Grenadine Lemonade
I have been playing with non-alcoholic drink possibilities that are not too onerous to concoct but that are somewhat different from the usual. The heat here in rural MA has backed off slightly and there is some hope for more comfortable days. Certainly 80s is better than 105 in the shade!
I also wanted to make a bit of a foray into the syrups that are used to make many classic cocktails. I chose Grenadine and set off to the liquor store to find it.
Let me tell you, you have to either be oblivious or have a big ego to not notice the stares you get when you walk into a liquor store 7 1/2 months pregnant with your 9 year old in tow.
To compensate for being there I bought all these extra non-alcoholic items like peppery bacon and cheeses and more. Didn’t help because people were looking at my tummy and not my bacon snacks in the cart!
Anyway, I look at the list of ingredients on the grenadine bottle when I get home and no where is there mention of actual juice, let alone pomegranate juice.
This was a sad thing for me because I was under the impression that grenadine was a pomegranate syrup. This syrup sure didn’t taste very good either. It reminded me of a really cheap snow cone.
At this point I decided that pomegranate juice is not that hard to get a hold of and I set out to make my own grenadine. It is well worth the small trouble as it tastes completely different.
To make homemade Grenadine do the following:
Ingredients:
white sugar
100% pomegranate juice
Directions:
Simmer 1 part sugar and 1 part pomegranate juice for about 10 minutes on medium. You want the sugar to dissolve and for the syrup to reduce slightly.
Allow to cool and then experiment with your favorites. Some of the almost 600 cocktails using grenadine, with recipes, can be found here on The Spirit World or at this WebTender link.
I used my new grenadine to make Grenadine Lemonades, a recipe I conjured myself.
Ingredients:
1/2 C fresh squeezed lemon juice
1/4 C freshly made and cooled grenadine syrup
ice cubes
1 C cold sprite, seltzer water, or ginger ale to taste. (amount depends on size of serving glass, mine was a pub glass)
lemon slices, lime slices and frozen blueberries to garnish.
Directions:
Chill all juice, syrup, and soda.
Fill glass with ice cubes (I froze some blueberries into my cubes), add soda to 1/2 point, add juice and grenadine and then top off with soda. Mix gently. Add garnishes if desired.
Don’t use Rose’s grenadine if you can help it; see if you can find some of the real deal stuff, such as Giroux. I don’t know if the Monin grenadine has any pomegranite in it, but that’s another place to look.