Post #763202 by AceExplorer on Mon, May 2, 2016 7:38 AM

On 2016-04-29 13:51, lunavideogames wrote:
Ace, I do like to have white on hand and I buy the Ocean Spray stuff when I can find it. I understand the arguements against using pink and I am a recipe purist so I do try my best to have the white on hand.

There is a definate difference between the white and the pink. I think that tiki drink recipes usually use such a small amount of grapefruit, whether it is Don's Mix or 1/2 oz in a drink, that the flavor difference is small enough that most* people won't notice it. Some of us here may notice the difference, but fresh versus pasturized, we might still think fresh tastes better.

I never did sub pink for white until recently. Seems like my family and friends were always buying bags of pink from the farmers markets for like $3 for a dozen huge, juicy grapefruits. They wouldn't be able to finish them, and I hate having stuff go to waste so I started juicing and subbing. The fresh vs bottled is really where it makes a big difference for me.

I'm a recipe purist as well, and there is a difference between white and pink, but I gave up on the pink versus white debate exactly because many recipes use a small amount of grapefruit juice. It came down to the reality that my super-careful measurements from jigger-to-jigger always vary by a few drops, and my choice of sugar syrups, bitters, rum brands, etc. also were variables, that the whole white-versus-pink thing became less relevant. But I still struggle with the fact that I'm a drink purist when trying new cocktails -- it is important to at least try to duplicate what the recipe wants to put forward. I have a very hard time with store-bought pasteurized juices - they never look "real" to me like fresh squeezed, it's like they've added stuff to make the juices very opaque. Ugh...

Having said all that, I've been picking up that the minor variations in drinks are hard to avoid, and that bartenders and drink creators tend not to let that get in the way too much, and they just accept it. (Please don't shoot me for saying that - I'm still observing this, so am not 100% committed to that statement.) I think this leads to a much more relaxed and enjoyable experience for the bartender while still not being careless or reckless like you find at many "pop" or sports bars where they think little or nothing of substituting ingredients and quickly free-pouring.

This grapefruit white-versus-pink thing is one of the few (or only) compromises I make. My attention to detail and authenticity has driven me to the point that I have now come to own about 95% of the ingredients listed in the Total Tiki app. I checked that over the weekend, yikes... I could have bought a small car with the money I've spent on building my bar. I have no regrets.