Cocktail shrubs

Everything old is new again. Consider shrub. This Colonial-era beverage has been popping up on a lot of cocktail menus lately. Shrub is an acidic syrup made from fruit, sugar, and vinegar. Diluted with water or seltzer, it makes a refreshing thirst-quencher.

Shrub is an ideal ingredient for cocktails, because so many of the classics contain that same combination of sweet-and-tart fruit flavor. The Daiquiri? Lime juice and simple syrup. Ditto the Gimlet, Mojito (with the added element of mint), and Margarita (plus sweet orange liqueur). Lemon juice and simple syrup flavor the Whiskey Sour and Tom Collins. Same for the Sidecar, which also includes orange liqueur. In essence, shrub is a non-citrus version of sour mix. Add booze, stir, and your cocktail is complete.

Shrub-making is similar to pickling, but with fruit or berries instead of vegetables. And it serves the same purpose: to preserve the produce without refrigeration. Historically, the process for making shrub was to mix fruit with sugar and let nature take its course. Microbes that live on the fruit’s surface would convert the sugar to alcohol, and then to vinegar. The modern method skips those fermentation steps and goes straight for the final product, by directly combining the fruit, sugar, and vinegar.

Berries and stone fruits are the most common shrub flavors, although I’ve seen a few recipes with vegetable ingredients. The best time to make shrub is at the peak of harvest when farm stands are overflowing. Flavor is the only consideration, so bruised, over-ripe seconds are actually preferable (and cheaper). I favor the cold shrubbing technique over cooking – it takes a bit longer, but I think the fruit flavor shines through more brightly. You can also add a complementary spice or herb, like R’s amazing blackberry-thyme combo, but keep it simple. And resist the urge to drink it immediately (okay, don’t drink all of it!). The flavors mellow and meld beautifully when given a few weeks to age.

Below is the basic recipe for shrub, plus two cocktails. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

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Shrub

• 1 cup ripe berries or fruit (cut into thumb-sized chunks)
• 1 cup sugar (white for neutral flavor, turbinado or Demerara for caramel flavor)
• approximately 1 cup vinegar (I prefer cider; others use white, red wine, or balsamic)
• optional: whole spice (e.g., cinnamon stick) or herb (such as a sprig of rosemary)

Steps

• combine the berries or fruit with the sugar in a medium non-reactive bowl
• stir to coat, lightly crushing with the back of a spoon to release the juice
• store in the refrigerator for one or two days to extract the juice
• strain into a large measuring cup, pressing lightly with a spoon to recover the juice
• scrape any undissolved sugar from the bowl into the strained juice
• save the solids for another use (e.g., pie filling, ice cream topping, etc)
• add an equal volume of vinegar, and stir to dissolve the sugar
• transfer to a glass bottle and store in the refrigerator
• ready for use, but best after two weeks; stores indefinitely

Apricot sour

• 2 oz. bourbon (I like Four Roses Small Batch and Maker’s Mark)
• 1 oz. apricot shrub
• 1 tsp. lemon juice
• lemon peel, to garnish
• cocktail shaker, bar spoon, ice, rocks glass or coupe

Sour cherry sour

• 2 oz. rye whiskey (I use High West Double Rye, Bulleit, or Rittenhouse)
• 1 oz. sour cherry shrub
• cocktail cherry, to garnish
• cocktail shaker, bar spoon, ice, rocks glass or coupe

Steps

• add ingredients into shaker half-filled with ice
• stir until well chilled, strain into rocks glass (over ice) or coupe (straight up), and garnish