The Brown Derby is a 1930s Hollywood drink — bourbon, grapefruit juice and honey, named for the hat-shaped restaurant on Wilshire Boulevard. It is one of the few classic cocktails built on grapefruit, and it is unfairly forgotten.
Brûléeing the grapefruit before juicing does for it what charring does for lemon, only more so: grapefruit’s bitterness is its whole character, and caramelised sugar is the one thing that makes bitterness delicious rather than merely bracing. Sugar on the cut face, torch until it is glassy, then juice it — you get a rounder, sweeter, faintly smoky juice with the bitter spine still intact.
It is also a very pretty thing to do to a grapefruit.
Ingredients
- 1 grapefruit, halved
- 1 tbsp demerara or brown sugar
- 2 oz bourbon
- 1 oz brûléed grapefruit juice (from the above)
- 1/2 oz honey syrup — or Syrup, Burnt Honey for a deeper version
Ice
- 1 wide strip grapefruit peel
Directions
- Halve the grapefruit and pack sugar onto both cut faces.
- Torch until the sugar melts, bubbles and goes glassy amber — a minute or so per half, keeping the flame moving. A very hot skillet, cut side down, does the same job.
- Let them cool for a minute, then juice. Strain.
- Combine bourbon, brûléed grapefruit juice and honey syrup in a shaker.
- Add ice and shake hard for 12–15 seconds.
- Strain into a chilled coupe, or over a large cube.
- Express a wide strip of grapefruit peel over the surface and drop it in.
Notes
Ruby or pink grapefruit is sweeter and gives a better-looking drink; white grapefruit is more bitter and makes a more serious one. Both work.
Honey syrup for this is 1:1 — honey and hot water, stirred until combined. Neat honey will not incorporate in a cold drink.
Do the whole grapefruit while the torch is out. The juice keeps two days refrigerated, and brûléed grapefruit juice makes an extremely good non-alcoholic soda with a splash of sparkling water.
⚠ Same torch rules as everywhere else in this set: heatproof surface, away from the bottles, flame kept moving.
The original 1930s spec is roughly 1½ oz bourbon, 1 oz grapefruit, ½ oz honey, shaken and served up. Worth making both ways back to back — the brûlée version is sweeter and rounder, and the plain one is sharper and more refreshing.