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Sea Breeze

A tart-sweet vodka highball with cranberry and bright grapefruit.

Base spirit
Vodka
Style
Highball
Glassware
Highball glass

The Sea Breeze blends vodka with cranberry and grapefruit for a refreshing, bittersweet highball. Built over ice, it shows crisp citrus bitterness cut by cranberry’s red-fruit edge. The profile is clean, beachy, and refreshing. Compared with the Cape Codder, it adds dimension through grapefruit’s sharpness.

A tall Sea Breeze over ice with ruby-pink color and lime wedge.

Ingredients

Servings
  • • 2 oz vodka
  • • 3 oz cranberry juice
  • • 1 oz grapefruit juice
  • • Lime wedge

Did you know?

“In the 1980s vodka boom, the Sea Breeze became a bar-menu fixture; trade publications at the time listed it as one of the most ordered summer cocktails in the U.S.”

Source:PunchDrink archives; Imbibe

Bartender's Note

Add more grapefruit for a drier, brighter finish.

How to make the Sea Breeze

  1. 1Fill a highball with ice.
  2. 2Add vodka, cranberry, and grapefruit.
  3. 3Stir.
  4. 4Garnish.

Drinks similar to Sea Breeze

Bay Breeze

Bay Breeze

A fruity vodka highball combining cranberry and pineapple for gentle tropical sweetness.

Cape Codder

Cape Codder

A simple, bright vodka–cranberry highball with clean tartness.

Italian Greyhound

Italian Greyhound

A bittersweet grapefruit vodka highball with herbal bite from Campari.