Prepare the Acclaimed "Honey Deuce" Cocktail of the US Open in Your Own Home
If there's one thing that a fancy American tennis crowd enjoys, it's a cheesy themed booze. The U.S. Open has an "official drink," and it's not Gatorade—it's the Honey Dude. If you can't make it over to see a match, or you simply want to save not saying the awkward name in public, you can easily make this cocktail at home.
For a bit of backstory, the U.S. Open is one of the four major tennis tournaments and it takes place in Queens, NY. Tons of folks head over to watch the matches, and selling at The Open, for $23 each, is this fruity cocktail. It's expected to rake in about $10 million over the course of the nearly two-week-long tennis event.
The "official" drink is made with Grey Goose vodka, lemonade, and raspberry liqueur. To make it truly kitschy, you must add honeydew melon pretending to be tennis balls as a garnish. Otherwise, it's just a raspberry-flavored, boozy lemonade, and only tennis haters drink that. (As you can see, I don't have a melon baller, but I did use honeydew melon chunks, so you can guess how I feel about tennis.)
How to make the Honey Dude (or fake it)
The recipe and method are dead simple. Grey Goose doesn't even ask that you make the lemonade yourself—they just say it should be "fresh." So I believe that a freshly opened bottle of Simply Lemonade will do the trick if you don't have lemons and sugar on hand.
To the same point, you can make this cocktail with the exact ingredients listed on Grey Goose's website, or do what I did—work with what you have. The biggest issue I had with this recipe was finding raspberry liqueur. Strangely, raspberry isn't popular in the small liquor stores near me, but cherry is, so that's what I used. If you can't find raspberry liqueur, but you must have the Honey Dude flavor experience, you can either make your own and wait two weeks, or you can heat raspberry jam with a bit of water in a pot, then pour the hot liquid through a sieve and use that.
There's little not to like about a fruity lemonade, especially in summer. I enjoyed every sip of my cherry "honey Dude" (the melon snack is a huge bonus). It's bright, not aggressively boozy tasting, and not too sweet. When the day comes that I run into a bottle of raspberry liqueur, I'll give it another try. If nothing else, this cocktail is a great excuse to buy the last of summer's honeydew before late September sweeps it away.
Honey Dude(ish) Recipe
Ingredients:
- 3 ounces lemonade
- 1 1/4 ounce vodka
- 1/2 ounce raspberry (or cherry) liqueur
- Honeydew melon chunks for garnish
- Fill a highball glass with ice and pour the vodka and lemonade into it.
- Add the fruity liqueur and stir. Drop in a couple chunks of honeydew melon or skewer a few melon balls as a garnish.
This Honey Dude cocktail is a popular food-drink choice among tennis fans at the U.S. Open, inspired by its "official drink." The recipe calls for Grey Goose vodka, lemonade, and raspberry (or cherry) liqueur, served over ice and garnished with honeydew melon chunks to resemble tennis balls.
If you can't find raspberry liqueur, you can create a substitute by heating raspberry jam with water and straining it. The result is a refreshing, slightly boozy, and not overly sweet lemonade-based drink, perfect for summer enjoyment.
