This BlackPink Cocktail is our own authentic recipe—a tart, sweet layered cocktail to celebrate the all-girl K-Pop band BLACKPINK!
Reminiscent of the Salty Dog, this alcoholic drink features black sprinkles on the rim to add just the right amount of sweetness to the red grapefruit juice and black vodka layers.
This tried and true, kitchen-tested cocktail is both striking to the eye and to the palate, a mix of delicious red grapefruit flavors and black vodka that you can make yourself with plain vodka and some organic black rice.
Use black sugar, black sprinkles, or black salt—your choice! The original salty dog has a coarse salt rim, which tends to balance the puckery sour of white grapefruit.
But this drink has a much sweeter red grapefruit juice, and the sugar rim pulls together all the good flavor just fine (the corn syrup helps too). Try both and see what you like best.
“BLACKPINK is—we kind of felt like there’s two colors that represented us the most ‘cause we’re very girly but at the same time we’re very savage too,” member Rosé explained for the group. (E! Online)
So our BlackPink Cocktail is both: the pink layer is sweet and the black layer is savage!
There are a couple different kinds of grapefruit juice out there and the RED grapefruit actually provided us with the brightest natural pink color. Pink grapefruit is pretty pale, and white grapefruit juice won’t work for this recipe.
We used the juice from a container of red grapefruit slices, which is lightly sweetened, but you can use canned or bottled juice. Just make sure it’s red grapefruit for the best outcome.
About the black vodka
We made our own based on a little help from This Mama Cooks. We used organic rice and high-quality vodka, and it makes a beautiful, uniform black vodka that doesn’t separate or fade.
While there are a few on the market, the original Blavod is very hard to find in our area.
It’s so striking that I bottled some as a gift for my daughter to use at Halloween.
Supplies to gather
- Bar spoon or long iced tea spoon
- Highball or Collins glass
- Jigger
- Corn syrup
- Coarse black salt OR black sugar OR black sprinkles
- Ice
- Red grapefruit juice
- Black vodka
Tips to Make a BlackPink Cocktail
Read this before starting to make your cocktail recipe. We offer up some helpful tips for crafting the perfect drink.
- While a traditional Salty Dog (or Greyhound cocktail) is served in a highball glass or a Collins, we used the whiskey glass we had on hand.
- This recipe calls for corn syrup to rim the glass because just water or alcohol will melt the sugar or salt before you get to serve it. We found the corn syrup is great with both the sweet sprinkles and the salt, so it’s a win either way. If you’d like the salty pop next to the sweetness, it’s juicy and good too.
- Since this is a visually striking cocktail, the key is to layer the two liquids with the heavier red grapefruit juice on top of the black vodka at the bottom of the glass.
- Gently dribble the vodka over the bar spoon so it goes in slowly since you don’t want it to mix. The black vodka will sit on top of the pink juice.
- The liquids will eventually combine, so serve immediately.
- You can leave out the ice. Chill the vodka in the freezer and layer as you would above. Serve with cocktail straws so your guests can mix before enjoying.
Steps for Making a BlackPink Cocktail
- Rim the glass with about a teaspoon of corn syrup. (You may not use a whole teaspoon; just enough to generously coat the glass rim.)
- Add salt or sprinkles to a saucer or plate.
- Upend each corn syrup-rimmed glass and gently turn so the salt or sugar sticks.
- Add ice cubes to each glass.
- Add 3 oz of red grapefruit juice to each glass. (We used the lightly sweetened juice from a container of red grapefruit slices.)
- Gently layer in 1 ½ oz of black vodka by dribbling the black vodka over the bar spoon.
- Upon serving, tell your guests to agitate the ice with a finger or a cocktail straw to blend the layers and combine the flavors.
- Enjoy responsibly.
The bottom line
Use our recipe here to help you craft the eye-catching but super simple layered cocktail that we call BlackPink in homage to the fun K-Pop girl band called BLACKPINK.
We hope you love this sweet and savage drink!
This is a recipe for an alcoholic beverage. If you did not mean to be here, it’s okay to close this tab, just for today.
BlackPink Cocktail
This BlackPink Cocktail is our own authentic recipe, a tart and lightly sweet cocktail made with black vodka to celebrate the all-girl K-pop band BlackPink!
Ingredients
- 1 t of corn syrup
- 3 oz of RED grapefruit juice
- 1.5 oz of black vodka, purchased or homemade
- Ice
Instructions
- Rim the glass with corn syrup with a small spatula, a toothpick or your finger. Set aside.
- Add the salt, sugar or sprinkles to a saucer.
- Upend each corn syrup-rimmed glass onto the saucer and gently turn so the salt or sugar sticks to the glass. Turn glass gently to help coat. (See photos.)
- Add ice cubes to each glass.
- Add 3 oz of red grapefruit juice to each glass
- Gently layer in 1 ½ oz of black vodka by dribbling the black vodka over the bar spoon.
- Upon serving, tell your guests to agitate the ice with a finger or a cocktail straw to blend the layers and combine the flavors.
- Enjoy responsibly. This is a recipe for an alcoholic beverage. If you did not mean to be here, it’s okay to close this tab, just for today.