Cantaloupe Basil Float – Fresh cantaloupe is blended with basil, Riesling wine, and club soda and then poured over lemon sorbet

Four days into July and I’ve already got two boozy frozen treats for you. How did you get so lucky??

Earlier this week, I kicked off National Ice Cream Month with this sangria sorbet. Now, I’ve got a new frozen treat that I’ve yet to feature on this blog – an ice cream float. But not just any ice cream float…it’s a boozy one!!

Check out my Cantaloupe Basil Float!

How is this float made

An ice cream float is historically made with vanilla ice cream topped with a soda. It serves as the inspiration for today’s post but the ingredients are very much different. 

In this recipe, the float is made with lemon sorbet topped with a homemade cantaloupe bail soda and Riesling wine. The fruit-based flavors make this perfect to drink during the incredibly hot summer days. And it’s much easier to make than you think!

Homemade Cantaloupe Basil Soda

To make this soda, first you have to chill some fresh cantaloupe. Once it’s chilled, you add it to a blender with torn basil leaves, club soda, and your favorite Riesling wine. Riesling is a wine that is on the sweet end of the spectrum. It works super well in this drink because it adds a hint of flavor without overpowering the other ingredients. 

Assembling the Float

Once the soda is made, you’re ready to assemble the floats! First, scoop lemon sorbet into each glass. Then, pour the soda over the sorbet and voila – you have a float! Finish off the float with a garnish of your choosing. I used a chunk of cantaloupe and a basil leaf and placed them on a skewer. 

Tips & Tricks

As always, here are a couple tips to ensure you get this recipe exactly right:

1. It’s important that the soda ingredients are kept cold so that they don’t melt down the sorbet in the float too quickly. At the very least, the cantaloupe needs to be refrigerated. But you can always use the freezer to speed up this process. 
2. If you’d like to make this drink ahead of time, you should make the soda mixture without adding the soda. As you know, the soda will lose carbonation over time. Therefore, if you make it ahead of time, it will go flat before you have the chance to enjoy the float. As such, make the mixture ahead of time, refrigerate it until time to serve, and then add in the soda before serving.  

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More drinks you’ll love:

Sangria Sorbet

Peach Riesling Sorbet

Wine Milkshakes