Paloma
A Paloma cocktail is another summer-themed tequila highball classic, with pink grapefruit adding flavour contrast and some colour. It does require you to locate some pink grapefruit soda. If you can’t find it anywhere, you can always use extra grapefruit juice and sugar syrup, then top with soda water.
Originally, a Paloma cocktail was literally just tequila and grapefruit soda, but by adding lime juice, fresh grapefruit juice, and sugar syrup, we arrive at a cocktail with a deeply satisfying grapefruit flavour that the lime juice and sugar syrup balance out nicely.
It is said to have been first created by Don Javier Delgado Corona at his bar/restaurant La Capilla in Tequila, Mexico, sometime in the 1950s. The Paloma is very similar to the Margarita—in fact, it is essentially a Margarita that has had a burst of grapefruit to give it a fruity effervescence. The grapefruit really transcends this cocktail away from its more famous cousin and creates a drink that stands on its own as a wonderfully fruity, refreshing highball classic.
It is hardly surprising that many of the great tequila cocktails all seem perfectly suited to hot summer days. When we talk about great wines, we talk about the terroir and being able to taste the growing conditions of the grapes. Well, tequila has that same mystical power. By adding some well-chosen mixers, we can transcend tequila beyond dry, sandy, desert-like conditions to fabulous opulence—but whatever you do, you cannot separate tequila from sunshine. Every bottle is like a summer’s day captured in glass.
paloma Cocktail Recipe Ingredients:
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50 ml Silver Tequila
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25 ml Fresh Pink Grapefruit Juice
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12.5 ml Fresh Lime Juice
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10 ml Sugar Syrup
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50 ml Pink Grapefruit Soda
Instructions:
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Shake the first four ingredients with ice.
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Strain into an ice-filled Collins glass.
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Top with pink grapefruit soda.
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Stir gently.
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Garnish with a wedge of pink or red grapefruit.
