Cinco de Mayo 2017- Drink Ideas | Recipe

What is Cinco de Mayo?

In Mexico, Cinco de Mayo is the celebration of Mexico’s victory over the French in the Battle of Puebla. Here stateside, we mostly celebrate Mexican-American culture on this day. Being that as it may, when most of us think of Cinco de Mayo, the first beverage that pops into mind is margaritas. While I like margaritas as well as the next person, it’s not the only Mexican inspired cocktail you can imbibe on this day. So looking for drink inspiration, I came across this article “4 Delicious Mexican Cocktails To Drink This Cinco De Mayo Instead Of Margaritas”  Kismet I tell ya!

So, in honor of my adventurous spirit, I am going to make Paloma my Cinco de Mayo cocktail of choice this year!

The Paloma is a refreshing tequila cocktail, just perfect for warm weather enjoyment.  In fact, according to some, it’s more popular than margaritas in Mexico. These two cocktails have a similar base profile (lime juice, tequila, & a sweetener), but I find the Paloma to be lighter and more fruit forward due to the use of fresh grapefruit juice, vs. the sweet & sour mix used in ‘ritas.

Paloma Recipe

Searching the internet for a Paloma recipe will yield you several variations: some with grapefruit juice, some with grapefruit soda, & some with a combination of both.  I find the following to be a good, standard Paloma recipe:

• 2 oz of fresh grapefruit juice
• 2 oz of tequila
• 2 oz  of club soda
• 1/4 oz (1 TBSP) of fresh lime juice
• 1 tsp sugar -or- 1/4 oz of simple syrup, or agave

Directions:

1. Salt the rim of a glass (high ball or collins)
2. Combine grapefruit juice, lime juice and your sweetener of choice
3. Add tequila and ice, top off with club soda
4. Enjoy, garnish with a grapefruit wedge if you’d like

Other Paloma Options

• You can leave out the club soda and sugar, if you choose, for a stouter beverage
• You can substitute grapefruit soda for the juice & club soda this recipe calls for
• You can use both the grapefruit juice & grapefruit soda, to double up on the grapefruit goodness 🙂
• Use a different flavored sodas or carbonated beverages

The possibilities are endless. For mine (pictured above): I left the salt rim and sweetener out (I use the Simply line of juices, & I find them to be perfectly sweet as is); and in place of the club soda, I used guava ginger beer from Rachel’s Ginger Beer.  DELICIOUS!

How ever you choose to celebrate Cinco de Mayo today, have fun and be responsible!

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