Jamaican grapefruit soda made with 5% real grapefruit juice, launched 1976 — the iconic Jamaican soft drink.
Launched in 1976 by Desnoes & Geddes (the Red Stripe brewery group) in Jamaica. Formulated to use the local pink-grapefruit surplus from Jamaica's St. Catherine groves. The slogan "Ting irie" entered Jamaican English in the 1980s and never left.
Bartenders pair Ting with white rum (Wray & Nephew overproof, 63% ABV) for the cocktail "Ting with a Sting" — the bitter citrus is the only mixer that holds up to 126-proof rum without disappearing.
Cloudy pale yellow — the cloud is real juice pulp, not haze agent. Sharp grapefruit bitterness, less sweet than a Squirt or Fresca, fizz tight and small-bubbled. Best ice-cold straight from a glass bottle; the can dulls the bitter edge.
The 5% real grapefruit juice load is what separates Ting from imitators — most American grapefruit sodas use flavoring oil only. The naringin in real juice gives the lasting bitter aftertaste; sugar and citric acid balance but never erase it.
Variations
Original Ting is the cloudy pink-grapefruit base; Ting Pink Lemonade adds lemon and cranberry; Diet Ting (introduced 1992) replaces sugar with aspartame and runs less bitter as a result.
On the Palate
Where Ting sits in the Jamaican flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 1How it's made
4 steps · 7 min active + 1 min waiting
- 11 min
Note: commercial Jamaican soda; home grapefruit soda version follows.
- 25 min
Squeeze 2 ruby grapefruits; combine 200 ml juice with 100 g sugar and 50 ml lime juice.
Watch outTaste after the lime goes in — the grapefruit should stay a little bitter behind the sweet; that bitter edge is the whole point of Ting.
- 31 min
Top with 800 ml chilled sparkling water; stir gently.
Watch outPour the sparkling water down the side and fold once — a hard stir knocks the fizz flat.
- 41 min
Serve over ice immediately.
