I was at a friends house the other day who had a beautiful fruiting grapefruit tree. Apparently this crazy friend of mine, doesn’t like grapefruits! While diving into a sour grapefruit isn’t exactly my first fruit choice either, I do love grapefruit juice. My brother and I decided to pick a few bags of grapefruits to bring home knowing it would make a good cocktail companion. In my search for the perfect grapefruit cocktail a fabulous recipe by Half Baked Harvest graced itself upon me. A strawberry chamomile paloma anyone? Yes please. If you are not familiar with the paloma, it is a tequila based cocktail served with a grapefruit flavored soda/juice on the rocks garnished with lime and salt. But Half Baked Harvest’s strawberry chamomile paloma is by far the more exciting and refreshing route!
Thankfully we have a citrus electric juicer (like this) so this was a perfect time to let Kado be apart of cocktail time, lol. Before nap, Kado and I juiced all the grapefruits and stored it in a large mason jar. I then quickly whipped up the chamomile honey syrup so Kado could enjoy some too in his grapefruit juice. He loved it. Although for whatever reason he kept calling it his apple juice. Later that evening I took my syrup, juice, tequila, perrier and strawberries to my brother’s house to stir up a few cocktails for us; because he is my designated drinking partner!Ingredients:For the Chamomile Honey Syrup
3/4 cup water
1/3 cup local honey
2 chamomile tea bags
For the Paloma
3 ounces fresh squeezed grapefruit juice
2-4 tablespoons chamomile honey syrup
2 ounces tequila your choice
fresh sliced organic strawberries (the more the merrier!)
sparkling water (we used perrier)
iceNote: these are the ratios given by Half Baked Harvest, I personally never measure when making cocktails but this is a good starting point! And if you can make your cocktails look anything like the photos in her blog, I am fully impressed (she is absolutely amazing!)
Directions:For the Chamomile Honey Syrup
Combine your water and honey in a small saucepan and bring to a boil
Simmer for about 1 minute stirring until the honey dissolves, remove from heat
Add the tea bags and cover to let steep for 5-10min
Discard the tea bags and let your syrup completely cool and store in the fridge For the Paloma
Add your juice, syrup and tequila to a glass
Gently muddle your strawberries to release their color, juices and flavors
Add ice and top off with sparkling water
Garnish with fresh strawberries and drink!
This drink was the perfect addition to our evening but would not have been possible without Half Baked Harvest’s awesome recipe and I have to give credit to my favorite local farm the Farm Cart Organics in Carpinteria for the delicious organic strawberries!
