8 gms of salt
• 1 large sprig of fresh mint
• Juice and zest from one organic lemon