Cocktails with Grapefruit soda
Grapefruit soda is a sweetened, carbonated soft drink flavored with grapefruit juice, its oil, or both.
How it's used
As a top-up it brings fizz, sugar, acidity and grapefruit aroma, so it is not a neutral mixer. It carries its own sugar: if the drink also has syrup, it may need less. Sugar-sweetened versions give more body than diet ones, which finish thinner.
Substitutes for Grapefruit soda
Any full-sugar grapefruit soda
Use the same amount. Jarritos and Squirt have about 9–11 g of sugar per 100 ml.
Low-sugar or artificially sweetened soda
UK versions like Ting are low in sugar. Add a barspoon and a half of 2:1 syrup per 100 ml.
Homemade grapefruit soda
For every 100 ml, mix 30 ml of grapefruit juice, 70 ml of soda water and a barspoon and a half of 2:1 syrup. It tastes fresher.
Grapefruit sparkling water
Tastes empty and watery without syrup. Sweeten it the same way as the homemade mix above.
Grapefruit tonic
Quinine adds bitterness to the grapefruit, so the drink comes out noticeably more bitter.
Lemon-lime soda
Do not use. It gives no grapefruit note.
