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Paloma Recipe Round-Up: 20+ Paloma Variations

In my research on the Paloma I have come across many variations on the drink, so I thought I'd link to them here.

Typically the Paloma is made with tequila (always use 100% agave!), grapefruit soda such as Squirt or Jarritos, a squeeze of a lime wedge and a pinch of salt. Esquire's standard recipe is here. A version using fresh grapefruit and soda water is here.

Here are some Paloma variations from around the internet. 

Blood Orange and Thyme Paloma by Airda Molenkamp [recipe]

Nuestra Paloma by Thad Vogler of Beretta, SF. It contains St. Germain, bitters, Cointreau, and grapefruit juice. [recipe]

The Charred Grapefruit Paloma by Warren Bobrow [recipe]

Paloma, Mi Amante by Paul Clarke - A Paloma using strawberry-infused tequila. [recipe]

Paloma Variation - A Paloma using IPA beer, plus tequila, grapefruit cordial, and lime. [mentioned here; no recipe]

Palomita - A Paloma without tequila; just using Coinreau, lime, and grapefruit. [recipe]

Green Palomarita - Mezcal, lime, grapefruit, Chartreuse [recipe]

Dove & Daisy - Tequila, lime, Aperol, orange liqueur, salt, soda water. [recipe]

La Paloma - Grapefruit liqueur, tequila, grapefruit juice, lime, soda. [recipe]

Cantarito - A Paloma variation using lemon, lime, and orange juices in place of the lime squeeze. [recipe]

Paloma Brava by Dushan Zaric - Contains tequila, lime, orange, grapefruit, grapefruit soda, agave nectar, and salt. [recipe]

La Canterita by Ashley Miller - Tequila, triple sec, agave nectar, grapefruit, lemon, lime, orange. [recipe]

Strawberry Paloma with strawberry-infused tequila, honey, lime, and grapefruit. [recipe]

Reunion Cooler by Jennifer Colliau- Tequila, peppercorns, pineapple, grapefruit peel, lime. [recipe]

The 212 by Aisha Sharpe and Willy Shine - Tequila, Aperol, grapefruit [recipe]

Siesta by Katie Stipe - Tequila, Campari, lime, grapefruit, simple syrup [recipe]

Acapulco by Salvatore Calabrese - Tequila, rum, grapefruit, pineapple. [recipe]

Cardarita by Ago Perrone - Tequila, almond-cardamom sugar, grapefruit, Galliano, ginger ale [recipe]

Salty Chihuahua - Tequila, grapefruit juice, salt [recipe]

Ginger Paloma - Ginger-grapefruit syrup, tequila, lime, club soda [recipe]

Tequila Fresa Punch - Starwberry-infused tequila, triple sec, orange, lime, grapefruit soda, orange bitters [recipe]

 

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Drambuie as a Base Spirit in a Highball

Yep. The Mackinnon is a highball made with 2 ounces of Drambuie, a splash of white rum, lemon, lime, and soda water. Sounds gross right? 

It's pretty good, actually. Go get the recipe at FineCooking.com.

 

Zen and the Art of Japanese Cocktail Development

During Hawaii Cocktail Week at the bar The Manifest I attended a seminar lead by Takayuki Suzuki, in which Suzuki demonstrated several cocktails. It was terrific and I'll do my best to explain how so.

 I think I've observed modern Japanese bartending enough now to make a few observations about their style and philosophy:

• Four ingredients is a lot.
• They're not afraid of artificially-colored liqueurs as we are in other countries. Green and blue liqueurs are common in high-end cocktail bars
• Drink-making technique can reflect the philosophical goal of the cocktail, whereas in the US it's always just about what's in the glass at the end
• Every drink has a story

But Suzuki really drove home some of these points. Let's start with ice.

Hand Carved Ice Ball and Wabi-Sabi 

Ice is treated entirely differently in Japan than in other countries. In the olden days, ice was frozen in the winter in man-made ponds, then stored all year (as it was in America, except the ponds were already there). But in Japan, the ice was sometimes given as a gift in the summers, so it's still valued as something special. Bars in Japan (at least the 20 or so that I've been to) do not have their own ice machines. They have ice delivery service. And Suzuki says that even people at home don't use freezer ice - they buy it at the convenience store. So I guess ice is treated like produce.

Though wabi-sabi is an aesthetic and philosophy with a lot of parts, the one we're concerned with here is making human things that reflect the beauty of nature. (Those green and blue liqueurs tend to represent leaves and water in cocktails.) 

Suzuki says that when he carves an ice cube into an ice ball, it is with the wabi-sabi concept: the round ice ball is meant to resemble a river rock worn smooth by the water passing over it, representing the concept of 'floating time.'

And here we just thought it looked cool.

Bamboo Leaf Martini

Japan has 24 mini-seasons, and many of Suzuki's cocktails are meant to reflect particular ones. The Bamboo Leaf Martini is set between the end of winter and the beginning of spring. First he seasons a cocktail glass with creme de menthe- adds some then shakes it out. The he makes a cup out of a bamboo leaf, which rests inside the cocktail glass.

Inside the bamboo leaf cup, he pours Hakushu whisky with a bamboo leaf syrup. Then outside of the leaf but inside the cocktail glass he adds the flavor of yuzu peel. Thus the drink has the ending of summer inside the bamboo leaf, and the whisper of approaching winter citrus subtly beneath it.  

Green Breeze

This cocktail represents the beginning of summer, which is signified with soft breezes. Suzuki adds a mint leaf and mint liqueur to a tall glass, then gently crushes the mint and discards the liqueur - this infuses the leaves with more mint flavor. Next he adds an ice ball to the glass, which seals it and traps the mint and its flavor beneath it. 

