Shrub text
I’ve been reducing the amount of alcohol in my space lately, and predictably I have been a total hippie about what replaces all of that. There are so many NA options out there, from spirit replacements to hop water, and when the farmers market is at full tilt, all of them suck in comparison to shrub.
Shrub, at base, is fruit, sugar, and vinegar. It goes like this:
- Get a pound and a half of fruit. Remove the cores, pit them, do whatever you need to do.
- Mash it all together with a cup of sugar.
- Throw the mixture in a fridge and wait two days.
- Run the mixture through a chinois.
- Add a cup and a half of some form of vinegar. I usually use a 2:1 blend of white balsamic & apple cider.
Make sure you source good sugar. White sugar is boring. You want something browner & raw.
Also make sure you source good vinegar. Your shrub is half vinegar, so it makes sense that you won’t want to skimp on it. White vinegar is dumb. Good balsamic is always going to beat something that’s cut with caramel or artificial flavorings. And your apple cider vinegar should be cloudy.
Shrub keeps in the fridge for 6 months, which means you can dilate a typical growing season well past its established end date. There is no feeling quite like experiencing some simulation of amazing in-season strawberries in October, well after every plant in a 200-mile radius has been harvested.
You can add a tablespoon or two to a can of plain seltzer, and it automatically makes for the best seltzer you have ever had. It’s good for your probiotics, too.
You can also take one of these and just, you know, throw rum or gin in it. Peach-ginger shrub, a can of seltzer, and a shot of rum or cachaça is very good. But honestly, in-season shrub is so good that you don’t even really need the alcohol. Which is perhaps the point.
Here are some example shrubs that work really well:
- Peach & ginger
- Strawberry, basil, and black pepper
- Raspberry & fermented white pepper
- Blueberry & shiso
- Apple & fennel
- Cranberry & fig
Note here that herbs & spices are a nice-to-have and usually add a lot to the final mixture.