Grapefruit Blush Cocktail

In the depths of winter I find I will sometimes go a couple weeks without eating an orange or a grapefruit, and then suddenly the citrus craving will hit hard. Over the past couple days I've binged on clementines and cut up some grapefruit to slip into a salad, and today I decided to extend the citrus trend to late afternoon tipples, too. The same friend who gifted me with maple bitters last year recently gave me an awesome bottle of hibiscus-orange blossom-ginger simple syrup from the Bang Candy Co, and I found it paired quite well with the grapefruit juice I'd just squeezed. A little Cointreau and club soda later, and I was sipping this very easy and tasty cocktail.  It's sweet, tart, juicy, effervescent, and most importantly, makes you briefly forget the dull grey chill awaiting you outdoors. Looking forward to seeing where my current citrus obsession takes me next.

Grapefruit Blush Cocktail
Makes one drink

*4 oz fresh squeezed grapefruit juice
*1 oz hibiscus-orange flower-ginger syrup (ginger simple syrup will work well as a sub)
*2 oz Cointreau
*Club soda
*Sugar & grapefruit zest, for rimming the glass

Mix some sugar and zest together on a plate and run a wedge of grapefruit around the rim of a short tumbler, then place it rim-side down in the sugar. Chill the glass.

Mix the first 3 ingredients together in a shaker filled with ice, then strain into your chilled glass and top with a little club soda.