Introduction
For a little bit of something new, I’m trying a cocktail recipe this week. Given that the weather is heating up, and since Cinco de Mayo was this week, I already had tequila at the house. When doing some shopping, I spotted a mix for a cocktail I’d never had before, a Paloma, so I picked up the mix and just made one.
In this review, I’ll tell you about the ingredients I used to make this Paloma. From there, I’ll go over the simple instructions to make the drink. To round things out, I’ll give you my thoughts on this excellent summer cocktail and some ideas for pairings.
This is a simple, three-ingredient cocktail. I used one of my favorite blanco tequilas on this one: Espolon has been in production in Mexico since 1998, and it’s easily, to my palate, one of the smoothest tequilas that’s also reasonably budget-friendly. The second ingredient is the Paloma mix from Barsmith. Barsmith, which has been in the cocktail mix business since 2014, makes mixes with high-quality ingredients. One of the big reasons I gave this one a try is because they use cane sugar rather than high fructose corn syrup, to which my skin reacts pretty badly.
Directions
Barsmith was kind enough to keep the instructions on the back of the label: fill a glass with ice, use equal parts of their mix and a blanco tequila of your choice, fill the rest with sparkling water, and give it a stir.
So, that’s exactly what I did: two ounces of the mix, two of tequila, and the rest of the glass with lemon LaCroix, and I stirred it with a bar spoon. The sheer simplicity of this three-ingredient cocktail is a major plus to it, even before you get to the tasting.
Tasting Notes
The Paloma is meant to be a grapefruit and tequila cocktail, and this one lives up to it: it’s a light, sparking cocktail with a little bit of a grapefruit bite. In this case, the grapefruit was on the more subtle end. The next time I do this, I think I’ll also add an ounce or two of grapefruit juice to give it some more punch.
With that said, this is an excellent cocktail in that it’s a great way to enjoy tequila and cool down at the same time, with a lot less heavy sugar than the usual margarita. Overall, I’d highly recommend the Barsmith mix as well: their stuff is reasonably priced and high quality.
As for pairing, this refreshing cocktail goes great with foods I usually associate with summer. Today, I had it with some barbecue ribs and mashed potatoes, and it was a great compliment to the spice of the rib rub.
All in all, I’m very happy with the Barsmith Paloma, and I plan to pick up more of their mixes to try over the next few months. If you’re on the lookout for a great, easy-to-make tequila Cocktail, pick up the ingredients for this one the next time you’re out.