Shrubs have been my latest obsession. What is a shrub, you might ask? Well I am going to tell you. A shrub is a delightful and refreshing drink and best of all, if you make it right, it is clean!
Shrubs have been around for a very long time. They were originally “invented” as a way to preserve the flavors of fresh fruit and have also been referred to as drinking vinegars. They are sinfully easy to make and as super refreshing. They are also a great way to get certain family members to drink things that are good for them like turmeric or apple cider vinegar, in a way that tastes super good!
Right now my favorite shrub is probably the easiest one to get started with. It’s a simple raspberry shrub. You can make this with white sugar, if you’re askeered of doing it with a demerara sugar or turbinado sugar. You can also use honey, and then you refer to it as a “switzle” instead of a shrub. Why? I don’t know why, because. That’s why.
I’m currently making a ginger vanilla shrub and a turmeric spice shrub.
Simple Raspberry Shrub
2 cups fresh raspberries washed and picked over
2 cups sugar
2 cups vinegar*
Sterilize a quart jar and pack with raspberries and sugar. With fruit like raspberries, you can just toss them with the sugar and they’ll release their juices, but if you’re using another fruit you want to mash them down (like strawberries, kiwi, cherries, etc.). Let it sit for a little while until you note that the fruit has become somewhat liquified. At that point add the water, mix well. Don’t worry about the sugar dissolving. It will.
Let that sit for about 5 days. I don’t put it in the fridge. I just keep it covered with a rubber band an a cheesecloth or paper towel and check it. It’s fine if it slightly ferments, we are actually going for a fermentation process when all is said and done.
After five days, add the vinegar. You can go for white vinegar, but I actually like to go with some more interesting vinegars. For this I use a raspberry vinegar because I love the fresh raspberry flavor. I also have tried white wine and red wine vinegar and like the white wine better. You can actually leave the vinegar out and add it when you go to mix it with your drink if you’d like, but the mixture won’t last as long. (Not that it lasts very long because it tastes so good!) That way you can sample different vinegars and decide what you like best.
To drink, you add about 2 ounces of your mixture to a 6-8 ounce glass with some ice and some seltzer. Because I love it so much, I actually purchased a seltzer bottle off of Amazon. I figure it’s a lot more environmentally friendly and cheaper in the long run. I looked a lot of them, and bought this one. It was the cheapest. I had picked up an even cheaper one at first that was a $14 Hamilton Beach one that came with 10 chargers, but no other chargers fit it and the refill chargers are WAY expensive, making that an overly priced “cheap” toy. So this one with the Leland (there is a link to the Leland chargers on that same page) makes it so that each drink is about 25 cents or so. Pretty cheap, plus less sugar! If you wanted to, you could even use less sugar or Agave, although Agave is actually not super clean. It’s pretty processed. But remember, we’re leaning into clean here so you do what works for you.
Fresh raspberries from Biringer Farms, a local farm that has stands all over town right now. Somehow I missed the strawberries. Poop!
Wash the berries well, even if they are organic. Who wants bug footprints in their shrub? You don’t know where those bug feet have been!
I used organic pure cane evaporate sugar, but you can use white sugar as well. You want a neutral flavor to really taste the raspberry. For other fruit coconut sugar might work, but I don’t like it with raspberry.
Pour the sugar in and mush together (technical cooking term, probably Latin).
In the foreground you can see a shrub I’m drinking. It’s blackberry. I haven’t mixed it yet so you can kind of see a gradient. Mmmm.
On the left is blackberry. I added red wine vinegar. To the raspberry I will let it sit about 48 hours then add white wine vinegar. I also added about 5 leaves of fresh basil from my garden. I’m adding photo later so I can let you in on a secret, it tasted AH-MAY-ZING! The basil was just enough of a hint that it was off the HOOK!
Here are some other recipes I love:
Cherry Anise
2 cups bing cherries
1 Anise seed pod
2 cups sugar
2 cups apple cider vinegar
Use the cold shrub recipe above, but smoosh those cherries well because they don’t like to give up their juice. With cherries they aren’t very flavorful so they need something with it. You could also try some ginger, cloves, or maybe allspice. By the way, use good ACV with the mother. The healing properties alone are worth it.
Ginger Ale
1 cup fresh ginger
1 vanilla bean
2 cups water
2 cups sugar
2 cups apple cider vinegar
This is going to use the heated process. First peel the ginger with a spoon (just scrape the spoon against the ginger) and then slice very thin. Put into a non-reactive pan with water and sugar and bring to a simmer. Add vanilla bean. Turn off and let it cool. Strain the ginger out and add the vinegar. You can store in or out of the fridge in a clean quart jar.
If you want to just make a ginger ale, without the vinegar you can keep the vinegar separate. That way your family members who say “Ew ick! Vinegar!” can just have ginger ale. I’m not sharing with them anyhow, so I’m adding the vinegar.
By the way, because of the recipe that follows I needed fresh turmeric. I bought it off of Amazon previously so that next time I went to buy it I found this mixture of one pound of ginger and one pound of turmeric and I got the most beautiful combination of fresh ginger/turmeric. Way better than anything I’ve ever bought at a grocery store.
For the ginger ale I add 3 ounces of the mixture (or so) to a venti sized cup. So refreshing and completely clean! The ginger has a bite that is perfect. The vanilla takes a tiny bit of the edge off. Even my husband, who claims that him and ginger are bitter enemies, liked it!
Turmeric and Ginger Shrub
1/2 cup fresh turmeric
1/3 cup fresh ginger
2 allspice
6 green cardamon pods
12 cloves
3 half cinnamon sticks
4 cups water
2 cups sugar
3 cups apple cider vinegar
Since this is going to make a very orange syrup, I don’t bother peel anything. I just slice everything really thin so slice the turmeric and the ginger (you might want to wear gloves for the turmeric because it will stain your skin). Crack the cardamon pods. Drop in everything except the vinegar. Bring to a simmer and then simmer for about 30 minutes to extract all of the wonderful properties of the turmeric. Let cool and strain through a fine sieve or cheesecloth. Add vinegar and store in a cool dry place or in the fridge. I try to make my husband drink this because there are some studies that link turmeric with being beneficial with people who suffer with arthritis. He has bad arthritis in his knees.
By the way, I get all of my whole spices from Amazon as well. Just follow those links. You can get them a lot cheaper buying in bulk without having to use bulk bins. Sorry, I’ve seen way too many kids up to their armpits in bulk bins to want to buy out of them. *shudder* As soon as I open them I store them in glass jars to keep them fresh.
I can’t wait to make more shrubs this summer with fresh fruit! I plan strawberry, peach, nectarine, kiwi, etc. The sky is the limit!