Your New Favorite Cocktail

I always like hanging out in New York City. My fiancee's daughter lives in the East Village. So, we get to go down and visit quite often. It's only about an hour's train ride to Grand Central anyway. Last weekend we took our only day off, Sunday, to go down and blow off some steam. We planned the whole day out. But it was all about the dinner at ABC Kitchen that we had our eye on.

It was a lazy day for us with no specific times for our plans that we needed to adhere to. That's my kind of day. We sauntered into the City early afternoon. We shopped a little until we got that call from our bellies that we were hungry. We headed over to ABC kitchen only to find out that we had an hour to kill until their dinner menu was available. We decided to go on a search for margaritas. Right around the corner is Rosa Mexicano. I had never been to Rosa's. But apparently it's been there forever and is pretty well known. I noticed that they had a decent tequila list. This fact alone made me very happy.

La Paloma with Corazon Reposado

First thing's first. I ordered a delicious margarita. Mimi wanted to have a beer and a shot of tequila. She didn't want to have the whole shot for herself. So, she asked me to share it with her. We decided on the Don Julio 1942 in a snifter for the shot. As always, the 1942 was amazing. If I could drink that every day I would. It's just that good. While we were sitting there, I was perusing the drinks menu. I happened upon a drink that they called La Paloma. It consisted of tequila and grapefruit soda. Simple right? When I was finished with my margarita, I ordered one out of pure curiosity. The only grapefruit soda that I knew of was Fresca. I like an ice cold Fresca every once in a blue moon. The bartender asked which tequila I preferred. I went with the Corazon Reposado. About a minute later the bartender  brings out a shot of tequila, a highball glass full of ice and a Jaritto's Toronja. Hmmm, I haven't had Jarrito's Toronja before. I think the Jarrito's Mandarina is fantastic. Anyway, I asked the bartender why he didn't just mix the drink for me. He claimed that people like to go easy on the tequila. Ha! Not me. I threw the whole shot in the glass and then topped it off with the grapefruit soda.

Corazon Reposado
I stole this picture
from another website

This cocktail was heaven. It was complex with layers of sweetness encased by soft acidity. It was struggling to be tropical only to to be restrained with hints of vanilla bean and caramel. I just found my new drink of the summer. I used to drink gin and tonics on those hot summer nights. I made a vow to myself that those days are long gone. It's all about La Paloma now. It was so good that I was trying to figure out a way to send Mimi and her daughter to eat at Jean-Georges Vongerichten's restaurant and leave me here to throw back a few more of these delicious creations of holy goodness. I knew that wasn't going to happen. I'm only kidding, anyway.

Since that day, I haven't been able to find the Jarritto's locally. I have tried every other grapefruit soda I could find: Goya, Fresca and GUS grapefruit soda. The GUS came the closest to the same flavor. It's just not the same, though. I want to carry Jarrito's in my store. I've been on the hunt for the distributor. Hopefully one of my liquor suppliers will carry it.

I plan to package this together in the summer to sell in our store. I herein deem this summer to be La Paloma Summer!

Really, if you haven't tried one, you need to stop, drop and roll. Go out to your local tequila bar/Mexican restaurant and order this delicious beverage.