Salty Dog
The Salty Dog is a bar standard outside the IBA list: 5 ingredients, shaken and served in a highball. That makes 135 ml in the glass: a middling measure.
MethodShaken
GlassHighball
In the glass135 ml
Strength14.9%
Ingredients
- 50 mlvodka
- 50 mlgrapefruit juice
- 5 mlrich sugar syrup
- 0.8 mlOrange Bitters
- 0.8 mlsalt
Method
- Moisten the rim with grapefruit juice and dip it into salt.
- Shake the ingredients with ice and strain into the ice-filled glass.
Garnish: A salt rim and a grapefruit wedge.
What it tastes like
- bitter → sweet
- It leans dry: 1.0 out of 10 of bitterness, 55th of 186.
- round → sour
- Citrus shows, but this is no sour: 61st of 186, and it comes from grapefruit juice.
- light → strong
- 14.9% after dilution: the middle band, 83rd of 186.
Its closest neighbour is the Greyhound: 100 out of 100 for similarity.
Five that come close
- GreyhoundSame corner of the map, 122 ml in the glass: what changes is what is in it, not how it lands.
- Champagne CocktailSweeter and built on vino.
- Hemingway Special3 degrees stronger and built on rum.
- Sherry Cobbler3 degrees lighter and with amontillado sherry in place of vodka.
- Paper Plane3 degrees stronger and with more bitterness in it.
Every drink near the Salty Dog on the map
Recipe source: Difford's Guide · checked on 3 November 2026