Paloma – Que Buena

Looking back on my Margarita post from 7 months ago I started that adventure with a slight bit of tequila aprehension.  By the end of that week I was a convert.  This relatively newly found love has carried over to this week.  The Paloma, despite its simplicity, was tremendously delicious.  I tried two recipes, one leveraging grapefruit soda (Squirt in my case), the other utilizing all fresh juices.

Paloma (Grapefruit Soda Recipe)

2 oz Tequila
1/2 oz Lime Juice
6 oz Grapefruit Soda

1) Build in a Collins glass with ice

This recipe is certainly the simpler of the two which is both good and bad, more on that in a bit.  Like the Tom Collins, the Paloma is tremendously refreshing and would be absolutely fantastic on a hot summer day.  The lime juice pumps up the sourness a bit which plays well with the sweetness of the soda.  The tequila comes through nicely as well.  I tried both reposado and blanco tequilas and found that they both work very well in this application.  Next up I tried the more “all natural” recipe.

Paloma (All Fruit Juice)

2 oz Tequila
1/2 oz Lime Juice
3 oz Grapefruit Juice
1/4 oz Agave Syrup
Top with Soda Water (~3 oz)

1) Build in a Collins glass with ice

This version is more grapefruity than the soda based version and the sweetness can be more readily controlled depending on the amount of agave syrup you use.  In my case I used pink grapefruit juice and as such 1/4 oz of agave syrup was plenty.  Were I mixing this with white grapefruit I think a touch more agave syrup (1/2 oz) may be need to balance this drink.  This version is very good and very fresh tasting.  However, that said I don’t think it’s as authentic as the soda version.

I would be happy drinking either version as they’re both very very good.  I think I’ll likely end up drinking the soda based version more often, however, due to it’s simplicity.  Why, you ask, do you consider this simplicity a bad thing?  One word.  Drinkability.  This is a drink that can be easily produced even when you’re 3-4 drinks in, which could lead to bad things.  That’s not going to stop me for even a moment though and I suggest that you don’t let it stop you either.