May is, apparently, London’s Paloma Month, culminating in World Paloma Day on 22 May. A quick look behind the curtain, however, suggests no real historical or cultural link between the pink tequila-and-grapefruit cocktail and the month itself—making the ‘celebration’ feel more like a well-timed marketing invention than an established tradition.
Which is curious, given that tequila and its associated cocktails hardly need any help. According to consumer data recently reported by The Guardian, the agave-based spirit has now overtaken gin as the UK’s bestselling spirit, and is set to be the pour of the summer.
The Paloma cocktail (Spanish for ‘dove’) is typically made with tequila, lime juice, and grapefruit soda, served over ice with a lime wedge and, sometimes, a salt rim. Some bars swap the soda for fresh grapefruit juice, topping the drink with club soda instead.
For at-home mixing, there are plenty of good grapefruit sodas on the market. For a more traditional Mexican-style serve, Jarritos Toronja – now widely available in London – remains something of a benchmark, with its sugar cane sweetness pairing particularly well with tequila blanco.
Elite Traveler drinks columnist Alice Lascelles swears by Two Keys Pink Grapefruit Soda when making Palomas at home. “It is the bomb,” she says. “I never use anything else.”
At Los Mochis, the Mexican-Japanese restaurant with locations in the City and Notting Hill, the house Paloma has developed a loyal following, including World of Fine Spirits editor-in-chief Alex Martin.
The team makes its own grapefruit cordial by blending grapefruit peel with sugar and citric acid, creating a brighter, sharper citrus profile. The drink is then lengthened with Wavelength Ruby – a non-alcoholic grapefruit kombucha – before being topped with Three Cents grapefruit soda.
The group’s Paloma obsession extends to Viajante87 in Notting Hill, its underground bar where Latin American ingredients and techniques shape the cocktail list. Both Tyler Zielinski, co-founder of Zest and author of Tiny Cocktails?, and spirits writer and judge Millie Milliken credited the venue as their favorite place in London to try the cocktail.
The winning drink, according to the experts, is the bar’s Coffee Paloma, one of the city’s more interesting takes on the classic. Milliken praises the addition of bitter grapefruit cordial and coffee to the usual mix of silver tequila and grapefruit soda, which gives the cocktail “more robustness and edge.”
Zielinski’s favorite is an off-menu version, made with fluffy grapefruit juice, creating what he describes as a silky, airy texture. “It was a subtle twist on the classic, but perfectly balanced, moreish, and quite impressive given its simplicity.”
For drinks writer Douglas Blyde, meanwhile, the best Paloma in London can be found in Mayfair, at Donovan Bar, inside Brown’s Hotel. There, Salvatore Calabrese and head bartender Federico Pavan mix Casamigos tequila with agave and fresh lime before topping it with grapefruit soda over ice.
What makes it stand out? Blyde credits Pavan’s precision. “The pour is exact, the dilution judged rather than left to chance, the ice doing its work without hurry. He handles it as if it matters, which it does.”
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The result, Blyde says, is a Paloma with the right balance of citrus, sweetness, and tequila bite.
