Low Carb Paloma: Keto Paloma Recipe With 4g Net Carbs

low-carb paloma made with real grapefruit juice and Don Julio

Ingredients

1.5 oz tequila blanco
1.5 oz ruby red grapefruit juice
5 oz sparkling water
2 dashes orange bitters optional
kosher salt
ice plus garnish

Instructions

Rim the glass. Run a grapefruit wedge around the rim of a highball glass, then roll the rim in kosher salt on a small plate. Salt knocks back the bitterness, which is why the rim exists.
Fill the glass with ice. Do it now, so the glass is cold when the drink hits it.
Pour the tequila and grapefruit juice. Add 2 dashes of orange bitters here if you’re using them.
Top with sparkling mineral water. Pour slowly down the side of the glass to keep the fizz.
Stir once, gently. A Paloma is built, not shaken. Hard stirring kills the carbonation.
Garnish with a grapefruit wedge. Lime slices work also.

Notes

Ingredient Notes

Grapefruit. Buy ruby red. It’s sweeter and less bitter than white grapefruit, so the drink balances with no sweetener at all. A third of a fruit gives you the ounce and a half. Roll it hard on the counter first and you’ll get more juice.

Bottled juice works if you’re not squeezing. Read the label. You want 100% grapefruit juice with nothing added. Anything sold as a juice cocktail, juice beverage, or juice drink has sugar in it, and that puts you right back at the soda version.

Sparkling water. San Pellegrino or Perrier. Both are plain carbonated mineral water and nothing else. Skip Topo Chico, which carries added preservatives. Skip anything flavored, since flavored seltzers are where sucralose tends to hide.

Lime. Most Paloma recipes add lime. This one doesn’t need it. A good ruby red carries enough acid, and leaving the lime out holds the drink at 4g net carbs. I add it in two cases. Winter grapefruit is often bitter, and a half ounce of lime pulls the drink back toward tart. If you’re eating low carb rather than strict keto, the extra gram isn’t worth thinking about. A half ounce brings the drink to about 5g net carbs and 119 calories.

Bitters. Two dashes of orange bitters is the best thing you can add to this drink. Bitters are botanical extracts in alcohol, so two dashes cost a couple of calories and effectively no carbs. They fill in the aromatic middle of the drink, the part grapefruit soda used to fake. Check the label first. Some brands use caramel color.

Nutrition