grapefruit twist

Also known as “grapefruit peel”. A grapefruit twist is a piece of grapefruit rind, carefully sliced off a fresh, firm grapefruit so as to include as little as the white, bitter pith as possible. Twists can be roughly disc-shaped or they can a longer patch-shaped cut, depending on the desired effect. The key purpose of the twist is to be pointed downward over the surface of a drink (or sometimes the empty glass before the drink is poured in) and sharply bent, so as to squeeze out the essential oils in the rind. Sometimes, this process is performed while holding a lit match or lighter between the glass and the twist so as to caramelize some of the oils and produce a small pyrotechnics display. After a twist has been squeezed, it is either discarded or dropped in the drink for decoration. Some bartenders like to wipe the twist around the lip of the glass, because some essential oils remain on the outside surface of the twist to be rubbed off on the glass.