Fresh Red VS. Bottle White Grapefruit - Tiki Drinks and Food

CAA Chip and Andy Member Corner table, Molokai Lounge, Mai-Kai. Joined: Jul 13, 2004 Posts: 2277	CAA Chip and Andy Posted posted on Tue, Jan 13, 2015 8:06 AM Fresh is always better than bottled! But that doesn't mean that bottled is bad. There are a few tricks you can use to get the best of both, and they work on almost all the citrus juices.... Buy quality bottled product. Read the ingredients, the labels says 100% juice but that doesn't always mean it is 100% of that particular juice. Some lesser brands add apple or grape to the mix to keep sweetness up and costs down. Add some fresh juice to the bottled product. This helps in batching for parties (or just a Friday night) by getting the convenience of bottled but still getting some of the sparkle of fresh. The effort of juicing one grapefruit into a pitcher of bottled gives you the best balance of fresh and bottled. And then specifically to the original question of Grapefruits... White Grapefruit would have been the fruit most commonly available 'back in the day.' And what Don Beach would have been using while in the Caribbean doing his research. Pink Grapefruit is close, and was becoming quite common when these drinks were being made, but you will need to adjust your recipes because they are now considerably sweeter than the typical white variety. Ruby Red Grapefruit is very much sweeter than the white so you will have to adjust your recipe to accommodate. And this is going to be the easiest fruit/juice to find because it is the easiest to grow and most commercially stable of all the fruits in this family. You can use any of the varieties for any of the drinks because it is all grapefruit juice BUT you have to do some experimenting first because the different varieties are differently sweet. For example, if you are using pink grapefruit juice in your Navy Grog you will need to use a bit less honey. You might also need to add a dash of bitters (grapefruit or others) to keep that slight citrus-bitter-edge. The plus side to all of this..... you are going to have to make several more Navy Grog's so you can try some variations on juice with more or less sweets and more or less or different bitters.

Fresh is always better than bottled!

But that doesn't mean that bottled is bad.

There are a few tricks you can use to get the best of both, and they work on almost all the citrus juices....

Buy quality bottled product. Read the ingredients, the labels says 100% juice but that doesn't always mean it is 100% of that particular juice. Some lesser brands add apple or grape to the mix to keep sweetness up and costs down.

Add some fresh juice to the bottled product. This helps in batching for parties (or just a Friday night) by getting the convenience of bottled but still getting some of the sparkle of fresh. The effort of juicing one grapefruit into a pitcher of bottled gives you the best balance of fresh and bottled.

And then specifically to the original question of Grapefruits...

White Grapefruit would have been the fruit most commonly available 'back in the day.' And what Don Beach would have been using while in the Caribbean doing his research.

Pink Grapefruit is close, and was becoming quite common when these drinks were being made, but you will need to adjust your recipes because they are now considerably sweeter than the typical white variety.

Ruby Red Grapefruit is very much sweeter than the white so you will have to adjust your recipe to accommodate. And this is going to be the easiest fruit/juice to find because it is the easiest to grow and most commercially stable of all the fruits in this family.

You can use any of the varieties for any of the drinks because it is all grapefruit juice BUT you have to do some experimenting first because the different varieties are differently sweet. For example, if you are using pink grapefruit juice in your Navy Grog you will need to use a bit less honey. You might also need to add a dash of bitters (grapefruit or others) to keep that slight citrus-bitter-edge.

The plus side to all of this..... you are going to have to make several more Navy Grog's so you can try some variations on juice with more or less sweets and more or less or different bitters.

Post #735058 by Chip and Andy on Tue, Jan 13, 2015 8:06 AM