Grapefruit Juice in Cocktails

[Chris Amirault]

Very good white grapefruit from Florida in the stores here right now, so I've been using them for cocktails. Tonight I broke out the Carson City Cocktail I mentioned above, but with darker rums, which made for a tastier play with the big yellows:

1 amber rum (Cruzan)

1/2 blackstrap rum (Cruzan)

3/4 white grapefruit

3/4 lime

1/2 1:1 demerara syrup (adjust after tasting if needed)

1 hefty dash Angostura bitters

[JAZ]

Although grapefruit aren't in season right now and all I can usually find are pink grapefruits, they have been good lately, so I've been using the juice in cocktails.

My latest version of a Nevada-inspired cocktail:

1 oz. white rum (Flor de Cana)

1 oz. amber rum (Appleton 12-year)

1 oz. grapefruit juice

.5 oz. lime juice

.25 oz simple syrup

Heavy dash Angostura

I like it more than the original.

[Kent Wang]

I wonder if it's because grapefruit is one of the few typical cocktail ingredients that's high in glutatmates and thus provides a hint of umami.

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That's interesting that you mention that because I've always thought that Ruby Red grapefruit (proud export of Texas) tasted salty to me. I couldn't find anything on Google to corroborate this, but a search for grapefruit and glutamate yields one guy that says:

You can look it up yourself in several online nutritional analysis

databases.

Using the Australia/NZ one at http://www.foodstandards.gov.au, I get

99mg/100g for grapefruit, against 3043mg/100g for walnuts, 2182mg/100g

for pearl barley, 2858mg/100g for mixed grain bread and 10655mg/100g

for powdered gelatin - i.e. you'd need to eat about 30 grapefruit to

equal the glutamate load of a sandwich.

[FireAarro]

I like to make my palomas with fresh GF juice instead of GF soda. I just add a bit of simple and club soda instead. I would also like to take this moment to sing aloud the praises of the grapefruit twist. Try one in a gin martini or a negroni. Often one needn't even drop it in one is so aromatic. I also love infusing booze with grapefruit zest. Especially aperol and campari. Also can use grapefruit juice in punch.

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I gotta second this. Generous measure of tequila, juice of about half a lime and one ruby grapefruit, a teaspoon of sugar and a splash of soda, all over cracked ice. It's nigh impossible to find grapefruit soda in Melbourne but I can't imagine preferring it to the fresh juice. One of my favourite drinks at the moment, quite dry and very refershing, and I'll only love it more when summer rolls round.

I also tried the Whoa Nellie! recently, as posted on cocktailnerd's blog. This basically ended up tasting like a very interesting whiskey sour.

Whoa, Nellie!

1.25oz Rye Whiskey (Sazerac or the like)

.75oz Dark Rum (Coruba or Myer’s)

.75oz Cointreau

.5oz Grapefruit juice

.5oz Lemon juice

.5oz Simple syrup

[FrogPrincesse]

I got a couple of oro blanco grapefruits in my CSA so I am using them to make cocktails.

First I tried the Nevada.

I used the ratios from the Bartender's Choice app:

1.5 oz white rum (I used Flor de Cana)

1 oz grapefruit

0.5 oz lime juice

0.5 oz simple syrup

2 dashes Angostura bitters.

What a beautiful drink. Very delicate, subtle, intriguing, as other people have noted upthread.

Then yesterday I tried the Siesta that was also mentioned in this thread, but with the ratios from PDT:

2 oz tequila

0.5 oz Campari

0.5 oz lime juice

0.5 oz grapefruit juice

0.5 oz simple syrup

grapefruit twist

I liked it a lot. It reminded me of the Jasmine but much more subtle.

[FrogPrincesse]

For the sake of completeness, here are a few other drinks I have made with grapefruit recently, from other threads.

In the PDT cocktail book there are quite a few good grapefruit cocktails. I am listing three that I have tried so far.

Paddington: white rum, lillet, grapefruit juice, lemon juice, bonne maman marmalade, absinthe rinse

Brown Derby: bourbon, grapefruit juice, honey syrup

Edgewood: Plymouth gin, grapefruit juice, Punt e Mes, Lillet blanc, kosher salt

Then there is the excellent Mother's Ruin Punch by Philip Ward: sparkling wine, gin, sweet vermouth, grapefruit, lemon.

It's fresh and crisp - a perfect summer punch.

Finally, there are quite a few tiki drinks that call for grapefruit (including one of the most famous, the Zombie).

The Ancient Mariner from Beachbum Berry Remixed is a fine example: lime, grapefruit, pimento liqueur, Demerara & Jamaican rums.

[janeer]

Funny, I just wrote a blog post on this. I love the Swiss Mist from the PDT

[lesliec]

I discovered one in one of our books this week called a Campari Crush. 30ml each gin and Campari poured over lots of ice in a highball glass, segment of lime squeezed and dropped in then topped up with grapefruit juice.

We used a shorter glass, so the proportion of grapefruit was lower. The Campari was clearly there, as is its wont, and we felt we wouldn't want to change the mix to add more grapefruit. Definitely one to do again (and I did, last night!).

[FrogPrincesse]

Funny, I just wrote a blog post on this. I love the Swiss Mist from the PDT

Jane,

The Swiss Mist sounds great. I was going to make one the other night but then realized I had run out of lemons. It's been on my list of cocktails to try for a while now, thanks for reminding me!

[teapot]

I adore grapefruit juice cocktails (the Mother's Ruin Punch looks so refreshing). One of my favorite combinations is: grapefruit juice, gin, a splash of Pernod, served on the rocks. I haven't given it a name -- any nominations?

[EvergreenDan]

One of my favorite combinations is: grapefruit juice, gin, a splash of Pernod, served on the rocks. I haven't given it a name -- any nominations?

Sound wonderful. Quantities? Something like:

2oz gin

1oz grapefruit juice

1 tsp Pernod

Shake, strain, down, rocks. Garnish with a lemon twist?

So it's basically a Greyhound, but with English gin. Maybe call it Springer Spaniel? Or just go for the speed reference with Wippet.

[FrogPrincesse]

It's fun to see what everyone is doing with grapefruit.

We had another grapefruit cocktail last night: the Brown Derby (via Bartender's Choice).

2 oz bourbon

1 oz grapefruit juice

0.5 oz honey syrup

For me the bourbon was very prominent in the drink, with the grapefruit and honey highlighting it. It was a balance of sweet and sour, on the boozy size (but my husband didn't think so). A very pleasant sipping drink.

[Markm]

At Booker and Dax in NY the other night, they clarify the grapefruit juice (using a centrifuge) and use it in their Gin and Juice. It was quite exceptional.

[FrogPrincesse]

One of the great classic grapefruit cocktails is of course the Hemingway Daiquiri. Substitute lemon for lime, and gin for rum, and you get The Sands, a cocktail created at Milk & Honey and currently on the menu at the Varnish in LA, a sister bar of Milk & Honey where I first heard about this cocktail.

Delicious. I used an oro blanco grapefruit which is very fragrant and lacks bitterness.

[mkayahara]

I used an oro blanco grapefruit which is very fragrant and lacks bitterness.

You could probably fix that with a dash of grapefruit bitters.

[FrogPrincesse]

I used an oro blanco grapefruit which is very fragrant and lacks bitterness.

You could probably fix that with a dash of grapefruit bitters.

Of course.

In these cocktails though, I think what I appreciate the most is being able to taste the delicate floral flavor of the grapefruit, rather than the strong bitterness typically associated with grapefruit.