Grapefruit is an under-represented flavour in cocktail making. We would all readily identify that citrus flavours are made-up of lemon, lime and grapefruit. Well there’s Yuzu as well now which is an on-trend flavouring with a citrus bias.
And while lemon juice and lime juice are staple ingredients of many cocktails both classic and modern, so grapefruit seldom appears. Which is a shame because like lemon it has a distinctive and sharp flavour. This can be an excellent addition which will help balance out your cocktail. I must admit that while I will often cut a bit of orange peel to drop in to a home made Negroni, I don’t find it so easy to cut grapefruit skin. Maybe it’s just the awkward member of the citrus family.
It’s also true to acknowledge that many people over the age of 50 are on some form of medication. And it seems that most tablets advise you not to drink grapefruit juice as it interferes with the effectiveness of the medication. Therefore it is easy for people on meds to simply avoid this ingredient altogether.
I think grapefruit juice should be used more frequently when making cocktails. Even for people on medication, even a small quantity such as 75 ml which is a triple shot may not interfere significantly with medical advice. It’s always best to check of course and it will say on the notes with your tablets. Given that grapefruit is a strong flavour, seldom would you ever need more than 50 or 75 ml in one cocktail in any case.
How I twisted the sea breeze
The sea breeze is a classic cocktail which combines vodka, cranberry juice and grapefruit juice. It’s never particularly appealed to me but I guess it should be both sour and bitter. So I’m sure it’s quite refreshing at the right time of year. I have enjoyed working with the Rubicon range of unusual fruit juices over the years and was looking for something to offset the flavour of lychee juice. It is quite sweet and so I thought it would be interesting to combine it with grapefruit juice. And so the Icelandic sea breeze was born. I dropped the vodka base for the floral qualities of gin and created this new three ingredient version of a sea breeze.
Icelandic Sea Breeze
- 25 ml gin
- 37.5 ml grapefruit juice
- 75 ml lychee juice
Shake all 3 ingredients with ice and pour.
Whilst we didn’t run with this particular cocktail much in latter years, it was a popular choice on some of our menus in the early days of our business. Serve it in a tool elegant slim glass and with its pale yellow colour, it looks an attractive drink.
An old favourite
If you’d asked me which was my favourite cocktail at any point up until about 1990, I would have responded with the Brewer Street Rascal. It only appears in one cocktail book and it seems as if it doesn’t exist outside that one book. It is one measure each of vodka and the superb Mandarin Napoleon liqueur. Add in four measures of grapefruit juice and a dash of egg white. Shake the four ingredients with ice vigorously and decant into a slim tall glass where it will show off the egg froth to maximum effect. I used to enjoy this as a refreshing cocktail back in the day.
There are now grapefruit liqueurs and even a pink grapefruit syrup available from Monin. Available at the Whisky Exchange and others. I recently bought Briottet pamplemousse rose (pink grapefruit) and I’ll be developing some new cocktails with it. Being a liqueur, it’ll be smooth, sweet and full of that distinctive sharp flavour. The grapefruit Margarita is one I’ve already tried. Nice but out of balance. I’ll post the recipe when I’ve perfected it.