Bar Cart: Cîroc Honey Melon 

Gone are the days of kitschy, cloying, flavoured vodkas. The inglorious drinking fad of the 1990s has entered its elegant era, and nowadays brands are releasing refreshingly natural flavoured vodkas made for the ubiquitous drink of the moment: vodka sodas. With the push toward low-calorie, easy-drinking beverages, the flavoured vodka world has reinvented itself. Brands like Cîroc, the preferred vodka of hip-hop musicians, have successfully made vodka fun with flavour, adding verve to the otherwise mundane spirit.

Cîroc Honey Melon, the new limited edition flavour from the French distillery, is a bold new flavour that is made from the same five-times-distilled grape vodka the brand became famous for. This summertime exclusive offering is Cîroc’s 16th flavour, and those 15 bottles of practice make perfect when it comes to this one. While it lives up to the brand’s bold, pop-cultural image (Cîroc investor Sean “Diddy” Combs introduced the flavour himself earlier this year), Cîroc Honey Melon makes its mark thanks to its subtle flavour.

Infused with honey, melon, and other natural flavours, Cîroc Honey Melon is made for summertime spritzes, blanks, and even martinis. On the nose, the interplay between the two dominant flavours lends this vodka a highly aromatic floral quality that, perhaps unsurprisingly, is akin to the sweet vegetative scent of blooming honeysuckle. On the palate, the honey shines through, gently lifting the melon, while a fair amount of welcome alcohol reminds drinkers that this remains a vodka—a really fun one.