For the past two weeks, Joe and I have been exploring the world of citrus cordials by mixing various gimlets. In Running the Gimlet Part I we made a lemon cordial, and in part II we made a lime cordial. For part III of this series, we played with a grapefruit cordial.
Here’s our grapefruit cordial recipe:
Grapefruit Cordial
1 cup Grapefruit juice
1 cup Sugar
Peels of 3 grapefruitsAdd peels, juice, and sugar to a pot over medium heat. Heat and stir until the sugar integrates with the juice and strain.
It’s OK to be a little bit lazy with the piths when making grapefruit cordials, since grapefruit is rather bitter anyway.
From left to right, bottom to top, we have: scotch (snifter), bourbon (rocks glass), mezcal (coupe glass), tequila reposado (martini glass), and rum (cocktail goblet).
Scotch Grapefruit Gimlet
Eye: A warm, rust-colored brown.
Nose: Mostly scotch.
Sip: Smokey scotch, a bite of grapefruit.
Finish: Scotch and grapefruit balanced each other well.
This combination was the clear winner of the night. Tart citrus and scotch is a great combination, as we knew from the blood and oak. The scotch we used was Longrow 10, which isn’t very smokey or savory, because we wanted to avoid adding those sorts of flavors to grapefruit. I didn’t expect this gimlet to steal the show, but it did.
Bourbon Grapefruit Gimlet
Eye: Brown.
Nose: Spice and citrus fruit.
Sip: Oaky spice from the bourbon, sour, sweet grapefruit.
Finish: Smooth and fruity.
I’ve always enjoyed making whiskey sours with grapefruit juice, so I knew this combination was going to be tasty. Just go ahead and make this one. You’ll thank us. I think this was probably my second favorite grapefruit gimlet.
Mezcal Grapefruit Gimlet
Eye: Pink
Nose: Cactus, smoke, sweet citrus.
Sip: Mezcal with grapefruit.
Finish: Mostly mezcal.
I love mezcal, so I had high expectations for this drink, but I was let down. In our past gimlet experiments, mezcal had paired well with lemon and lime, so why not grapefruit? Well, it turns out that this was the weakest pairing we came up with for grapefruit. In this drink, mezcal and grapefruit did not do each other any favors, and the two flavors fought each other in the glass. I was throughly disappointed.
Tequila Reposado Grapefruit Gimlet
Eye: Pinkish yellow, like a sunset.
Nose: Strong grapefruit scent.
Sip: Tequila and grapefruit.
Finish: Mostly grapefruit.
Once again, I had high hopes for tequila and grapefruit, as we’ve mixed the two together before, in the strawberry paloma. Although this gimlet was better than its mezcal cousin, it just didn’t blow me away. Somehow the two flavors didn’t harmonize the way we had expected them to. I don’t think I’d make this gimlet again.
Rum Grapefruit Gimlet
Eye: Rust.
Nose: Fruity.
Sip: Caramel, fruits, grapefruit.
Finish: Sweet notes from the rum, bitter notes from the grapefruit.
This gimlet was excellent. We’ve paired grapefruit and rum before, so we kind of knew this was going to be awesome. We used Doorly’s rum, and the grapefruit cordial complemented its fruity, citrus flavors very well. It was hard to stop drinking this one, but it still didn’t gel as well as the scotch or bourbon gimlets.
I wonder if you are as tired of gimlets as we are!
