This Pomelo Citrus Gin Fizz is a smooth sipping cocktail made from my favorite winter citrus!
Have you ever heard of a pomelo? It’s a citrus fruit that comes into season once a year, usually in January. It’s the size of a grapefruit, but it has a much sweeter, more floral flavor to it without the usual tart bitterness of a grapefruit. It also has a white flesh inside instead of pink or orange vesicles. Definitely worth tasting if you’ve never tried one! Citrus is one of the things I most look forward to each year in the winter – a delicious taste of what feels like summer in the middle of the dreary winter months that come after the Christmas excitement has faded away.
They are sometimes harder to find, but I just spotted them at Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods here in Denver, so if you hurry out, you should probably be able to find one for yourself too! If you don’t have access to a pomelo, you can definitely substitute your favorite citrus fruit – blood oranges, grapefruit, and lemons would all work quite well for this recipe.
Pomelos are actually one of the 4 varieties of citrus that we used to hybridize all the rest of our citrus fruits. The skins and pith are quite thick (about 1/2″), the membranes bitter, and they really just take a lot of work to break into, so I can see why you’d want to cross it with something else to make it peel more easily. I much prefer to supreme cut my pomelos instead of peeling them by hand like you traditionally would peel an orange. Here’s a great video on how to supreme cut a grapefruit if you’d like to learn how it’s done. If you don’t want to eat your pomelo in segments, and just want to make the syrup, feel free to just slice it in half and give it a good squeeze or run it through your juicer.
My sister-in-law and her partner have been visiting us this weekend, and we opened my last pomelo as part of dessert a couple days ago. Neither of them had ever tried one, so it was fun to share it and show them how to supreme cut citrus. I ran the leftover center membranes and a couple segments through our juicer to get the juice I needed for this Pomelo Citrus Gin Fizz (they named it a “Ginelo”) so you don’t need a ton of juice for it – just half a cup or so. We also didn’t know this was blog worthy until after we’d devoured the entire pomelo, so I had to garnish our drinks with an orange slice and don’t have any pomelo photos to share. (Hopefully you’ll forgive me!) Boy was this one of the smoothest gin cocktails I have ever had. Brokers gin is my favorite for mixing and it did not disappoint in this Pomelo Citrus Gin Fizz. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!
Have you ever had a pomelo before?
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Pomelo Citrus Gin Fizz
- Prep Time: 10
- Total Time: 10 minutes
Ingredients
For syrup
- 1/2 cup fresh-squeezed citrus juice from 1 Pomelo or 1 of your favorite citrus fruits (orange, grapefruit, lemon, etc)
- The zest from 1 citrus fruit
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 cup white sugar
For a Citrus Gin Fizz
- 1 part gin
- 1 part citrus syrup
- 3 parts seltzer water
- Ice
- Sugar and citrus slices for the rim
Instructions
For Syrup
- In a small saucepan, combine citrus juice, water, and sugar.
- Bring mixture to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and simmer for about 5 minutes, or until mixture begins to thicken to a syrup. .
- Remove from heat, add zest, and allow to cool.
For Each Gin Fizz
- In a cocktail shaker with ice, combine syrup and gin and shake vigorously.
- Run a citrus slice around the rim of a cocktail glass and dip in sugar.
- Add the syrup to the glass and pour seltzer over the top.
- Garnish with a citrus slice and serve.
Notes
- This also works great as a virgin pomelo soda. Just leave out the gin and serve it over ice!
- Gluten-free: Gin is distilled from grains that can include wheat and barley, so proceed with caution. The distilling process removes the gluten down to below the technically gluten-free 20ppm threshold, but celiacs can still react. Swap it for a potato vodka if you’re concerned.
- Vegan/Vegetarian: This is vegan.
Oooh this sounds good! Usually my husband and I don’t like the same kind of drinks, but he loves gin so this might be one we would both enjoy. Pinned for later!