Frozen Cuban Grapefruit and Lime Slush with Fresh Mint and Cane Sugar

The day before, pour the fresh grapefruit juice into an ice cube tray and freeze solid. Blending frozen juice instead of plain ice is what keeps the finished slush intensely flavored rather than watery.

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 2 cups fresh pink grapefruit juice, frozen into cubes
• 1/2 cup fresh lime juice
• 1/2 cup white rum
• 1/3 cup cane sugar syrup (equal parts sugar and hot water, cooled)
• 20 fresh mint leaves, plus sprigs to garnish
• 2 cups crushed ice
• 1 pinch fine sea salt
• 1 pink grapefruit, cut into thin wheels
• 4 lime wedges

Instructions

1. The day before, pour the fresh grapefruit juice into an ice cube tray and freeze solid. Blending frozen juice instead of plain ice is what keeps the finished slush intensely flavored rather than watery.
2. Make the cane syrup by stirring equal parts sugar and hot water until fully dissolved, then chill it completely. Warm syrup will melt your slush on contact, so do not skip the cooling step.
3. Put the mint leaves and lime juice in the blender first and pulse three or four times, just enough to bruise the leaves and release their oils without shredding them into bitter green flecks.
4. Add the frozen grapefruit cubes, crushed ice, syrup, rum and salt. Blend on high for 30 to 45 seconds, stopping once to scrape down the sides, until the texture is smooth and thick like soft-serve.
5. Check the balance with a spoon. Grapefruit varies enormously in sweetness — add a splash more syrup if it bites too hard, or a squeeze of lime if it tastes flat.
6. Chill four tall glasses in the freezer for a few minutes while you finish, then pour the slush in and let it settle into a soft dome above the rim.
7. Garnish each glass with a grapefruit wheel, a generous mint sprig slapped once between your palms to wake it up, and a lime wedge on the rim.
8. Cuba gave the world the daiquiri and the mojito, and both rest on the same simple architecture: light rum, fresh citrus, cane sugar and nothing that gets in the way. This frozen grapefruit version sits squarely in that tradition while trading lime's sharpness for grapefruit's rounder bitterness. Slapping the mint rather than muddling it is the bartender's trick — it releases the aromatic oils into the air above the glass without bruising the leaf into bitterness.

Nutrition (estimated, per serving)

• Calories: 210 kcal
• Protein: 1g
• Fat: 0g
• Carbohydrates: 32g
• Fiber: 1g
• Sugar: 28g
• Sodium: 40mg