
The Greyhound is another of the New England highballs, a variation on the Cape Codder (or Cape Cod) that uses grapefruit juice instead of cranberry.
The Greyhound Highball recipe
In a highball glass, combine over ice:
- 1.5 oz. vodka
- 3.5 oz. grapefruit juice
- lime wedge, for garnish
Again, the proportions are variable. If you like more vodka taste, add more vodka. If you like more sour, add more grapefruit. For some drinks, I’m a stickler about proportions. I wouldn’t advise adding an extra 0.5 oz. to a Vesper, for example. But the New England highballs aren’t those drinks. Vary them all you want according to your taste.
And as long as we’re talking about taste, I’m actually not a huge fan of the Greyhound. Last time, I talked about the Sea Breeze, which combines vodka and cranberry with 1 oz. of grapefruit juice, and that drink works perfectly. But the Greyhound is only grapefruit, so there is no sugar to balance out the sour. One commenter said they like to order Cape Cods at office parties, and I can see that. I wouldn’t order a Greyhound.
Scratch that! If you’ve never had a Greyhound highball, order one. Might as well try something new, right?
A note on fresh grapefruit juice
A note about grapefruit juice: I have been using fresh grapefruit juice for all of these drinks. It’s December, so grapefruits are in season in Texas, and I can buy a 10 lb. bag for $3.
That 10 lb. bag will give me about 5-6 cups of juice after lots of squeezing. That sounds like a lot, but not when you’re making drinks requiring nearly a half of a cup of grapefruit juice. Each. That’s waht 3 1/2 ounces is, after all! It’s almost 1/2 of a cup!
So I don’t recommend these for everyone at a party unless you use bottled grapefruit juice. But then you’re sacrificing a bit of quality for the sake of ease. Probably worth it in this case. If you want good grapefruit juice, I would go with Simply Grapefruit. Best I’ve had.