Grapefruit

Yech.
That has been my reaction to grapefruit for almost my entire life.
Yech.
And, like most things we reject early in life and never revisit, that’s a shame.
If you fancy yourself a modern drunk modern cocktailian, chances are your bar is stocked right now with juicing lemons and limes, or at least bottles of decent juice. (And shuddup, Mr. Curator!) But lots of mixers don’t have much in the way of grapefruit on hand. For myself, I had never had grapefruit in my bar, or in my thirteen-year-old house for that matter, until about a week or so before I undertook to write this little musing.
Grapefruit was always that giant, bitter, yellow-white thingy that my Dad would spoon out at breakfast back when I was about six. And he always put more sugar on it than I put on my Corn Flakes. As a kid, I always lumped grapefruit in with such vegetation as okra and brussels sprouts in the category of Unfathomably Nasty Things People Eat. Okra and Vegetus Infernus are still UNTPEs, and if you think you like them, I can only recommend immediate psychiatric care.
But what made me take grapefruit off the list? Well, I was dimly aware that there were cocktails that used the juice, such as the Salty Dog, and the Seabreeze. But they weren’t my kind of drink. In preparation for Tiki Month, over at my home base, The Pegu Blog, I was reading a lot of recipes I had never considered before. I kept seeing mentions of grapefruit juice, and after several winces and thoughts of, Ugh, why use such nastily bitter juice in a nice cocktail? it occurred to me that my tastes have changed a bit since I was six. I do have about twelve bottles that I sought out and bought on my bar shelf that are designed to increase the bitterness of a cocktail, after all. Heard of bitters?
A day later, I went with my wife to Martini Park, here in Columbus, and on a dare to myself, ordered what the chain calls a Grapefruit Caipirinha. Or at least I ordered one after I could wipe the smirk off my face when considering a drink being called a Caipirinha that not only doesn’t use cachaça, but instead employs vodka. That said, the resulting concoction was not half bad. Over the hump, I dropped by Whole Foods and bought up a number of grapefruit, as well as a small bottle of juice for comparison.
While at this point, I’ve only posted one recipe that uses grapefruit, the Jet Pilot, I’ve used it in a bunch. I think I’ve learned enough to lay out some knowledge for you as if I’m the very Sage of Grapefruit. (Ain’t the Internet grand?)
First off, let’s talk about getting your juice. I take some heat for being more open to bottled juice than some others round these parts. But whereas I actually prefer commercial OJ to fresh squeezed, in cocktails at least, grapefruit is the opposite end of the spectrum. If you are going to use it in drinks, that’s great, but squeeze it fresh if there is any possible way you can!
If you are used to picking out the best lemons and limes, the surface of a good grapefruit will be considerably softer to the touch than you are used to. Don’t worry, it is not rotten, as long as the skin is strong and elastic, and the fruit feels nice and heavy.
I worried about how I was going to juice these huge fruits, since a half sure isn’t going to fit in my handy OXO juice squeezer. I fiddled with my old reamer, and hand squeezing, and generally bitched up a storm about the whole thing, when I discovered an easy way to juice this freaking fruit. Simply quarter each half, and these pieces will fit nicely in the squeezer. Further, they will very easily and completely give up their juice.
Finally, if you only need to use an eighth or a quarter of a whole fruit, that is no problem with a grapefruit. Simply store the remainder in a zipper plastic bag in the fridge. Cut grapefruit will last an extraordinarily long time compared to lemons and limes.
Grapefruit comes in three basic colors: white, pink, and red. They generally range in bitterness from very to mild, respectively. But the ones I have tried so far have all been much milder and sweeter than the yalla balls of pucker I remember as a kid. If you are just starting your journey with grapefruit, I’d suggest starting with the pink. It’s the most popular these days, and while it is more bitter than sour, it is not so bitter as to run the weak-tongued off.
I’m also going to step out onto a limb here and suggest, on very limited experimental experience, that grapefruit juice mixes very well with lime juice, but not so much with lemon.
I still think that grapefruit is more of a special purpose ingredient than lemons or limes, but all my experiments have really opened my eyes. It keeps very well, better in fact, at least with fruit I can get in Ohio in February, than limes. It stands up to a variety of spirits quite well on its own. And it is a terrific ensemble player in more complex concoctions such as Tiki drinks.
I’ll leave you with a very simple grapefuit cocktail, named appropriately The Grapefruit Cocktail, which I gleaned from Erik Ellestad’s examination of the Savoy Cocktail Book.
THE GRAPEFRUIT COCKTAIL

• 1.5 oz. gin
• 1.5 oz. grapefruit juice (fresh squeezed please, fellow slackers!)
• 1 squirt simple sugar.

Shake with lots of ice and strain into a cocktail glass.

Tagged as: grapefruit, juice