Can I make a Paloma with fresh grapefruit instead of soda?

You can, and bartenders love to, but be honest about what you've built. Fresh grapefruit juice, a little sugar or agave, and club soda gives you a brighter, more 'serious' drink that some people prefer. It is also no longer the thing your tía pours at a backyard lunch. The soda version has a candied, slightly synthetic edge that the fresh version sands away. Both are good. Only one is a Paloma.

Which tequila should I use, and does the salt rim actually matter?

A clean blanco. You want the green, peppery agave punching through the citrus, and reposado just smears oak over the whole thing. Skip anything labeled 'gold' that isn't 100 percent agave. As for salt, yes, it matters more than the garnish on most drinks. It knocks down the bitter edge of grapefruit and makes everything taste rounder and more savory. If you hate salt rims, put a pinch in the drink itself. Don't skip it entirely.

Why does my Paloma go flat and watery halfway through?

Two usual suspects. You stirred it like a Manhattan and beat the life out of the carbonation, or you used crushed ice that melted into the soda. Build it over big cubes, give it one lazy stir, and add the soda last. The bubbles are part of the structure, not decoration, so treat them gently and the drink stays lively to the bottom.

The Paloma: Mexico's Real Drink, Hiding in Plain Sight Behind the Margarita

Ask for a Margarita in most of Mexico and the locals will quietly judge you. The drink they're actually holding is the Paloma. Tequila, grapefruit soda, a hit of lime, salt on the rim, served cold and built in the glass without ceremony. It is the most popular tequila drink in its home country, and almost nobody outside it knows the name. That's a crime worth correcting.

2 ozTequila Blanco

0.5 ozLime Juice

Grapefruit Soda (top)

1 pinchSalt

Garnish: Grapefruit wedge, salt rim

This one is mercifully hard to screw up, which is the whole point. Salt the rim if you want it, then build straight in a Collins glass over cubed ice. Pour your two ounces of blanco, the half ounce of fresh lime, the pinch of salt, then top with grapefruit soda. Give it one gentle stir to wake it up and stop. The carbonation is doing structural work and you don't want to beat it flat. Cubed ice over crushed here on purpose. Crushed melts fast and waters down a drink that's already got soda doing the dilution. The fresh lime matters because grapefruit soda is sweet and a little flabby on its own, and the acid pulls it taut. Blanco tequila, not reposado. You want the bright agave bite cutting through the citrus, not oak muddying the water. Salt isn't garnish theater. It suppresses bitterness and makes the grapefruit taste rounder. Taste a Paloma without it and you'll understand.

The Paloma is a Highball, and once you see the architecture you can't unsee it. The Highball family is defined by two things working together: a carbonated body that gives the drink length and lift, and a spirit core that stays separate rather than getting emulsified into the texture. Soda does the volume, the spirit does the talking, and they share a glass without truly blending. That's the Paloma exactly. Tequila and lime are the core, grapefruit soda is the carbonated body, and the bubbles carry agave aroma up out of the glass with every sip. It's the same skeleton holding up a Bourbon Rickey, an Americano, an Aperol Spritz, and yes, the bottomless trouble of an Adios Motherfucker. Change the spirit, change the bubbles, and you've got a Bay Breeze or a Bellini or a Bahama Mama. The Paloma's particular genius is that the soda isn't neutral filler the way club soda is in a Rickey. Grapefruit soda is a flavor and a body at the same time, which is why the drink tastes complete with so few moving parts.

Nobody can prove who invented the Paloma, which is exactly the kind of honest murk a great folk drink deserves. The popular story pins it on Don Javier Delgado Corona, the legendary barman behind La Capilla in Tequila, Jalisco, the man who also gets credit for the Batanga. Maybe. The truth is the Paloma is too obvious and too good to have a single father. Mexico has had Squirt, a grapefruit soda, since the mid-twentieth century, and it has had tequila forever. Somebody was always going to put them in a glass together. The name means dove, soft and unbothered, which fits a drink that asks nothing of you. There's no fussing, no shaking, no egg white, no nitrogen-charged foam, no bartender in suspenders explaining his house tincture. You build it and you drink it. The Margarita gets the marketing budget and the spring-break shame, but the Paloma is what people actually reach for at a comida that runs three hours long. Use real grapefruit soda. Squirt, Jarritos, Ting, Fresca if you must. The 'craft' move of fresh grapefruit juice and club soda makes a perfectly nice drink that is no longer a Paloma. It's a grapefruit sour with bubbles. The whole charm here is the slightly artificial, candied snap of the soda against clean tequila. Respect the cheapness. It's the point.

Open the Paloma recipe card on Speed Pour

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FAQ

Can I make a Paloma with fresh grapefruit instead of soda?: You can, and bartenders love to, but be honest about what you've built. Fresh grapefruit juice, a little sugar or agave, and club soda gives you a brighter, more 'serious' drink that some people prefer. It is also no longer the thing your tía pours at a backyard lunch. The soda version has a candied, slightly synthetic edge that the fresh version sands away. Both are good. Only one is a Paloma.
Which tequila should I use, and does the salt rim actually matter?: A clean blanco. You want the green, peppery agave punching through the citrus, and reposado just smears oak over the whole thing. Skip anything labeled 'gold' that isn't 100 percent agave. As for salt, yes, it matters more than the garnish on most drinks. It knocks down the bitter edge of grapefruit and makes everything taste rounder and more savory. If you hate salt rims, put a pinch in the drink itself. Don't skip it entirely.
Why does my Paloma go flat and watery halfway through?: Two usual suspects. You stirred it like a Manhattan and beat the life out of the carbonation, or you used crushed ice that melted into the soda. Build it over big cubes, give it one lazy stir, and add the soda last. The bubbles are part of the structure, not decoration, so treat them gently and the drink stays lively to the bottom.