San Pellegrino Grapefruit x24 – Refreshingly Superior

1. Mix together the grapefruit juice, vodka and triple sec.
2. Pour evenly into two glasses and top off each glass with the carbonated water and a squeeze of lime juice.
3. Add a large handful of ice to each glass and garnish with a lime wedge.
4. Serve immediately!

To the many cocktail aficionados reading this, the humble grapefruit might seem like a rudimentary, even boring, piece of fruit.

Drinks that tend to garner attention these days contain all kinds of exciting ingredients, like jackfruit, dragonfruit, passion fruit, or my all-time favorite, Ugli fruit.

But while the terms “unusual” and “esoteric” have become part of cocktail vernacular, there’s no shame in keeping things simple.

Enter the grapefruit.

Known technically as Citrus x paradisi, grapefruit is most likely a cross between the Southeast Asian pummelo and the standard sweet orange.

It’s one of the newer fruits on Earth, having been first discovered on the island of Barbados in the mid-18th century.

The name comes from the fact that fruit clusters on the tree look somewhat similar to a bunch of grapes. While lemon and lime are our preferred bartending citrus, the grapefruit has lent its own unique charms to a wide variety of wonderful and timeless drinks.