Paloma
Grapefruit, agave, easy charm.
Tequila, a touch of lime and a pinch of salt, lengthened with pink grapefruit soda. Sparkling and faintly bitter, it is Mexico's favourite long drink, simpler and more thirst-quenching than the Margarita.
- IBA · New Era
- Long drink
- Built
- Glass
- Highball glass
- Method
- Built
- Strength
- Light
- Time
- 2 min
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Ice
- Cubes
Ingredients
Measures for 1 serving
-
Tequila
50 ml
-
Lime juice
5 ml
-
Salt
to taste
-
Pink grapefruit soda
100 ml
Garnish
- Lime slice
Proportions
How to make
- Pour the tequila into a highball glass.
- Squeeze in the lime juice.
- Add ice.
- Add a pinch of salt.
- Top with pink grapefruit soda.
- Stir gently.
- Garnish with a lime slice.
The story
Origins
LegendA story passed down, not confirmed by the sources.
The Paloma's origins remain unknown. For years its invention was credited to Don Javier Delgado Corona, the long-time owner of La Capilla cantina in Tequila, but he himself denied it. An alleged first mention in a 1950s pamphlet, widely repeated online, turned out to be fictitious. The drink more likely arose spontaneously in Mexico after the arrival of Squirt grapefruit soda, created in Arizona in 1938 and exported to Mexico in the mid-1950s. The name, 'dove', is linked by some to a famous nineteenth-century song. It appears in printed recipe sources only toward the end of the 1990s.
Taste profile
- Citrus
- 4 out of 5
- Fresh
- 4 out of 5
- Bubbly
- 3 out of 5
- Bitter
- 1 out of 5