Madras

A lot, next to cranberry's sharpness. Carton juice is pasteurized and tastes faintly cooked, and the not-from-concentrate kind is the only one that holds up. Two medium oranges give you about 120 ml. Leave the pulp in or strain it out. Pulp makes a cloudier, rounder drink.

A pinch of salt, oddly enough. A few grains knock back the bitterness in any cranberry drink and make the orange read sweeter without adding sugar. A dash of orange bitters does something similar. Neither is traditional, and both make it taste like somebody thought about it.

Structurally yes, but they do not drink alike. Grapefruit is bitter and dries a Sea Breeze out. Orange is sweet and pushes a Madras the other way, toward breakfast. If yours tastes flabby, replace 15 ml of the orange with grapefruit and it snaps back into focus.

Easily, and it is better for sitting. Mix the vodka and both juices in a pitcher and refrigerate for an hour so everything reaches the same temperature. Pour over full glasses of ice at the table. Never put ice in the pitcher. It waters down before anyone's second round.

A classic Madras calls for 45 ml (1.5 oz) Vodka, 60 ml (2 oz) Cranberry juice, 60 ml (2 oz) Orange juice. That single-serve spec scales cleanly — the recipe above converts it to oz and multiplies it for 2–4 drinks.

A standard Madras is roughly 11% ABV once mixed (before ice melt softens it further). That makes it a relatively light, sessionable drink — similar in strength to a beer.

A Madras is stirred, not shaken. It contains no citrus juice, so stirring keeps it crystal clear and silky instead of cloudy and aerated.