Basil Toronja Cooler
Four basil leaves, a squeeze of lime, a pinch of salt, and Toronja. Five ingredients, five minutes.
This is the least complicated drink in the rotation and one of the best. Basil and grapefruit share a slightly bitter, slightly peppery quality, and pressing a few leaves in the bottom of a glass is enough to move it into the drink.
The pinch of kosher salt is what makes it taste finished. Grapefruit is bitter as well as sour, and a little salt takes the hard edge off that bitterness without making the drink taste salty.
The Recipe
Makes 1 · 5 minutes
Ingredients
- 1 tall glass of ice
- 4 fresh basil leaves
- 1/2 oz fresh lime juice
- 1 pinch kosher salt
- 6 oz Tehuacan Brillante Toronja
Method
- Drop the fresh basil leaves into the bottom of a highball glass.
- Pour in the fresh lime juice and gently press the basil with a spoon to release its oils.
- Fill the glass to the brim with ice cubes.
- Top with Tehuacan Brillante Toronja.
- Stir gently to pull the basil and lime up through the sparkling water.
Notes
Press the basil with the back of a spoon, once or twice, in the lime juice. That is all. Muddling it properly releases chlorophyll and the drink turns grassy and dark.
Add the leaves before the ice, not after. Trying to press herbs through a full glass of ice does nothing except break the leaves into confetti.
Genovese basil, not Thai. Thai basil brings anise, which fights the grapefruit instead of joining it.
Tehuacán Brillante is sparkling mineral water from the Tehuacán Valley in Puebla, naturally mineralized on a journey of roughly eight years through volcanic rock. Family run since 1983, Mexican owned, bottled in 12 fl oz glass. Find us at @drinktehuacan.
