Homemade Shrubs – or Drinking Vinegars
Shrub! My new favorite way to flavor drinks... and an entertaining name!
In 2016 my best friend moved from Portland, where we both were, to Salt Lake City area. I was heart-broken… I mean, how could she move soooo far away?? So, earlier this year I split the difference and moved to Boise, I’m still telling people its because of my boyfriend… don’t spill the secret! 😉
Now that we only live a quick 5-hour drive from each other we’ve been trading off who travels each month for a weekend of silly BFF fun. July was my turn to make the voyage.
Now, both of us are vegans living in relatively non-vegan cities, so finding food and good coffee can be difficult. Now, the up side to that is when we do find a place we love we are loyal customers. Our favorite place to get coffee, one of only two good places in SLC that we’ve found, is Blue Copper Roasters. They are amazing! They roast their own beans, make fantastic lattes, and their staff is knowledgeable and extremely friendly. I make a point to stop in there on my way in and out of town. This particular trip I was feeling like a fun latte concoction would make my day. The brightly colored syrups on the shelf behind the counter caught my eye. There were four or five bottles, all different colors and clearly homemade. I asked our friendly barista what flavors they were featuring and he told me they weren’t just any flavored simple syrup, but shrub syrups. Um, what?? He explained that they were like drinking vinegars but brighter and served over carbonated water. We were sold; we both had to try one. I ordered the apricot shrub and my friend ordered the sugar snap pea shrub. After trying mine I HAD to know how to make this delightfully punchy drink. He said it was super simple and there were a bunch of recipes online.
And so it began, the afternoon of researching shrub online.
I learned some fun information about shrub as well as some great recipes.
The American version of the shrub dates back to 17th century England where vinegar was used as an alternative to citrus juices to preserve berries and other fruit for the off-season. Fruit preserved in this manner were know as shrubs, a practice that carried over to colonial America.
By the 19th century, typical American recipes for shrubs used vinegar poured over fruit, traditionally berries, which was left to infuse anywhere from overnight up to several days; afterwards, the fruit would be strained out and the remaining liquid would be mixed with a sweetener such as sugar or honey and then reduced to make a syrup. The sweet-and-sour syrup could be mixed with either water or soda water and served as a soft drink, or it could be used as a mixer in alcoholic cocktails. Shrubs eventually fell out of popularity with the invention of home refrigeration.
I found two basic ways to make shrub; boiling the fruit and sugar until a syrup forms and then adding the vinegar, or letting the fruit and sugar macerate for a couple of days and then adding the vinegar. There’s definite benefits to both. The warm version produces a thicker syrup and takes significantly less time to make. While the cold version is SO EASY! I’ve only made the cold version so far because I like how simple it is. I can cut up the fruit, add the sugar and forget about it for a couple of days. I also like that I can take the remaining fruit (depending on what it is) and use it as a jam for my toast for a couple of days.
There are so many fun variations of shrub that you can make. The recipe below is the first shrub I made, it turned out so amazing and was a simple place to start.
Fruits: In terms of choosing fruit for your shrub, it doesn’t need to be the best looking or most expensive fruit… almost the opposite! You want your fruit to be very ripe and flavorful so that it isn’t too masked by the vinegar. There are some fruits that I tried to make shrub out of that weren’t ripe enough or flavorful enough and it resulted in a very flat shrub.
Sugars: I’ve seen a lot of recipes where they reference using other sugars than just basic raw cane sugar, but I haven’t actually seen one using anything else (agave, honey, maple syrup, etc.). I’m planning to play with some other variations soon so I will keep you all posted. I use organic raw cane sugar for all of my shrub recipes. The grains of sugar can be a bit large when straining the chunks of fruit, so I plan to lose a little sugar in the final produce. This has always worked out fine for my taste since I like the tartness of the fruit and the vinegar and prefer it to be less sweet. You can always add more sugar to your final product if it’s not sweet enough for your taste.
Vinegars: Oh my goodness there is so much room for play here! I tend to use the default of apple cider vinegar if I’m not sure what to pair with a specific fruit. I would recommend you not use distilled white vinegar, it’s extremely harsh when you go to actually drink it. I’ve experimented with apple cider vinegar, white wine vinegar, red wine vinegar and a little with balsamic vinegar. The amount of vinegar added will vary depending on which one you’re choosing to use and your taste preference in the final product.
The measurements for the fruit, sugar and vinegar should be relatively equal. I like to use my kitchen scale to make sure everything is about equal. However, you don’t need to be too specific as your mix should be tailored to your palate. If you like it less vinegary and more fruit forward, add less vinegar. If you enjoy it more acidic, add less sugar. Go slow when adding the vinegar when trying a new variation and taste test several times until you have your measurements right according to your palate.
- 1 pound Dark Cherries, cut in half and pits removed
- 2 cups Cane Sugar
- 2 cups Apple Cider Vinegar
If you’re ever travelling through Salt Lake City and love coffee, make time to check out Blue Copper Roasting CO. You can check out their website and follow them on Facebook below!