Essential · 5 minutes with chilled ingredients · Serves 1
Bitter Shore — Essential
Illustrative image generated with AI, not a photo of the cooked dish.
An aperitif highball: grapefruit bitterness and mate's green note extend the juniper. The base is dry gin; serve cold and evaluate at actual dilution.
This version uses measured store-bought ingredients and keeps the flavor axis of its Signature sibling. Initial documentary formula, with no physical tasting recorded; sweetness and acidity need an initial trial with specific products.
Special equipment: Jigger, strainer and chilled glassware
Ingredients
Mix
- 45 ml Dry gin, 40% ABV.
- 35 ml Store-bought unsweetened pink grapefruit juice.
- 25 ml Store-bought unsweetened ready-to-drink yerba mate.
- 10 ml Store-bought 1:1 simple syrup.
- 60 ml Chilled soda water.
- Potable ice: solid cubes filling a 300 ml highball glass.
- 1 grapefruit peel strip for expressing oils.
Method
Mix
- Check labels for no added sugar except in syrup; chill products to 5 °C or below. Measure each dose directly for one drink. Flavor varies by brand; record products in the first trial.
- Build gin, grapefruit, mate and syrup in a chilled highball glass over ice. Add soda last and stir once to preserve carbonation. Nominal liquid volume is 175 ml; about 0 ml of preparation ice melt is assumed, except in a built highball. Measure actual dilution in the first trial; do not top up to a fixed volume.
The serve
Serve in a chilled highball glass, with solid cubes filling a 300 ml highball glass. Apply grapefruit peel expressed over the glass immediately before serving without blocking the sip. Expect pink grapefruit and yerba mate first; as ice melts, evaluate whether gin remains present and sweetness and acidity stay balanced.
Key points
- Measure every liquid; nominal volume is not an observed yield.
- Keep fresh ingredients cold and serve immediately.
- Record brand, composition and ABV to make the result repeatable.
- Adjust one variable per tasting; this formula has not been physically validated.
Notes
- Theoretical strength: 18 ml nominal absolute alcohol / (175 ml mix + 0 ml assumed dilution) = approximately 10.3% ABV. This excludes serving ice melt and volume contraction. Actual dilution depends on ice, time, temperature and technique. The Essential version assumes no added sugar in products and syrup comparable to 1:1; check labels and adjust after tasting.
- Consume in the same session. Do not infer microbiological shelf life for juice, purée or cocktail from alcohol content. Do not bottle for another day.