Highballs and long drinks · Gin
Fresh grapefruit is tart and a little bitter; the salt rim softens that bitterness and makes the fruit taste sweeter and juicier. Add gin and plenty of ice and you have one of the simplest good highballs there is.
1½ oz
London dry gine.g. Tanqueray · Gordon's · Beefeater · Bombay Sapphire · Sipsmith
3 oz
grapefruit juice freshly squeezed
1 pinch of
salt for the rim
Garnish: Salt rim and grapefruit slice · Ice: Ice cubes
Salty Dog
Tart and refreshing grapefruit with a gently bitter edge, rounded by salt. Light to medium strength and very drinkable.
The Salty Dog is a Greyhound, gin or vodka with grapefruit juice, served in a glass with a salted rim. Gin with grapefruit juice was being mixed well before the Second World War, and the name Greyhound is documented by the mid-1940s. The salted version followed around the middle of the century, and as vodka became widely popular in the United States in the 1950s and 1960s, many bars switched the base spirit.
The salt is more than decoration. A little salt suppresses bitterness on the tongue, so the grapefruit tastes rounder and fruitier. Cooks use the same trick, and it goes a long way to explain why such a plain drink has stayed on bar menus for decades. Today both gin and vodka versions are common.
Only the salt rim. A Greyhound is gin or vodka with grapefruit, a Salty Dog adds a salted rim.
Both are correct. Gin was the original choice, vodka became popular later.
Salt reduces the perception of bitterness, making the grapefruit taste sweeter and fruitier.
The perfect sound
Salty rim, sea breeze and a lazy harbour afternoon.
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