Grapefruit Sparkler

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:

Boozy Gummy Bears

BLT Bruschetta

Apple Bacon Brie Bites

Sweet and Spicy Kielbasa Bites

Grapefruit Sparkler

Jessy Freimann

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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Prep Time 10 mins

Cook Time 1 hr

Total Time 1 hr 10 mins

Course Cocktails

Cuisine Christmas, Girls Night, holidays, New Years

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

I wrote the cocktail recipe for each individual glass so it can be adapted to make these for as many or as few people as you want. I'm told you can help keep leftover sparkling wine fresh by placing a spoon in the opening of the bottle. This would be tasty with the citrus of your choice, but I love grapefruit best!

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