Those Famous Honey Deuce Melons At The US Open Are Actually Hand-Scooped In The Bronx

If you’ve sipped a Honey Deuce cocktail at the U.S. Open — complete with its signature skewer of honeydew melon “tennis balls” — you might be surprised to learn that those tiny spheres don’t come from a machine at all. They’re hand-scooped, one by one, right here in the Bronx. The iconic cocktail, introduced in 2006, is made with Grey Goose vodka, fresh lemonade, Chambord raspberry liqueur, and topped with three honeydew melon balls designed to look like mini tennis balls. It’s become *the* drink of the Open, outselling even Wimbledon’s famous Pimm’s Cup. Last year alone, fans ordered more than **556,000 Honey Deuces**, bringing in nearly $13 million in sales — making it one of the most profitable cocktails in sports. From California farms to Bronx hands ------------------------------------ The melons themselves come from a single farm in California — King of the West honeydews , prized for their sweetness. But the magic happens at Baldor Specialty Foods in the Bronx, where workers start scooping melons daily at 6 am with nothing more than sharpened melon ballers. So far, no one’s invented an industrial melon baller, which means every single melon ball — more than 2.3 million this year alone — is scooped by hand. Baldor even orders about 800 melon ballers every year , sharpening them on-site so workers can keep up with demand. Once scooped, the fruit is shipped to the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, Queens, where it tops off every Honey Deuce served across the grounds — from Arthur Ashe to the Grandstand. The Honey Deuce has become more than just a cocktail — *it’s a status symbol *. Fans line up for the commemorative cups printed with winners of the tournament, and Instagram is flooded with photos of the pale pink drink garnished with its trio of melon balls. So the next time you raise a Honey Deuce at the U.S. Open, remember: those little green “tennis balls” weren’t just shipped in from somewhere far away — they were scooped by hand in the Bronx before making their way courtside. Source: https://secretnyc.co/honey-deuce-melons-hand-scooped-in-the-bronx/