One hobby I’ve picked up since moving to Washington is making shrubs.
What is a shrub? It’s drinking vinegar, which sounds horrible but is actually delicious. I experienced it for the first time at the Whiskey Soda Lounge in Portland, OR. I really enjoyed it so I kept my eye out for other shrub-based drinks before finally buying the book Shrubs to learn how to make it myself.
(Note: I think I have the first edition of this book, because my cover is different, but I’m going to assume the content is mostly the same)
Shrubs are fun to make because they involve combining fruit, sugar, maybe some herbs or spices, and vinegar. After the ingredients spend about a week melding their flavors, you can combine them with soda water to make a refreshing non-alcoholic drink, or use them as a cocktail ingredient. For instance, the cocktail I had at The Whale Wins this weekend was made with a really refreshing cucumber jasmine shrub.
When I get in the mood to make a shrub, instead of setting out with a specific recipe in mind, I go to the farmer’s market or grocery store and see what is plentiful and a good price. Recently that was berries, so I currently have blackberry basil and blueberry mint marinating in my fridge.
Because I take a very casual approach to making my shrubs, I rarely follow an exact recipe from the Shrubs book, instead I use them as springboards for combining the ingredients I have. For instance, to make the Blackberry Basil, I consulted the Blackberry Raspberry recipe and the Watermelon Basil recipe. To make Blueberry Mint, I consulted the Blueberry Lavender recipe (which, to be fair, sounds amazing, but I didn’t have any fresh lavender) and the Cherry Mint recipe.
Someday, I hope to have enough practice with making shrub that I don’t even have to read the book, I’ll just know the right ratio of vinegar, fruit, and sugar, and which kind of vinegar would best compliment the flavors of the fruit. But I’m still new to this!
My Blueberry Mint shrub will be ready on Friday and I can’t WAIT to make some Blueberry Mojitos.
By the way, I usually store my shrubs in mason jars, but I couldn’t resist reusing this cute bottle from Locust Cider to hold the Blueberry Mint. I love how the blue text pops against the deep berry hue.
Have you ever tried a shrub? Or made it at home? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.
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