Fire up your blender.

“We dabble in melons from time to time,” chef and farm founder Emma Hearst writes in her cookbook Flavors from the Farm: Vegetable-Forward Food to Share. And when her farm does enjoy this particularly resplendent crop, it’s melon-colada time.

What is a melon-colada, you ask? It’s a milder version of its pineapple-laden cousin that also gets a kick from rum and lime juice; of course, the bite is soothed by luscious cream of coconut. While you can theoretically play around with the melon varieties you use in this cocktail, Hearst recommends a particular pick: “Cantaloupe varieties work best in this recipe, as they tend to add a creamier consistency than the more water-heavy types, like honeydew or watermelon.”

If you’re a pro at choosing cantaloupes, you’ll probably breeze right through the produce aisle without any fuss. But if you’re not as confident with your melon-selection abilities, Hearst has some guidance: “Although you can never quite tell what will be inside all of those shifty-eyed melons until you crack them open, here are a couple of tips to help identify a good one: First, give them a good squeeze. Your fingers should not find soft spots on the rind. Then give their butts a sniff! They should smell sweet and fragrant, with no hint of compost.”

Now that you’re armed with this stellar advice, you’ll be whipping up melon-coladas all summer long.

Melon-Colada

Serves 8–10

Ingredients

About 4 lb cantaloupe-style melon, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1–2-inch cubes, plus cold melon wedges for garnish
12 oz Coco López cream of coconut
10 oz white rum
4 oz coconut milk
4 oz fresh lime juice, plus lime wedges for garnish
Kosher salt
Dark rum, for float (about 1/2 oz per cocktail)
Maldon salt and chile powder, for garnish
16–20 Cocktail Sour Cherries (page 43), for garnish (optional)

Instructions

Lay the melon pieces in a single layer in a large ziplock bag or on a sheet pan and place in the freezer until frozen, about 2 hours.
Once the melon pieces are frozen, it’s time to get cocktail crazy! Divvy up the ingredients — melon, cream of coconut, white rum, coconut milk, and lime juice — into two batches for the best result. Put one batch into a blender, add a tiny pinch of kosher salt, and blast the blender on high while in a swimsuit with a pool of water in sight.
Once you have a frozen, creamy, and smooth texture, pour it into tall chilled glasses. Hold a barspoon upside down over the top of each drink and slowly pour dark rum over the spoon, layering it on top. Serve the first round to the nearest lucky few, then repeat.
To make a larger batch in advance, you can blend the two batches and put them in the freezer. Just before serving, return each batch to the blender and blend again, then pour into glasses, top with the dark rum float, and serve to your eagerly awaiting guests.
I love to garnish this cocktail with an icy-cold melon wedge sprinkled with a little Maldon salt and a hit of our heirloom chile powder for a kick. A lime wedge on the side is a must, and if you’re feeling extra fancy, finish with a couple of homemade cocktail cherries.