The Paloma , a refreshing mix of tequila, grapefruit soda, lime juice, and salt, is—as is often said about it—what they drink in Mexico instead of the Margarita. See Margarita. A version of the Changuirongo, the ur-mixture of a sweet soda such as Coca-Cola, ginger ale, or Fanta with tequila, the Paloma’s roots go back to 1950, when a brochure for Squirt, a U.S.-based grapefruit-flavored soda, suggested mixing it with tequila. It is unknown who adapted the combination to Mexican tastes, but Squirt was launched there in 1955. By the early 1970s the combination was being aggressively advertised in the United States (e.g., “Tequila has appeala with Squirt”); in 1974, there was even a short-lived promotion for a “Cactus Banger,” with tequila, Squirt, a Galliano knockoff, and a fat wedge of lime.
It would take another twenty years, however, for the tequila–grapefruit soda combination’s popularity to become widespread. The process seems to have begun in Jalisco, where it picked up the lime juice and salt that make it such a peerless refresher and became a sort of signature drink of the many bars in the Parián, the mariachi-filled arcaded square in the Guadalajara suburb of San Pedro Tlaquepaque. Tlaquepaque being a major tourist attraction, it didn’t take long for the drink to spread to Southern California, where it began appearing in the late 1990s under the name Paloma, Spanish for “dove.” Meanwhile, in 1997, Herradura began selling a canned version in Mexico under the name New Mix.
The Paloma’s popularity in Mexico ensured that it wasn’t just tourists spreading it around; by the early 2000s it had followed the Mexican American diaspora to all corners of the United States, or at least most of them. With the rise of the craft cocktail movement, many bartenders took to replacing the grapefruit-flavored soda with a mixture of grapefruit juice, sugar, and sparkling water, but purists still prefer theirs the original way. (In Tlaquepaque, however, the drink has further evolved into the Cantarito, which is the same thing but served in an earthenware cazuela, or casserole dish.)
Recipe: Juice ½ lime into Collins glass, add shell, 60 ml tequila, and a pinch of salt. Add ice and 60 ml grapefruit soda. Stir.
Jacobson, Max. “O.C. on the Menu.” Los Angeles Times, February 11, 1999, 60R.
Martínez Limón, Enrique, and Carlos Monsiváis. Tequila: Tradición y destino. Mexico City: Revimundo, 1999.
“Tequila Has Appeala with Squirt.” Los Angeles Times, April 28, 1978, IV 10.
Zaslavsky, Nancy. A Cook’s Tour of Mexico. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 1997, 36.
By: David Wondrich