Some say it was a song. Some say it was invented at a bar. Some say the recipe was discovered by Elon Musk on Mars; After which he invented time travel, journeyed to 1950’s Mexico and planted the recipe to surreptitiously inform the world that Mexicans were indeed on Mars - they were Marsicans. Okay, that last one was only in my head. But there’s just as much evidence to back that up as any other plausible theory surrounding the origins of this episode’s tenebrous topic.
Actually, there’s really no origin to speak of. I try to leave any chronological markers out of Pod Tiki so the episodes can be enjoyed in any order at any time, (I’m being a bit presumptuous thinking they’re “enjoyed” at all), but this feels like deja vu after the Cuba Libre episode. Today’s drink, a mixture of tequila, lime, and grapefruit soda, is like Mexico's answer to the rum and coke, but sans any rich history to make it interesting; Something of which Mexico is usually replete with. In fact, the lack of backstory is kinda what is interesting. There's not even a good controversy. The only disagreement seems to be what kind of soda to use. Fresh juice didn't even come along till tropical hipsters started looking for ways to turn a $6 cooler into a $15 cocktail.
So, where does that leave us? Mired in Mexican mystery. We may never have the answer, but as it turns out the more of these I drink the less I care about answers. What was the question again? After all, it’s easy to feel at peace with a drink whose name translates literally to “the dove”. So, let’s have a little fun with La Paloma!
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Last year at this time I did an extensive episode on my favorite drink: The Margarita. We dove deep into ingredients and pastimes and the gravitas of my personal attachment to it. I care so much about that drink that I still don’t think I truly did it justice. This episode is nothing like that. I can’t figure out what it is about the Paloma. At first I thought it would be like a modified marg, but it turns out to be more like a carbonated Hemingway Tequila Daiquiri. I feel like the Paloma was the original hard seltzer. It’s an enigma notwithstanding its furtive beginnings. I shouldn’t like this drink. I don’t like this drink. It’s not a good drink. But, then, I sorta can’t stop drinking them. When my wife and I are relaxing on the patio, I find myself wanting one. Are they good, or is it just that I’m now obsessed with trying to figure out if they're good? I found myself stressing over figuring out the perfect balance of soda to lime juice. Which tequila offered flavor vs crispness. I’m being totally honest when I tell you there were nights I laid in bed thinking of ways to tweak the recipe. It just confounded me so, the uncoding of this equivocal quencher.
When the mix is off the Paloma is sugary soda with a pungent tequila note, or bland and watered down. Any attempts to help it along in any direction either offset the balance or change the ingredient list so much it eschews any authenticity. When done right it’s actually a perfectly splendid spiked cooler. I wouldn’t call any alcoholic beverage “refreshing”. I don’t think anything that dehydrates you can be truly refreshing. Nobody’s guzzling daiquiris to quench their thirst, but the Paloma is certainly a light crisp pleasant summer drink. Which begs my biggest question. In a world of daiquiris, margaritas, beach beers, mojitos, and punches, why do we need a so-so tequila cooler? I don’t know, but I kinda want one right now.
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Let’s briefly go over the few theories of origin. The name La Paloma or The Dove could come from a 19th century folk song of the same name. The drink itself is said to be invented in Tequila, Mexico by legendary barman Don Javier Delgado Corona at his bar La Capilla. The connection seems plausible at first as La Capilla is credited as being the birthplace of the Batanga, a tequila and coke with lime. By the way, I’m calling bullshit on changing one ingredient and saying you invented a different drink. That would be like me growing a mustache and insisting everyone call me El Pod-Tonio. Everyone knows I’m Tony with a mustache.
I digress, because that whole story is inconsequent. You see, Don Javier, despite having the coolest bartender name, denies having anything to do with the Paloma. Some hearsay take it back to the 1950’s, but grapefruit soda didn't start popping up in Mexico till the 60’s. The first written mention of it comes from renowned cocktailian David Wondrich in his 2005 “Killer Cocktails”. Wondrich says his earliest finding of Palomas by name is from the 1990’s but tequila-lime-grapefruit concoctions go back to the 70’s. Mixing Tequila with other sodas had been popular in Mexico for a long time. So I think it’s pretty self explanatory what happened here.
Applying a little Occam’s razor, the simplest answer being the most likely, I contend once grapefruit soda became popular folks down Mexico way naturally began mixing it with their favorite spirit just for something new. The drink subsequently proliferated naturally as most of our simple standards do. It doesn’t take a genius to figure this out. We do it today, whenever a new drink comes out we mix it with booze. Remember the vodka-Red Bull debacle of the 2000’s? Remember when we all made fun of Smirnoff Ice? Now they made it clear, put it in a skinny can, and called it hard seltzer and we all concurrently lost a summer? Perhaps the pandemic was Earth’s way of keeping hard seltzer’s white claws from truly digging in too deep.
