5 Modern Takes on the Paloma From Pro Bartenders

The Paloma — traditionally prepared with a mix of tequila, grapefruit soda, lime juice and salt — is the most popular drink in Mexico, even more so than the Margarita. It dates back to at least the 1950s, when grapefruit soda was first commercialized. During the decades since, this tangy, thirst-quenching highball has been popularized around the globe, and now it’s often served with fanciful interpretations. Some signature Palomas include variations that swap out the tequila for other agave or Mexican spirits. Others take poetic license with the grapefruit soda component while adding additional flavors and sometimes spice levels. 

Below are a few modern Paloma riffs created by bartenders around the United States, with adaptations suited for any home bar. Each of these cocktails is served in a highball glass.

“My inspiration for ingredients typically stems from sharing meals with loved ones,” says Javelle Taft, bar manager at Death & Co NYC. In this instance, he somehow saw a correlation between Palomas and a hamachi crudo with citrus garlic ponzu sauce he ate in Maui, Hawaii. He uses Don Fulano Blanco tequila for its authentic roasted agave flavors as a base. “It’s an eastern play on a Paloma with some green citrus notes and a hint of salted, smoked chili.” He elaborates that calamansi, native to the Philippines, “adds a fruity note, like a heightened mandarin.” To serve, Taft recommends making a salt rim combining equal parts nori, smoked sea salt and cayenne pepper in a small saucer. Just rub citrus on the rim of the glass and dip in the saucer.

“I wanted to add different layers using both a nod to Mexican-inspired flavors with a kick from Ancho Reyes Verde, plus a little Memphis inspiration with the Memphis BBQ bitters,” says bar consultant Christian Sanders, founder of Strangeways. This food-friendly take is built around Alma de Jaguar Blanco tequila, a 100% agave and additive-free brand that supports the Northern Jaguar Project wildlife conservancy.

Though it’s an Italian coastal-themed restaurant, one of the house cocktails at Porto in Boston is a Paloma adaptation. To serve the Mexican national cocktail with a Mediterranean twist, the bar team concocted a version using Los Magos Sotol as a base. “We felt that sotol gave us an opportunity to introduce a different depth of a smoky, earthy flavor to a cocktail that is known for being very light and bright,” says Jon Mendez of A Street Hospitality. “The citrus syrup the team makes in-house allows them to control the balance of earthy and bright flavors.” In keeping with the Mediterranean theme, they use a boutique Greek soda brand.

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Beau de Bois, bar and spirits VP at Puesto (which has multiple locations in Southern California), prepares an aromatic Paloma using a base of El Tesoro Tequila and a touch of lemon verbena juice, which can be brewed from commercial tea if not available fresh. “Lemon verbena will make almost anything better,” de Bois says. “The aromatics and flavor are very similar to candied lemon.” This refresher has what he describes as “serious X factor” to stand out amongst the Palomas.

Michael Neff, bar director of Bar Loretta and Gimme Gimme in San Antonio, Texas, serves up a spicy Paloma using both tequila and mezcal. “We’ve been playing a lot lately with blending different agave spirits,” he says. “Spiking tequila with different mezcals is a great way to add new depths to traditional tequila cocktails. This blend works well with the traditional Paloma flavor profile and carries the added heat [from a DIY tincture] perfectly.”

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