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The Salty Dog Is a Beautiful Balance of Salty, Sweet and Sour

Hot summer days call for light, fruity and refreshing cocktails. The Salty Dog is that and more, with a beautiful balance of salty, sweet and sour flavors. A glassful can cool you off on even the most sweltering of afternoons. Here’s how the cocktail tradition started and how to make one.

What Is a Salty Dog?

A Salty Dog is a highball made with grapefruit juice and vodka or gin, according to The Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails. The ingredients are sometimes mixed with ice in a cocktail shaker and strained into a glass, although it’s sometimes built directly in the serving glass. It’s always served with a salted rim; some variations even call for salt to be mixed into the drink itself.

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Why Is It Called a ‘Salty Dog’?

Legend has it that the cocktail’s beginnings can be traced to 1916, when American soldiers began drinking a mixture of lime juice, salt and carbonated water. Later, in the 1930s, Texans desiring an extra kick added gin and white grapefruit juice to the mix. Some bartenders began to use vodka in place of gin in the 1950s, and by the 1970s, others began to opt for the sweeter juice of pink grapefruits.

By the 1930s, the Greyhound cocktail—a two-ingredient drink of vodka or gin and pink grapefruit juice—had entered the cocktail canon. The Greyhound got its name from the popular bus company; it was sold at the enterprise’s terminals. “When the rim was salted, the name changed and it was a Salty Dog,” writes Margaret Walsh in Making Connections: The Long-Distance Bus Industry in the USA.


How to Make a Salty Dog

Recipe by Jacy Topps

Ingredients

  • Lime slice
  • Coarse salt
  • 1 ½ ounces gin or vodka
  • 3 ounces grapefruit juice, freshly squeezed

Instructions

Use the lime slice to wet the rim of a highball glass and reserve for garnish. Dip the rim of the glass in coarse salt. Fill the glass with ice. Add the gin or vodka and grapefruit juice and stir gently to combine. Garnish with the lime slice. 


FAQs

What’s In a Salty Dog?

A Salty Dog is comprised of grapefruit juice and either vodka or gin, served in a highball glass with a salted rim.

What Is the Difference Between a Salty Dog and a Paloma?

A Paloma also uses pink grapefruit juice, but it typically calls for tequila rather than gin or vodka. Additionally, most Paloma recipes call for soda water and the salted rim is not necessary.

What Is a Salty Dog Without Salt?

Take away the Salty Dog’s salted rim, and you’ve got a Greyhound.

Why Do You Put Salt on Drinks?

Just like when you cook, a pinch of salt can help enhance flavors and improve the overall taste of your drink.