EVERY SPRING, Jared Walton, director of national accounts for Baldor Specialty Foods, makes an important phone call to Turlock Fruit Company in California. About six months before players and fans descend upon the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens, New York, it's time to calculate how many honeydew melons Turlock must plant for the upcoming US Open. The melons, cut and scooped into marble-sized balls (about 1.57 inches in diameter) and skewered three across, garnish the tournament's ubiquitous signature cocktail: the Honey Deuce.
In 2025, fans consumed 738,459 Honey Deuces, generating more than $17 million in sales. This year, 8,000 cases of honeydew melons -- enough to fill eight semi-trucks -- will make the three- to four-day journey from California to New York. "They'll be on the road later today or tomorrow morning," Walton says on a mid-August morning.