On top of the ice ball, he adds Hakushu whisky, plus tonic and soda water at the very top with mint leaves as garnish. Thus when you first sip it, it just has the scent of mint and soda water. You don't taste the mint at first but you sense it, then as you consume the drink, eventually the mint at the bottom of the glass will mix with the liquids above it and you'll taste the mint. This represents the movement of breezes.

Tatami Cocktail 

This cocktail is built around Yamazaki 12 year whisky. Suzuki says this whisky gives him tasting notes of apricot, tropical chewing gum, then a cacao flavor, and the essence of dried plants. When he tastes the whisky, it reminds him of taking the train to his wife's family's house near where Yamazaki is distilled; seeing the traditional Japanese houses, and thinking of the sun hitting the tatami mats inside those houses. 

To recreate that, he mixes pineapple juice, apricto brandy, a touch of lemon juice, Yamazaki 12, and simple syrup in a shaker. He shakes and strains this into a cocktail glass then adds a float of dark cacao liqueur. To represent the tatami mat, he burns some dried lemongrass then adds this to the drink as garnish. 

Developing Cocktails the Japanese Way

Suzuki says that when he teaches students to create cocktails, they begin with a blank sheet of paper and a base spirit. He asks them to smell and taste the spirit and draw or write the image of what the spirit reminds them of. Then he asks them in which season  the image is taking place, and/or who is there or what time of day and where it is. Only then do they start to think about the other ingredients that will go into the cocktail; only after the cocktail has a story is it manifested. 

Takayuki Suzuki says, "The action of mixing has to have a reason."

--

For some cool videos of Takayuki Suzuki demonstrating ice carving, the Mizuwai cocktail, and to learn more about wabi-sabi, check out this page.

If you'd like to learn more about cocktails and bars in Japan, here are some other blog posts I wrote about my trip last year. 

• Yamazaki distillery visit
• Hakushu distillery visit
• Highball bars in Japan
• Whisky Bars in Japan
• Cocktail Bars in Japan
• Miscellaneous other bars in Japan
• Some observations about drinking in Japan
• Japanese Whisky Primer

 

Which Are You More Afraid Of: Gin or Absinthe?

Over at FineCooking.com, I have shared a recipe from Nate Quiroga of Liberty in Seattle. 

The drink seems to be a variation on the Aviation. Instead of gin, which is scary to some drinkers, Quiroga uses vodka. 

But the price you pay is that he also replaces the maraschino liqueur in the drink with absinthe. 

This leaves the drinker to decide whether they're more afraid of gin or more afraid of absinthe. 

Personally, I like 'em both. Get the recipe over at FineCooking.com.

 

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Cocktail Recipe: Handsome Jack by Chris Tanner

I mentioned previously that I enjoyed a cocktail called the Handsome Jack at London's Experimental Cocktail Club. I believe it's a loose take on the Vieux Carre.

The drink's creator, Chris Tanner, gave me permission to post it with a photo. Awesome.

Handsome Jack 
By Chris Tanner, Experimental Cocktail Club Chinatown 

 20ml Pierre Ferrand Ambre Cognac
20ml Rittenhouse Rye whiskey
20ml Byrrh aperitif wine
15ml Aperol
3ml Green Chartreuse
3ml organic maple syrup
2x dash Angostura bitters
2x dash Peychaud's bitters

Stir gently until diluted and strain into a chilled coupette, zest with a lemon and discard.

 

Cocktail Recipe: The Brown Trout by Dave Newman

I sort of didn't care what was in a cocktail called the The Brown Trout, because the name is so awesome I would have probably ordered it regardless. 

But the ingredients are... intriguing anyway. Gin, scotch, Aperol, gentian liqueur, and elderflower - what could go wrong? Everything!

But the drink was very nice - give it a try sometime. 

I ordered this drink at Pint + Jigger during Hawaii Cocktail Week and it was my favorite drink that night.

 

The Brown Trout
By Dave Newman

1.5 oz Hendrick's Gin
.5 oz Johnnie Walker Black
.5 oz Aperol 
.75 oz Bonal
.25 oz St Germain

Stir with ice until well chilled, strain into a chilled coupe glass with an orange twist expressed over the top and then discarded.

 

Pisco, Apricot, Elderflower, Sea Monster

Look at this sexy and delicious drink by Johnny Raglin of Comstock Saloon. Just look at it! That lime twist is like the Loch Ness monster! Drink it if you dare!

Actually the drink is pretty simple and delicious. It is made with pisco, St. Germain elderflower liqueur, apricot brandy, lemon, and egg white. Raglin texted me the recipe, because apparently he is a 23 year old and doesn't believe in email anymore. 

In the foam atop the drink he has sprinkled dehydrated Campari sugar; a trick I first saw and loved in Vancouver. It adds a nice crunch amidst the soft foam. 

Get the recipe for the drink here.

 

The Sangria of False Promises

Shaher Misif of Cantina in San Francisco has created a cocktail made with red wine and lies. 

The name of said cocktail is Sangria Roja, so naturally you're expecting a red wine sangria. But beyond the red wine, the drink's other ingredients are tequila, lime juice, agave nectar, and grapefruit soda. 

So it's more like a Margarita meets a Paloma with red wine thrown on top. Sangria? Not so much.

But despite the false promises that come with the name, this cocktail is tangy and citrusy and delicious and would make a quick and easy party punch.

Get the recipe over at FineCooking.com.