Hi, Friends of Cocktails! Who doesn’t love grapefruits?! Today we’ll take a look at 5 different ways you can use grapefruit - fresh juice, super juice, soda, oleo saccharum, grapefruitcello. We’ll then use those in 5 different pink grapefruit cocktails using rum, gin, pisco, mezcal, and tequila. There’s something for everybody!
Before you make grapefruit cocktails though, we need to highlight something mentioned in the second Dangerous Ingredients post. Grapefruits can alter the effectiveness of medications by delaying, decreasing, or enhancing absorption of certain drugs, including cholesterol and heart medications. Check with your doctor if you're ever in doubt.
Now, assuming you already have the ingredients needed, all you’ll need for today’s cocktails are some quality bar tools. I’ve collected mine throughout the years, but if you are looking to upgrade your tools A Bar Above is a great place to get you started. All my US Friends of Cocktail can get a 10% discount on their website with the code COCKTAILTIME10 at checkout.
Once you have that as well, you’re ready to basically make any of these five cocktails. I’ll start with the modern classic, Tommy’s Margarita–made even more modern with the use of Grapefruit Super Juice. It’s Cocktail Time!
Tommy’s Super Grapefruit Margarita
● 60mL · 2oz Reposado Tequila
● 30mL · 1oz Grapefruit Super Juice
● 22.5mL · 0.75oz Agave Syrup
● 7.5mL · 0.25oz Campari
● 1 dash 20% Saline Solution
● Salt Rim Garnish
This will be a shaken cocktail, and as always I like to chill the shaker first, then add the ingredients. Now add in plenty of ice and shake hard to mix, chill and dilute Tommy’s Super Grapefruit Margarita. Double strain into a low tumbler glass over fresh ice, and I think salt on one side of the glass is enough of a garnish for this one, but you can add a grapefruit wedge if you like.
Our first cocktail is bitter, sweet, and refreshing, and if it got you thinking about a last minute submission to the Cointreau 2025 Margarita Challenge, where you’ll use all the parts of a grapefruit, you’re in luck! You still have time until the 28th of February to submit your recipe. And don't forget you’ll need to use Cointreau, so this wouldn’t cut it. Good luck and I’ll see you in France!
Next up, let’s go to Hollywood. I found this recipe on Difford’s guide, but I changed the ratios slightly. To make it you’ll need rum, pink grapefruit juice, grenadine, saline solution, and egg white.
Hollywood
● 45mL · 1.5oz Diplomatico Planas
● 45mL · 1.5oz Grapefruit Juice
● 15mL · 0.5oz Liber & Co. Real Grenadine
● 7.5mL · 0.25oz Egg White
● 2 drops 20% Saline Solution
● Grapefruit Peel Coin
Into a chilled shaker I’m first adding our clear rum, so the color will come from our other ingredients. Speaking of, let’s add the grapefruit juice and Liber&Co.’s Real Grenadine next. This is made with fresh-pressed California pomegranates, it has natural color, great texture thanks to gum arabic, a nice aroma from orange blossom water, plus these new bottles are stunning, if you ask me.
Another thing I’ll always say is that you should add saline solution to boost the flavors of your cocktails, and lastly I’ll crack an egg into a separate shaker tin, separating the egg white and yolk with a hawthorne strainer and giving the egg white a quick pulse with a milk frother to make it easier to measure out–but you can also use Super Foam, for a vegan alternative.
Once you add that you could do a dry shake, or a reverse dry shake, but I think a frother does a fine job with that as well, with less possibility of making a mess. Once the egg white is fully emulsified it’s time to add the ice and shake hard to chill and dilute all of the ingredients. Double strain into a chilled coupe glass and garnish with a small circle of a grapefruit peel, after you express the essential oils over the top, of course.
A fruity, tropical and silky cocktail. But next let’s make a milk punch, which is traditionally made with oleo saccharum. I won’t go into details now, but you know the jist of it–organic peels, oils, sugar, I also added a little water at the end, and boom, and intensely grapefruit flavored syrup.
Grapefruit Milk Punch
● 30mL · 1oz Pisco Barsol
● 30mL · 1oz Diplomatico Planas
● 30mL · 1oz Lemon Juice
● 22.5mL · 0.75oz Grapefruit Oleo Saccharum
● 15mL · 0.5oz Pineapple Juice
● 45mL · 1.5oz Pink Peppercorn Tea
● 2 drops 20% Saline Solution
● Beet Juice Drops (optional)
● 30mL · 1oz Warm Milk
● Grapefruit Slice Garnish
We’ll first make pink peppercorn tea by covering 6 grams of pink peppercorns with 200mL of boiling hot water and leave it to steep for 5 minutes, strain and that’s it. Next we just need to combine the ingredients, except for the milk, and if you want the drink to be pink like grapefruit juice you can color it with a few drops of beet juice or beet powder.
Now pour our cocktail over the milk, and the acidity from the lemon juice will curdle it, which will trap all the particles, helping us get a smooth, clarified liquid. After 5 minutes I’ll strain the cocktail through a cloth filter. Transfer the filter after the curds form an additional filter and you see a clear cocktail trickling through.
Once strained we can pour it over a clear ice sphere in a low tumbler glass, stir it a few times with a bar spoon and garnish with a thin slice of grapefruit. And that’s the Grapefruit Milk Punch–fruity, silky and surprisingly nutty.
Next, we’ll use an ingredient we made very recently, the Grapefruitcello or Pompelmocello. It’s Italian, so let’s make a Negroni with it.
Pink Negroni
● 30mL · 1oz Malfy Gin
● 22.5mL · 0.75oz Pompelmocello
● 22.5mL · 0.75oz 9diDante Dry Vermouth
● 15mL · 0.5oz Italicus
● 7.5mL · 0.25oz Campari
● 2 drops 20% Saline Solution
● Grapefruit Peel Garnish
Finally a mixed drink, so we start with a chilled mixing glass this time. We’ll add in the ingredients along with plenty of ice, and stir well to chill and dilute this boozy cocktail. Pour into a minimalistic low tumbler glass over a clear ice sphere and express the essential oils over the glass as you do it–cin cin! This one is fruity, floral and tingly on the palate. I think Italy would be proud!
And lastly, we can’t have a list of grapefruit cocktails without the Paloma, right? We’ll make it a little smoky with mezcal, lime juice, saline solution and our homemade pink grapefruit soda.
Smoky Paloma
● 45mL · 1.5oz Mezcal
● 15mL · 0.5oz Lime Juice
● 105g Pink Grapefruit Soda
● 1 dash 20% Saline Solution
● Grapefruit Wedge Garnish
This one will be built straight into a highball glass, which I first garnished on the side with some pink Himalayan salt. Then add ice and pour over the ingredients, keeping the soda for last. We’ll add 3.5oz or 100mL of it, but if you want to be precise I recommend using a scale and adding 105g instead. Mix the ingredients with a few gentle lifts of a bar spoon and garnish with a grapefruit wedge. Salud!
Smoky, refreshing, and mineral. This is a great and easy cocktail, but if you want to take it to the next level you can also make Palomas using fermented grapefruit sodas like we did here. Until next week, Cheers, Friends of Cocktails!
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