Pamplemousse Infusions: Six Ways To Elevate Your Homemade Cocktails
Try saying pamplemousse multiple times and you’ll have just as much fun with this quirky French word as you would enjoying a cocktail containing the pamplemousse. The word is but a fancier, French style of referring to the grapefruit, a subtropical citrus fruit with a slightly reddish hue that is known for its tangy and sour notes which elevate the flavour profile of any cocktail. Pamplemousse is generally of two kinds, a pink and ruby red variation, both of which add a lot of textural nuance to any boozy recipe. And this fruit can be introduced into your cocktails in a variety of ways.
When you decide to become a bartender at home, it inevitably involves dabbling in lots of different ingredients to experiment with myriad flavours and arrive at a mix that most suits your preferences. One such fruit you can explore during your mixology hour is the pamplemousse which can be incorporated into your drinks in the form of infusions, juices, liqueur or simply through a flavoured spirit. Each of these uses brings something different to your cocktail glass in terms of texture, aroma and flavour making pamplemousse a handy ingredient to elevate your cocktail game.
Read on below to know more about the ways in which you can add pamplemousse infusions to homemade cocktails for building complex flavours into your drinks:
Pamplemousse Soda
Turn the pamplemousse juice you have at home into a fizzy drink by incorporating a bit of carbonated drink or soda into the citrusy liquid. Instead of adding soda directly to a cocktail, you can first add it to some pamplemousse and build on the other ingredients later to intensify the flavour profile of the drink.
Pamplemousse Vodka
While you can dabble with the actual fruit at home in varied ways, a simpler hack is to go for flavoured spirits which would infuse your drink with the tangy and zesty qualities of this pink fruit in a hassle free way. Mix this spirit full of the aromas and subtle hint of the fruit with sparkling water or tonic water to make a simple highball cocktail and garnish it with a pamplemousse wedge for an elegant finish.
Pamplemousse Peel Garnish
Grapefruit garnishes are just as elegant as they are tasty and tingly. You can use pamplemousse peels to garnish some really sophisticated mixes like a crusta cocktail or a spritz made up of fine red wine and other aromatics. Try to scrape a grapefruit peel without breaking it so that you can give it a slightly spirally shape that would elegantly adorn your cocktail glass. The peel will also introduce some bitter notes into any drink, making it a rather complex concoction to be churned out of a home bar.
Pamplemousse Juice
The simplest way to incorporate the zesty pamplemousse into homemade cocktails like palomas and greyhounds is to squeeze fresh juice out of the fruit which can be added to your shaker along with ice and a quality spirit. Source ripe and crispy grapefruits with a resplendent pink hue so that their natural colours ooze into the alcoholic mix when the juice is poured over clear tequila or gin.
Grilled Pampelmousse
One of the ways in which fruits are being incorporated into cocktails in modern mixology is by char grilling them on an old fashioned barbecue. With this you can introduce some smoky textures into the drink that give it a very intense finish. Grill wedges of pamplemousse the next time you host a barbecue and squeeze its flesh into a blender to extract the juices out of the grilled fruit which can then be added to cocktail concoctions.
Homemade Pamplemousse Liqueur
Make fruity infusions and cocktail mixers at home by blending pamplemousse juices or slices with neutral alcohol and bringing this to a boil until all the flavours from the fruit ooze into the liquid. You can also bottle the delicious citrus liqueur and bring it out every time you want to craft a zesty cocktail.
