Grapefruit

Don't Eat Grapefruit for Breakfast—Put it in Your Drink

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September 25, 2015

Since we’re gin people, we’re making classic cocktails (and riffing off them) with Tanqueray No. TEN.

Today: Give your Greyhound good posture with gin.

Greyhound

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I was a latecomer to grapefruit. (Though, as evidenced in the cooking with kids episode on our podcast Burnt Toast, I came late to everything food-wise—if it wasn’t peanut butter and jelly.)

I found the citrus fruit bitter and astringent, and I wasn’t allowed to blizzard sugar over its top. And even though I thought the spoon with the sawtooth edges was pretty special, mine always seemed dull, ineffective, and half-assed. Who wants to fight with breakfast? 

I didn’t find out the solution to my problem until much later, when I’d become well-acquainted to cocktails. (I came early to gin, by which I mean promptly at the age of 21.) Here’s the learning: Don’t eat grapefruit for breakfast. Juice it and put it in your drink. 

All of that sharp acidity belongs in a cocktail, reminding it to sit up straight: shoulders back, chest out, chin angled 45 degrees down and a half turn to the side. (We all have to show the world our best face—in this, we are no different from our drinks.) With a pour of gin in a Greyhound, it has even better posture, and sits taller still if you rim your glass in salt. (Call that one a Salty Dog when you serve it—and serve it often.)

Greyhound 

Serves 2

2 1/2 ounces Tanqueray No. TEN gin
6 ounces freshly squeezed grapefruit juice
Salt, for garnish (optional)

See the full recipe (and save it and print it) here.

Photo by Bobbi Lin  

We've partnered with Tanqueray No. TEN to bring classic cocktails (and new interpretations of them) to your home bar. Please enjoy responsibly. 

See what other Food52 readers are saying.

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Kenzi Wilbur

Written by: Kenzi Wilbur

I have a thing for most foods topped with a fried egg, a strange disdain for overly soupy tomato sauce, and I can never make it home without ripping off the end of a newly-bought baguette. I like spoons very much.

7 Comments

nancy E. December 28, 2017
You have to try Mount Gay Rum and grapefruit. It is sublime
 
Simone December 30, 2015
How would Hendrick's pair with grapefruit? I find a Gin of a strong herbal profile is so tasty on its own can clash with the bitterness.
 
Basil&Rocket December 30, 2015
Gin and grapefruit is a perfect pairing - like a G&T whilst watching Terms of Endearment. May I suggest trying Four Pillars Gin and Quina Fina tonic water for all the gin conissours out there.
 
RiverCook181 December 29, 2015
A small destinction, when you add salt to the rim it becomes a Salty Dog
 
Stacye December 29, 2015
Salty Dogs are my favorite brunch drink!
 
Pastraminator December 29, 2015
Grapefruit juice is actually the one pasteurized juice that still resembles the taste of the actually fruit, rediscovered this cocktail on fire island a couple of years back, It has been a summer favorite. We added a little fresca for effervescence and sweetness, called it the sleaze-breeze. Thank you for reminding me how refreshing it could be in winter.
 
Laura F. December 29, 2015
I love my gin with grapefruit juice! Didn't realize it was an actual drink, with an actual name!