Greyhound (cocktail)

Two glasses of the greyhound cocktail

A greyhound is a cocktail consisting of 6 fluid ounces (200 ml) of grapefruit juice and 1.5 fluid ounces (50 ml) of vodka or gin, mixed and served over ice. Salt the rim of the glass to turn it into a Salty dog. Depending on the quality of the gin, the drink can taste very much like straight grapefruit juice.

History

The earliest known mention of a cocktail of this description is in bartender and author Harry Craddock's Savoy Cocktail Book of 1930. Craddock describes his recipe as "...a variation of the Grapefruit Cocktail...", suggesting that such cocktails were already in common use before his book was written. His recipe consists of nothing but gin, grapefruit juice and ice.

A recipe for a similar cocktail with the name "Greyhound" appears in Harper's magazine in 1945 (volume 191, page 461) thus: "The cocktails were made of vodka, sugar, and canned grapefruit juice -- a greyhound. This cocktail was served at Greyhound's popular restaurant chain that was located at bus terminals, called 'Post House'."

It should be noted that before 1945, vodka was an uncommon spirit and that most drinks we think of today as "classic cocktails" and which call for vodka, originally would have contained gin. As vodka's popularity grew after the War and gin's popularity waned, many of the popular cocktails persisted, albeit with vodka substituted for gin. The most conspicuous of these is the Martini which, before 1945, would invariably have been made with gin.

This drink is commonly referred to as The Scott Walker or This Bastard.