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“This book is being published… in the hope that it will contribute at least a little to the standardization of drinks and to the promotion of that happy state of affairs where, when you order your favorite cocktail, you will get exactly the sensation your hopeful taste-buds have been anticipating, no matter what corner of this bright and beautiful land you happen at the moment to be inhabiting.”

— The Official Mixer’s Manual, 1934

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The Blinker is, ironically, one of those cocktails that everyone makes differently, in every corner of this bright and beautiful land you happen to be inhabiting at the moment.

The one thing it always has is grapefruit—usually juice, sometimes zest, occasionally both—and beyond that, all bets are off. Is it rye or bourbon? Do you add other citrus, like lemons or limes? There’s a red fruit component—is it raspberries or pomegranates (or Rose’s Grenadine, which is high-fructose neither)? Even structurally it’s up for grabs. Is it tall and juicy like a highball or short and snappy like a sour? The Blinker is all over the place. There’s no standard.

There’s irony in all this ambiguity. The book that introduced the Blinker—Patrick Gavin Duffy’s The Official Mixer’s Manual, mentioned earlier—was originally intended to establish a standard in the American cocktail scene. It was the year 1934, only a year past the end of the Prohibition era, which had outlawed alcohol for 14 years. The professionals skilled in the American bar tradition had either moved to Europe or switched professions. Moreover, there was a concern that advancements in automobiles and road systems had turned society almost nomadic, scattering the centralized knowledge of cocktail-making and diluting the once unified culture. Thus, a few publishers collaborated with Duffy, a seasoned expert of 35 years by the time Prohibition started, to produce a definitive guide and thereby rejuvenate the distinguished culture of American cocktails.

Duffy’s The Official Mixer’s Manual did, to some extent, achieve success, quickly becoming a significant reference and staying in print for four decades. However, over time, cultures evolve. The exact threat foreseen to mixed drinks did materialize, albeit later than predicted. Eventual changes saw the book and similar works overwhelmed by the flashy era of disco and vodka shooters, turning the Mixer’s Manual and its Blinker cocktail from a guiding beacon to merely a historical relic awaiting rediscovery.

The revival of the Blinker was led by “Dr. Cocktail” Ted Haigh, in his Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails, first published in 2004. Haigh found the original recipe in Duffy’s guide, which mixed three parts grapefruit juice with two parts rye whiskey and one part grenadine. He modified it by substituting raspberry for grenadine, finding that “raspberry syrup was a common substitute for grenadine … I experimented with it in this recipe—and never looked back.”

Regarding the ambiguity of the recipe, one may ask why not stick to Duffy’s initial concoction? Despite his extensive experience, the original Blinker simply didn’t taste that great. Similar to the recipes like Brown Derby and Blood and Sand, the problem lies with grapefruit juice which lacks the necessary acidity to enhance the flavors in these cocktails, at least with today’s grapefruit variants. Hence, bartenders often tweak the Blinker’s original formula significantly, either increasing the citrus content dramatically, minimizing it, or adding acidity through alternative means to solve this flavorful puzzle.

After trying all of them, I think the one below not only tastes best, but does so by a fairly wide margin. As far as I’m concerned, a modern Blinker must pay homage to the original flavors—rye, grapefruit, and pomegranate/raspberry—but not necessarily the original proportions, and my recipe is the one I most want to drink or would feel most confident giving to others. Is it precisely what the word “Blinker” will get you in bars across this bright and beautiful land of ours? No, it’s not. But it might be better.

2 oz. rye whiskey

0.75 oz. lemon juice

0.75 oz. grenadine

1 silver dollar-sized grapefruit peel

2 dashes grapefruit bitters, if possible

Add all ingredients including grapefruit peel to a cocktail shaker and shake hard on ice for eight to 10 seconds. Strain off the ice into a chilled cocktail or coupe glass, and garnish with a grapefruit peel.

NOTES ON INGREDIENTS

Grenadine: Grenadine is created by combining equal parts of pomegranate juice and sugar, much like the renowned Jack Rose. The excellence of your pomegranate juice is crucial. Using freshly pressed, unpasteurized juice can elevate your Blinker cocktail to exceptional levels. Inferior juices, even high-quality bottled ones like Pom Wonderful, do not perform as well. Grenadine shines brightest when it’s fresh.

If fresh pomegranate juice isn’t available, using raspberries is a viable alternative. Historically, raspberries and pomegranates were used interchangeably, raspberries in summer and pomegranates in winter, due to their seasonal availability pre-globalization. Substitute grenadine with simple syrup and incorporate four to five raspberries into your cocktail shaker, mashing them together with the grapefruit peel and ice.

Grapefruit Peel and Juice: Experimenting with grapefruit juice yielded good results, but none surpassed the simple use of lemon juice and a “regal” shake—shaking with a grapefruit peel in the cocktail shaker to bruise it alongside the ice. The acidity is necessary to enhance other flavors, with much of grapefruit’s distinct taste contained in its peel. Similar to the Gold Rush, the inclusion of a grapefruit peel imparts a textured bitterness enhancing each sip, staying true to the spirit of the recipe.

If you wish to experiment, adjusting grapefruit juice’s acidity to mirror that of lemon juice is feasible. Add 4g of citric acid per 100ml of grapefruit juice, blending until the acid dissolves. Bars use this method to maintain the flavor of grapefruit without overly diluting the cocktail mix. Nonetheless, even with adjusted acidity, shaking the cocktail with a grapefruit peel is irreplaceable for infusing authentic grapefruit flavor.

Rye Whiskey: Opt for rye over bourbon. While bourbon blends well with grapefruit too, it’s rye’s spiciness, combined with the tartness of red fruit and the bitterness of grapefruit, that truly defines this cocktail. Testing various styles of rye, the standout favorite was the Canadian style—a high-rye, no-corn mashbill exemplified by brands like Dickel Rye, Redemption Rye, Bulleit Rye, and others. This type with its soft, grain-forward herbaceousness complements grapefruit splendidly.

Grapefruit Bitters: There’s no need to purchase grapefruit bitters specifically for this mix, but if available, a couple of dashes enhance the drink, especially when substituting “acid adjusted” grapefruit with lemon juice. The added bitterness underscores the grapefruit flavor effectively. Alternatively, orange bitters might suit depending on the brand, though testing for personal preference is advised. Avoid heavily spiced aromatic bitters like Angostura, as they can overshadow the fruit elements, despite their appealing flavor.

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