Paloma
Tequila, lime and grapefruit soda over ice with a pinch of salt. Mexico's everyday tequila highball.
- MethodBuilt
- GlassHighball glass
- IceCubes
- Strengthabout 11.9% ABV
- BaseTequila & mezcal
- Tasterefreshing, sour, bitter
Recipe
| 60 ml 2 oz | Tequila blanco (100% agave) |
| 15 ml ½ oz | Fresh lime juice |
| 2 dashes | Saline solution (1 part salt to 4 parts water) (optional) |
| Top up: 120 ml 4 oz | Grapefruit soda |
Garnish. A salted rim and a wedge of grapefruit, or simply a lime wedge as many Mexican bars serve it.
Method
- Salt the rim of a highball glass, if you like, and fill it with ice.
- Add the tequila, lime juice and saline.
- Top with cold grapefruit soda.
- Stir once gently and garnish.
About the Paloma
The Paloma is tequila topped with grapefruit soda and a squeeze of lime: tart, faintly bitter and very refreshing. In Mexico it is far more common than the Margarita. A little salt, on the rim or in the drink, sharpens the grapefruit and softens its bitterness.
History
Documented
The Paloma is a Mexican highball with no known inventor. It depends on bottled grapefruit soda, which was sold in Mexico from the 1950s, and soda makers advertised grapefruit soda as a partner for tequila from around that time. Printed recipes under the name Paloma are surprisingly recent; researchers have so far found nothing earlier than the late 1990s.
Legend and lore
The bartender Don Javier Delgado Corona of La Capilla in Tequila, Jalisco, is often named as its inventor, but he is reported to have denied it. An often-repeated citation to a 1950s pamphlet of Rio Grande cocktails has never been traced to a real copy and is now widely thought to be fictitious. The name, Spanish for dove, has no agreed explanation.
Disputed or unclear: When the Paloma was first made is unknown; the timeline year marks grapefruit soda's arrival in Mexico, not a recorded date for the drink.
Variations
- Fresh Paloma. Fresh grapefruit juice, a little agave syrup and soda water in place of grapefruit soda; drier and fresher.
- Mezcal Paloma. Mezcal in place of tequila, for a smoky highball.
- Tommy's Margarita. The same tequila and lime, shaken and served short.
- Cuba Libre. The rum and cola highball, built the same way.
Bartender's notes
- Use a grapefruit soda that tastes of real grapefruit; very sweet ones bury the tequila.
- Two dashes of saline in the glass give the effect of a salt rim without the mess.
