A tequila highball that stacks fresh orange, grapefruit and lime over a blanco base, sharpened by a pinch of salt and lifted with a splash of grapefruit soda. Poured into a porous clay jarrito de barro that holds the chill and adds an earthy edge, it drinks like a Paloma with more citrus and more swagger.
Garnish: Lime Wedge, Grapefruit Wedge
Shaken · Clay cup (jarrito de barro) or Highball · On the Rocks
add
Combine the tequila, orange juice, grapefruit juice, lime juice, and a pinch of salt in a shaker.
shake
Add ice and shake until cold.
strain
Pour, ice and all, into an ice-filled clay cup (jarrito de barro) or highball glass.
top
Top with grapefruit soda (such as Squirt).
garnish
Garnish with a lime wedge and a grapefruit wedge.
The Cantaritos is a folk drink of Jalisco, the heart of agave country, and no individual inventor appears anywhere in the record. Its beginnings are hazy, set loosely in the early twentieth century among the workers of the agave fields, who drank it to cool down. Popular lore reaches further, tying it to revolutionary-era figures such as Villa and Zapata — a tale that stays legend rather than credit. Only much later did tourists take it up and spread its fame beyond the region.