Paloma — Paloma is what happens when you replace margarita lime

The Paloma outsells the Margarita three to one in Mexico, but north of the border, most people have never heard of it. That’s about to change.

Ingredients

• 2 oz blanco tequila
• 4 oz fresh grapefruit juice
• 1 oz fresh lime juice for brightness
• ¼ oz simple syrup to round it out
• Garnish: coarse salt for the rim
• Garnish: a grapefruit wheel

Method

Start with your rocks glass. Run a lime wedge around the rim, then roll it in coarse salt — just the outside edge, not the inside. Fill the glass with ice. In your shaker, combine the tequila, grapefruit juice, lime juice, and simple syrup. Add ice and shake hard for ten seconds. The grapefruit juice needs that agitation to integrate properly with the tequila. Strain over your salted ice. The drink should be ice cold and slightly frothy on top from the shake.

Serve

Serve this in a rocks glass over ice with that salt rim. Drop in a grapefruit wheel and give it a gentle squeeze to release the oils.

Pro Tip

Skip the bottled grapefruit juice if you can. Fresh ruby red grapefruit makes all the difference — it’s got more acid and less sugar than the stuff from a carton. If you’re making these for a crowd, juice your grapefruits in advance but add a pinch of salt to keep them from oxidizing. The drink stays bright and pink instead of turning muddy brown.