Name: Colony
Total time: 4 min
Cuisine: Cocktail
Ingredients: 45 ml Gin; 15 ml Maraschino liqueur; 22.5 ml Pink grapefruit juice; 2.5 ml Sugar syrup (2:1); 4 drop Grapefruit bitters

Colony
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Serve in a Coupe glass

Ingredients:
1 ¹⁄₂ oz	Hayman's London Dry Gin
¹⁄₂ oz	Luxardo Maraschino liqueur
³⁄₄ oz	Pink grapefruit juice (freshly squeezed)
¹⁄₁₂ oz	Monin Pure Cane Syrup (65.0°brix, equivalent to 2:1 rich syrup) optional
4 drop	Bob's Grapefruit Bitters

Read about cocktail measures and measuring

How to make:

Select and pre-chill a Coupe glass.
Prepare garnish of grapefruit zest twist.
SHAKE all ingredients with ice.
FINE STRAIN into chilled glass.
EXPRESS grapefruit zest twist over cocktail and use as garnish.

Strength & taste guide:

No alcohol

Medium

Boozy

Sweet

Medium

Dry/sour

More cocktails with similar strength and taste profile

Review:

Grapefruit and maraschino balance each other in this gin-based classic.

View readers' comments

History:

Created during the Prohibition period at New York's Colony speakeasy, possibly by bartender Marco Hattem. The Colony attracted an upmarket clientele, including the Vanderbilts and Windsors. The liquor was kept in an elevator which would be sent to either the attic or the basement if federal agents raided.

Nutrition:

One serving of Colony contains 153 calories

Alcohol content:

1.2 standard drinks
20.19% alc./vol. (20.19° proof)
17.2 grams of pure alcohol

Difford’s Guide remains free-to-use thanks to the support of the brands in green above. Values stated for alcohol and calorie content, and number of drinks an ingredient makes should be considered approximate.

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John Hinojos

11th January 2023 at 01:21

This is outstanding. Going in my favourites. You must like the flavour of grapefruit for this cocktail. You must have the grapefruit bitters. We use locally grown grapefruit which are very sweet and flavourful. While the glass in the picture is hard to find, did find one which is similar with a round bottom and bubbles in the base of glass from Crate and Barrel here in the U.S.

Simon Difford

11th January 2023 at 15:02

Hi John. The glass pictured is an old glass from Urban Bar which I don't tink they've made for some years now.

Sally Morgan

25th September 2022 at 17:53

I think you can often mix and match bitters in cocktails but good grapefruit bitters really make this one

Jonathan Schwartz

7th March 2022 at 11:59

good, but very floral. halved the simple syrup. still sweet.

Debbie Lahaise

24th September 2021 at 15:24

This is very very dry - I added more grapefruit juice and maraschino liquer - for my taste much better - but made from the book not online (no sugar syrup in book recipe )

Simon Difford

25th September 2021 at 09:10

Unless your citrus is very ripe, this cocktail is better with a splash of sugar. I'm continually retrying and updating recipes and this cocktail in our soon-to-be-released Sixteenth Edition has sugar syrup as per the recipe above.

Widmann Alcântara

22nd July 2021 at 23:11

Well, I have just tried this drink and I know for sure that the syrup definitely isn't necessary. I liked it very much (without syrup). But I think I'll try the version sugested in previous post by Steve with orange bitters. Sorry, but I'm from Brazil and my english is not very good.

Steve Anderson

5th July 2021 at 21:44

Too sweet for my taste. My alternative:
60 ml gin
20 ml Maraschino liqueur
40 ml grapefruit juice
2 dashes bitters. I didn't have grapefruit bitters, so I used orange bitters.
Great for a summer day! I'm still looking for that mix that makes it really good instead of just easy to drink.