Blinker (cocktail)

The blinker is a Prohibition-era[1] spicy three-ingredient cocktail consisting of rye whiskey, white or pink grapefruit juice, and either raspberry syrup,[2] raspberry liqueur, raspberry jam, raspberry ice cream syrup, grenadine or the syrup from a jar of maraschino cherries.[3] It is a proto-Greyhound highball.[4] The recipe appeared in Patrick Gavin Duffy's The Official Mixer’s Manual. The substitution of raspberry syrup for grenadine was made by Ted "Dr. Cocktail" Haigh in his 2009 book Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails.[5] Dr. Cocktail also specified that the cocktail should be made with white grapefruit juice, which is more bitter than pink or red varieties; however, if pink or red grapefruit juice is used, this can be offset by using less raspberry syrup.[6]

A variant also includes lemon juice and simple syrup.[7] The cocktail can also be modified by using bourbon or whiskey instead of rye, or weakening it by adding more grapefruit juice and grenadine, or by adding maraschino cherries to round out the flavor.[1]

According to Tuxedo No. 2, the blinker "resides in the same neighborhood as offbeat classics like the Japanese, Seelbach, and between the sheets: recipes that don't really make sense on paper".[5]