Creekbed Paloma
A Hill Country paloma built on ruby grapefruit, yerba santa syrup, and a mesquite-smoked sea salt rim. Summer in a glass, tuned to the shade of a limestone creek bed at noon.
The Ingredient
Yerba santa (Eriodictyon californicum) grows where you'd expect — dry slopes, burned-over hillsides, full sun. The leaf worth having, though, comes off plants with some afternoon shade and steady moisture at the root. Shade keeps the leaf tender; a cool root keeps the resin from glassing over. Sun-scorched leaf off a fully exposed slope is tougher and steeps flat.
Picked young, dried flat, and steeped slow — it drinks like menthol and honey had an argument and decided to stay together.
Why It Works
Yerba santa has a genuine taste-masking effect: it dampens bitterness on the palate, which is why grapefruit tastes rounder and sweeter here than the sugar alone can explain. Nothing is added to soften it — something is subtracted.
Mesquite salt is made in-house, a 48-hour cold smoke of flaked Maldon with honey mesquite chips. It seasons the rim and carries smoke into every sip without touching the liquid.
Build
| Component | Volume | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Blanco tequila | 45 mL | 100% agave, mineral profile preferred |
| Ruby grapefruit juice | 60 mL | Fresh, unstrained |
| Yerba santa syrup | 15 mL | 2:1 sugar, 48-hour cold infusion |
| Lime juice | 8 mL | Fresh |
| Grapefruit soda | 60 mL | Topo Chico Toronja, or house tonic |
Yerba santa syrup:
- Coarse-chop 20 g dried leaves.
- Combine with 400 g sugar and 200 g filtered water.
- Cold-infuse at 4°C for 48 hours.
- Fine-strain through cheesecloth, then 25 µm.
Service
Salt half the rim of a chilled highball with mesquite-smoked Maldon — only half, so the guest can choose every sip. Build over a single collins-cut ice column. Top with soda last. Garnish with a thin ruby grapefruit wheel pinned to the rim.
The smoke should arrive before the grapefruit, and the grapefruit should arrive before the agave. If they show up in the wrong order, your salt is over-cured.
Next Steps
- Swap the yerba santa for hoja santa in late summer for an anise-forward variant.
- Batch the syrup at competition scale — stable 10 days refrigerated.
- Pair with a smoked Gulf oyster on the half shell with charred lime.