Our shelf carries 63 rums and tequilas and another 28 gins, and most of Singapore has only ever asked us about wine. Tonight, that changes with one glass.
We talk about wine a lot. Fair enough, it’s easy to recommend and easy to pair. But walk past the wine section on our shelf and you’ll find something we’ve been quiet about: a genuinely deep spirits range, tequila and rum alone running 63 listings, gin close behind at 28. That’s not a footnote category. That’s most of what’s actually here.
So tonight, put the wine down and make a Paloma. It’s Mexico’s most-ordered cocktail for a reason: it’s built, not shaken, it’s forgiving if your measurements are a little off, and it tastes better the hotter and stickier the evening gets, which in Singapore is most evenings from March to November.
The Paloma, done properly. 45ml blanco tequila. 15ml fresh lime juice. Top with grapefruit soda, about 90ml, or 30ml fresh grapefruit juice plus soda water if you can’t find grapefruit soda. A pinch of salt, either stirred in or rimmed on the glass.
Fill a tall glass with ice. Add the tequila and lime juice. Top with the grapefruit soda. Give it one gentle stir with a spoon or chopstick, whatever’s in the drawer. Garnish with a lime wheel if you’re feeling fussy, skip it if you’re not. That’s the whole recipe. No shaker, no strainer, no jigger you have to hunt for at the back of a cabinet.
Why it works here specifically: a Paloma is built for heat. The grapefruit’s bitterness cuts through humidity the way a glass of red never quite manages on a night when the air conditioning is fighting a losing battle. It holds up on a Tiong Bahru shophouse balcony, on a high floor in Punggol looking out over the waterway, or brought down to a Toa Payoh void deck gathering in a shaker bottle if you’re the one hosting. It also plays well with the food already on the table, salted peanuts, keropok, otah from the coffee shop downstairs, anything with a bit of char or salt off a nearby hawker stall.
One more thing worth knowing: blanco tequila is the move here, not a rested or aged bottle. Blanco is unaged, so it stays bright and citrus-forward instead of turning woody, which is exactly what a Paloma needs. Save the aged stuff for sipping neat another night.
If tequila isn’t your bottle of choice, the same build logic works for gin. Swap the tequila for a London dry gin, drop the grapefruit soda for tonic, and you’ve got a cleaner, more herbal drink with the same three ingredient simplicity. Either way, it’s proof that home bar doesn’t have to mean wine glasses and a corkscrew. Sometimes it’s just ice, citrus, and one good pour.
