This Grapefruit Sparkler is a festive champagne cocktail! I love adult beverages featuring sparkling wine and this is simple to make and refreshing to drink at brunch or to ring in the New Year. This pretty drink will be a mainstay at your next girls night!
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I've had an on-again-off-again relationship with grapefruit for a long time. As a child I was not a fan, like most children (my A is an exception, she loves sharing a grapefruit with me!). As I got older, I ate a little bit of grapefruit here and there as a young adult.
Then, when I was at the very end of my second trimester with T, we were in Philadelphia visiting my cousin Andrea and her husband Nate. It was a gorgeous Saturday morning and we were making breakfast when Andrea asked if I wanted to split a grapefruit with her.
Initially I was hesitant. Up until then, I'd been so hit-or-miss with grapefruits that I didn't want to waste a perfectly good half-a-grapefruit on my fickle pregnant taste buds. But I thought, why not? It's good for me and for T, after all.
So I sprinkled it with a bit of sugar and dove in face first. That grapefruit was perfectly tangy and even a little bit sweet. It tasted so clean and refreshing and I couldn't get enough! I don't know what happened, but I was suddenly a believer!
After that, it was as though a switch was flipped and I had to have more grapefruit. I was buying them unapologetically by the bagful. A grapefruit was on my plate literally every single morning through the end of my maternity leave. I also bought grapefruit chapstick and grapefruit flavored seltzer. Now I still adore grapefruits on weekend mornings, but I've toned it down a bit for the sake of convenience and my wallet.
With New Years fast approaching, I thought it only appropriate to combine this clean, fresh favor with another favorite of mine- champagne! Instant celebration.
Now that I had my primary components, I knew I needed a little something extra, to sweeten the deal on might say. So I put on my thinking cap and remembered an article I once read from the one-and-only Martha Stewart about how to make candied lemons.
I figured candied grapefruit peels would not only make a pretty garnish, but they'd make a tasty grapefruit infused simple syrup. So I made a few little changes of my own to accommodate my needs and got to work.
The results were a champagne cocktail with that deliciously dry bite that you tend to find in both the grapefruit and sparkling wine, with a bit of fruity sweetness from the simple syrup.
On my first sip the dryness hit me immediately, but I found it to be pretty satisfying and really refreshing. I think this is fancy enough to serve at a New Years Eve cocktail party (or any celebratory event) but also an excellent option for that New Years Day brunch when you need a little hair of the dog to pick you up.
The bonus of this is you also get the candied grapefruit/simple syrup recipe which can translate to any citrus fruit beautifully. Now for this I cut off the fruit part of the candied grapefruit and only used the peels, but those are totally tasty as well!
Other great cocktail party favorites include:
Sweet and Spicy Kielbasa Bites
Grapefruit Sparkler
Ingredients
For the candied grapefruit peels and grapefruit-infused simple syrup:
- 1 grapefruit
- 2 cups of sugar
- 2 cups of water
For each Grapefruit Sparkler:
- Sugar
- 2 Tbsp. of grapefruit-infused simple syrup + a little extra to rim your glass
- 1 Tbsp. of fresh squeezed grapefruit juice
- The Champagne or sparkling wine of your choice mine was semi-dry
Instructions
For the candied grapefruit peels and grapefruit-infused simple syrup:
- Start by slicing your grapefruit in half. Then lay each half flat-side down and cup it into thin slices (discard the seeds). Finally cut each slice in half and set aside.
- Bring the sugar and water to a boil in a saute pan whisking until the sugar is dissolved. Reduce the heat to medium-low.
- Place the grapefruit slices in the water in a single layer (it's ok if they overlap a bit). Let them simmer (not boil!) for an hour or until the rinds are translucent.
- Place them on a pan lined with wax paper to cool.
- Allow the remaining liquid to cool a bit and then strain it into a container and refrigerate covered for up to a week or two.
- Once cool, remove the fruit from the rind.
For each Grapefruit Sparkler:
- Dip the rim of your glass into the grapefruit-infused simple syrup and then into some sugar.
- Next place the 2 Tbsp. of grapefruit-infused simple syrup into the glass followed by the 1 Tbsp. of fresh squeezed grapefruit juice.
- Fill the rest of the glass with chilled Champagne or sparkling wine and place a candied grapefruit rind onto the rim (or into the glass).
- Enjoy right away!
Notes
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