Using purely Mexican ingredients, I imagine La Paloma gave a sense of National pride that so many Caribbean Islands had enjoyed for decades due to rum being the typical tropical tipple. Tequila transcends multiple facets of Mexican geo-culture, from the beaches of Cozumel to the cantinas of Juarez, vis-a-vis rum from the West Indies to New England. And let us not forget the Yucatan just about comes up to kiss the Caribbean, after all.
Well, I don’t know about you guys but all this heretical history dries me out. Palomas, anyone? Let’s make a drink.
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Of all the ways I tried making Palomas the changes in flavor are negligible. We have tequila, we have grapefruit, lime, something sweet and some carbonation. The traditional recipe calls for grapefruit soda, which knocks out three little birds with one stone. In what I’m calling the “fresh” version we’re just gonna break those components down using fresh grapefruit juice, agave syrup, and club soda.
Which grapefruit soda to use here seems to be up to preference, but Jarritos brand is a true Mexican product and is referenced most often by trusted recipes. Squirt is the other contestant. I use Jarritos. It’s easy to find in most Mexican mercados. I didn’t have much luck with grapefruit soda waters like La Croix or Bubly. I just found the grapefruit flavor too mild to stand up to tequila. I do have an audible though. Italian soda. If you can find grapefruit Italian soda it has more of that true bitterness associated with the fruit and is not as sweet as Jarritos. I prefer it.
Of course, we want to use fresh squeezed lime juice, and if you go the agave syrup route make sure it’s pure agave and not agave cocktail syrup. If your liquor store doesn’t carry it you can find it in the baking section of the supermarket.
Lastly, we can’t make a Paloma without tequila. A blanco is generally used, though I found if you don’t get a premium tequila the pungence of blanco clashes with the bitter grapefruit. That’s one of the reasons this drink felt a bit abrasive to me at first. I corrected that problem by using reposado. It rounds out the bite and adds some deeper flavors thanks to the barrel aging. I use my favorite local brand, Cuestion Tequila. If it’s not available in your area I fall back on Cazadores Reposado. It’s aged enough to add character, but still light enough to be crisp, herby, and fruity. Comes in about 30$ where I’m at.
Before we go on I have to vent a little on coolers, that is, drinks that use soda as the main mixer. I can’t stand the phrase, “fill to top”. Especially when they don’t tell you what size glass they're using. Depending on such, the drink will taste different. This is how we end up with oversweet cola drinks or unpalatable half-n-half’s. Half booze half soda should stay with Charles Bukowski. Been there, drank that, wrote the poem.
I also take umbrage with “to taste”. Of course as palm shade bartenders and pros alike will confirm, having one’s own version of something the way they like it is crucial to enjoyment. But I don’t want any secrets in my recipes. I want someone to be able to taste one of my drinks, go home and use my recipe, and it tastes exactly the same. I love the creatikivity and rumgenuity of tiki drinks. But I also believe there should be a standard original recipe for to build off. That’s why tiki frustrates me so. Too often it’s left up to us to build out. It’s like a cocktail lego set. Mine came with the limited edition tiny Don Javier figure.
Here’s the Tradition recipe:
1 ½ oz Tequila Reposado
½ oz Lime Juice
3 oz Jarritos Grapefruit Soda
Pinch of Cocktail Salt
Add all ingredients, including salt, directly into a double rocks, collins, or pilsner glass, fill with ice and stir. La Paloma should be a pallid translucent green. I’ve seen recipes with the salt mixed in or on the rim. Personally I find mixing it in adds a bit of complexity and that summer drink feel.
You’ll see in this fresh juice recipe the flavors are the same, we just get there differently.
2 oz Tequila Reposado
1 oz Fresh Grapefruit Juice
½ oz Fresh Lime Juice
1 tsp Agave Syrup
4 oz Topo Chico Sparkling Water
Pinch of Cocktail Salt
We’re going to mix it in the glass using the very same method as before, otro vez, and there you have it. In either version it shouldn’t hit you in the face. It’s not a flavor bomb though the bitter-sour-sweet aspects are subtly present. I used the hard selter comparison because it really does remind me of a better tasting alternative. The grapefruit and lime is faint, the sweetness mild, while tequila adds some body.
I can understand why this drink earned the moniker of the dove . It’s unassuming character, pastel hue, and bubbly demeanor pacify the soul, then you add tequila in the mix and this is what it tastes like when doves cry.
Credits: Alcademics.com Link, Wikipedia, Imbibe.com, Liquor.com