Grapefruit Spritz
Pink grapefruit and tonic with rosemary - bitter, herbal and very cold.
Ingredients
Measures below are multiplied for 12 drinks. Unmeasurable amounts such as “a splash” are left as written.
- 960 ml Measuring jug A measuring jug: pour to the 960 ml line. Grapefruit juice - Pink, freshly squeezed, and not from a carton if you can help it
- 1200 ml Measuring jug A measuring jug: pour to the 1200 ml line. Tonic water
- 480 ml Measuring jug A measuring jug: pour to the 480 ml line. Soda water
- 12 sprigs Rosemary - Slapped against your palm first, to wake it up
- 12 twists Grapefruit peel (optional)
Measured in Millilitres (UK). Sign in to read these in American measures. Print a kitchen card at this size.
What the jigger, the spoons and the jug hold, in millilitres and in fluid ounces, is on the measures reference.
Quick version
- Pour the grapefruit over ice, top with tonic and soda, and add rosemary.
Method
Batch (12 drinks)Batch (12 drinks) - about 2.64 l of measured ingredients, before ice and dilution.
Timings and per-glass steps below are written for one drink and are not scaled. A full jug takes longer to chill, so stir or shake until it is properly cold rather than by the clock, and pour over fresh ice one glass at a time.
- Fill a large flute or a wine glass with ice.
- Pour in the grapefruit juice, then the tonic water and the soda.
- Slap the rosemary against your palm to release its oils and lay it across the top of the drink.
- Twist a piece of grapefruit peel over the glass and drop it in.
Serve it
Volumes in this story are multiplied for the size above, along with the ingredients. Years, ratios and the capacities of glasses and jugs are left as written.
Grapefruit Spritz
Grapefruit and tonic is one of the great non-alcoholic pairings, and it is barely ever made because people assume a spritz needs something in it. It does not. Both ingredients are bitter in different ways - the grapefruit in the fruit, the tonic in the quinine - and together they make a drink that tastes considerably more serious than the two things it is made of.
Getting it right
Squeeze the grapefruit an hour ahead if you can and chill the juice: the drink is at its best colder than most, and warm grapefruit tastes thin and dusty. Rosemary sounds like a garnish and is closer to a seasoning - the oils come off the sprig and change the whole glass - so slap it, and leave it in. Tonic varies wildly in sugar; a dry one is worth hunting down, and the soda water is there to lengthen it rather than to dilute the bitterness.
Tasting notes
Pink grapefruit up front, the quinine arriving after it and the rosemary sitting over the top like something out of a garden. Bitter, herbal and grown-up, which is exactly the brief.