Earlier this week, I asked my Facebook friends if they prefer orange or grapefruit crushes. As I explained, I like orange better but in my own life, I'm in the minority. (I mostly feel that way because Cooper and Alicia are both vocal proponents of the grapefruit variety.)
As it turns out, I'm in the minority among my crush-loving Facebook friends, too: they preferred grapefruit over orange by 16 votes to 11. The grapefruit group was also more vocal - they took an early lead with the orangeys only slightly catching up hours after I originally posted.
The preference for grapefruit seems to be part of a larger trend towards bitter flavors. Campari, amaro, cocchi - bitter or vaguely bitter Italian liqueurs, not to mention bitters, have been riding the trendy wave for several years now. (Apparently I have been writing about this for years.)
To me, bitter flavors seem more sophisticated than sweet flavors - even more real. Unfortunately, that might be because I am overly sensitive to bitter, so I don't really like things that rely on it as a predominant flavor. Negronis? No thank you. Broccoli rabe? Absolutely not. Grapefruit? Well, it's OK but I'd like it more if it was sweeter. (Just a little sweeter - while I can drink one sticky-sweet drink, I rarely drink two.)
At any rate, the love of the bitter doesn't seem to be going away anytime soon. Which is fine. If everybody in the restaurant is drinking grapefruit, that just leaves more orange for me.
As an aside, on Facebook, I also got to do a little educating - I still don't understand why crushes aren't yet embraced nationwide. Over Memorial Day, Cail saw the drink on a menu in the Outer Banks but for the most part, it's still a Chesapeake Bay area treat. Everyplace else - especially beach towns! - really needs to get on the ball.
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