Fresh squeezed red grapefruit juice, gin and muddled basil combine in this healthy-ish cocktail that will brighten any winter happy hour. And since it’s citrus season, this cocktail is perfect right now.
What better way to celebrate the beginning of a new decade and a new year than with a healthy-ish cocktail?
Grapefruit is in season along with all citrus. So that means it tastes better this time of year. It’s sweeter, easy to find and usually cheaper too!
Make a healthier cocktail
Using the most flavorful ingredients is the key to creating a healthy cocktail you’ll enjoy.
This recipe takes advantage of red grapefruit that’s especially flavorful in winter. The uniquely sweet and tart flavor of freshly squeezed red grapefruit juice creates a drink that’s as beautiful as it is delicious.
Muddle for flavor
For an additional layer of flavor, I muddled fresh basil with grapefruit marmalade.
Muddling marmalade with herbs is a quick way to infuse fruit or herbal flavor into a cocktail or mocktail.
Muddling naturally extracts the essential oils from herbs to add depth, body and flavor to the drink. The fragrant basil plays on the slightly herbal flavor of the gin (I used Hendrick’s).
This was my first time developing a cocktail recipe for the blog. I’m a lightweight when it comes to drinking, so needless to say it was a fun weekend assignment.
I mean… to find the best combination, we had to test it out with gin versus rum. But hey alcohol has health benefits too right?
Now on to the recipe. If you haven’t noticed, I’m on a grapefruit kick right now. This grapefruit cocktail recipe gave me a good reason to keep it going. Cheers!
Grapefruit Gin Basil Cocktail
Ingredients
- 1 T grapefruit marmalade
- 2 large fresh basil leaves torn (plus more for garnish)
- ¾ c freshly squeezed grapefruit juice
- 1½ oz. gin
- 1-2 T grapefruit simple syrup (recipe below)
- ice cubes
Grapefruit Simple Syrup
- ¼ cup sugar
- ¼ cup fresh squeezed grapefruit juice
Instructions
- Make the grapefruit simple syrup: Combine ¼ cup sugar with ¼ cup fresh squeezed grapefruit juice in a small pot. Bring to a boil then lower to simmer until the sugar dissolves. Let cool.
Make the cocktail
- Muddle the marmalade and basil in a cocktail shaker. To this, press the leaves and marmalade together until you can smell the basil. The goal is to pull out the natural, flavorful oils.
- Add ice cubes, gin, grapefruit simple syrup and fresh grapefruit juice to a shaker. Shake well.
- Pour into your favorite glass and enjoy it with or without ice.
Regan @ The Healthy Aperture Blog
You can’t even begin to imagine how touched I am, Marisa. This is amazing and truly makes this day the best birthday ever! And I’m personally feeling victorious that your first blog drink is on me. “Cause you know, me and cocktails… we go way back 🙂 Thanks again friend!
Marisa
You are so deserving, Regan! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!
Carolyn
You had me at gin. And grapefruit and basil! Great cocktail for Regan.
Sonali- The Foodie Physician
This sounds so refreshing and delicious! I love your use of the marmalade- such a great idea! Cheers!
Ann Dunaway Teh (@anndunawayteh)
Beautiful! And very enticing! You’ll have to make me one some time soon! 😉
Rachael@AvocadoADayNutrition
Gorgeous pictures! And I love that you incorporated something from Blog Brulee! I still have my jar of marmalade and now I know exactly what to do with it 🙂
Min
OOh! I still have that marmalade! What a creative and delicious way to enjoy it ;). I just love adding herbs to cocktails!! Cheers!
Alanna
What a delicious cocktail recipe! I guarantee that I’m an even bigger light weight than you are 😉 I don’t drink much, but I love looking through beautiful drink recipes like yours. Have a great week!!
EA-The Spicy RD
My mouth is watering as I start at my computer scree. Seriously! This is such a pretty drink, and I imagine so delicious. I had a grapefruit this morning for breakfast, and have a feeling I’ll be enjoying another one tomorrow morning. Or perhaps a cocktail..:-)
Karman
I just love that we both used this marmalade in cocktails and they turn out so different! Beautiful photos and great idea to add basil for a unique twist!