How to capture the essence of grapefruit? This has very likely been one of the questions that Heiko Hoos must have been concerned with while creating his Hoos Pink Grapefruit Gin. But the same question occurred also to me when I thought about today’s cocktail. I wanted to create a drink on the basis of the really great Hoos Pink Grapefruit Gin and I somehow knew from the very beginning what kind of cocktail it would be.
I had this one special drink in mind not because of a lack of imagination or because there is simply just one particular grapefruit cocktail. It was mainly because the Hoos Pink Grapefruit Gin was inspired by a classic Sloe Gin which Heiko Hoos wanted to do entirely different (by completely refraining from Sloe berries at all). So when he decided to do a Pink Grapefruit Gin instead, I immediately wondered how this gin would work in a classic Sloe Gin Cocktail – despite there is no Sloe Gin in the drink, of course. Therefore the choice immediately fell on a grapefruit variant of the Sloe Gin Silver Fizz.
At first I just took exactly the same ingredients and simply replaced the Sloe Gin with Hoos Pink Grapefruit Gin. This worked quite well and the result was definitely tasty, but somehow I was not completely satisfied with it because there was definitely some space left for a more “grapefruitier” experience. That is why I have made some adjustments and decided to replace some of the lemon juice with grapefruit juice and to use the very nice Tonic Bitters from The Bitter Truth in combination with some Orange Bitters. Thus, the result was extremely complex, somewhat bitter, and generally simply more appropriate to the nature of the grapefruit. Usually, I would not go for a Silver Fizz (with egg white) when mixing a purely citrus-based Fizz but here it works surprisingly well, without really having to go at the expense of freshness – quite similar to the Silver Raspberry Gin Fizz. In a classic Fizz there was actually no ice in the glass. This has become somewhat relative in the course of history but if you want to get a slightly bigger foam head, you can also omit the ice cubes in the glass. Then, however, it is all the more important that the glass has been appropriately chilled before using it.
Recipe:
5.5 cl Heiko Hoos Pink Grapefruit Gin
2 cl sugar syrup
2 cl grapefruit juice
1 cl lemon juice
1 Dash Orange Bitters
1 Dash The Bitter Truth Thomas Henry Tonic Bitters
1 egg white
soda water
Preparation: Add all ingredients except for the soda water to your shaker and dry shake them without ice. Afterwards add some ice cubes and shake again vigorously for about 30 seconds and strain into the pre-chilled glass (with or without ice; see above). Top off with with soda water.
Glass: Highball
Garnish: Grapefruit zest
Bezugsquellen: At specialized retailers or online.
