Grenadine is pomegranate syrup, or at least that’s what it’s supposed to be. Unfortunately, it is familiar to many as an indistinct, sweet, bright red liquid, with a slight hint of cherry on the palate, which should be used to tint cocktails. At some point in history, most manufacturers decided that real pomegranate juice did not fit into the concept of mass production, and replaced it with corn syrup tinted with #40 (E129) and #1 (E133) food coloring. Fortunately, making real grenadine at home is very simple.
Real grenadine is sweet, tart, slightly sour and rich in various flavors, which it draws not only from pomegranate juice, but also from orange water (distilled water infusion of petals from orange tree flowers), as well as pomegranate molasses (narsharab, masharabi – thickened pomegranate juice with a little lemon juice).
This is a truly grown-up cocktail ingredient that during the Golden Age of Cocktails inspired great people to create great mixed drinks. Then it became an obligatory component of many classic cocktails, such as Mary Pickford, El Presidente, Jack Rose, Bacardi, Clover Club and many others. After all, what is a Tequila Signrise without grenadine? Okay, tequila screwdriver. But if you are going to add to one of these cocktails what is now often sold in stores under the guise of pomegranate syrup, hoping to get a beautiful color … In general, do not do this!
We will not argue that all syrup manufacturers are rotten and suck it in for no reason. Based on pomegranate syrup, grenadine is prepared by: BG Reynolds, Employees Only, Sonoma Syrup, Wilks & Wilson, Small Hand Foods, Okole Maluna’s and, probably, many others. But the price tag for such syrups, to put it mildly, is too high, and meeting them in the CIS is akin to a miracle. And what now, to refuse bewitchingly beautiful, scarlet, with a subtle, but so intriguing taste of pomegranate cocktails?
What more! Believe me, making homemade grenadine is as easy as shelling pears, and in terms of taste, it will not be inferior to the products of the aforementioned brands. In addition, when preparing such things at home, you can always control their taste and customize it for your loved one. Don’t want your grenadine to be too sweet? Easy, just add less sugar. Do you want it to be multifaceted and complex? Even easier – add any other juices or natural flavors to the recipe.
Almost all homemade grenadine recipes have a few problems. The first one is the wrong color. Grenadine is not brown and pale pink. It has a bright purple hue that looks noble in any cocktail without turning it into a gray or brown substance. The second problem: too much gestures with the extraction of pomegranate juice (if you suddenly decide to extract it yourself) and the subsequent preparation of syrup. Cut the pomegranate in half and use a regular citrus juicer – this way you will get a much more intense and aromatic juice than other methods of extracting it can offer (no need to long and painfully separate the grains, grind them with a rolling pin and do other absolutely unnecessary manipulations).
But the most critical problem of most recipes is the call for a long boil of the syrup, which, according to the authors of these recipes, should lead to a concentration of flavor. Have you ever tried boiled orange juice? The syrup must be heated exactly to a temperature at which the sugar can dissolve completely, that is, up to about 60-70 degrees. Further heating, and even more so boiling, will only damage the freshness of the grenadine and, returning to the first problem, worsen the color of the syrup.
The following recipe for grenadine is extremely simple and eliminates all the problems described above. To prepare it, you can buy 100% pomegranate juice in the store or extract the juice from the pomegranate fruit yourself using a regular citrus juicer (1 large pomegranate = 1 glass of pomegranate juice). Other ingredients, except sugar, add at your discretion.
homemade grenadine recipe
Delicious, complex, beautiful homemade pomegranate syrup.
Prepare 50 minutes
Cooking 10 minutes
Total 1 hour
Ingredients
For pomegranate syrup:
- 2 cups pomegranate juice (100%)
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 60 ml pomegranate molasses (homemade or purchased)
- 1 h. l. orange water
For pomegranate molasses (molasses):
- 2 cups pomegranate juice (100%)
- ¼ cups granulated sugar
- 1 ½ h. l. lemon juice (freshly squeezed)
Instructions
To make pomegranate molasses (you can buy it, it’s not a problem, but homemade is always best), place the pomegranate juice, sugar, and lemon juice in a small saucepan. Heat the mixture over medium heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until the sugar is completely dissolved. Once the sugar has dissolved, reduce the heat and simmer for about 45 minutes. The volume of the sauce should decrease by about a quarter. Remove the cooked molasses from the heat and set aside to cool.
To make grenadine at home, combine pomegranate juice and sugar in a suitable size saucepan, place the saucepan over medium heat and heat the contents over medium heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. When the sugar is completely dissolved, add 60 ml of the previously prepared molasses and 1 teaspoon of orange water. Mix well and remove from heat. Once the pomegranate syrup has cooled, pour it into bottles and refrigerate for storage.
Field notes
- Since we didn’t use any chemical preservatives, our homemade pomegranate syrup has an expiration date. If you plan to use your grenadine slowly, within a month, add 30 ml of vodka or grain 50-70% alcohol to it as an additional preservative. If the syrup is being prepared for an event and is used up quickly, then this is not necessary. Many sources recommend placing pomegranate syrup in the freezer to increase its shelf life to six months (we believe that its lightness and freshness will suffer from this).
- Instead of orange water, which is quite problematic to get in the CIS, you can use more affordable rose water. The citrus flavor of the syrup can be given with the help of zest: during the preparation of molasses, 10 minutes before the end of cooking, add the zest of 1 orange and the zest of 1 lemon.
- To make homemade grenadine a rich red color and tint drinks well, add hibiscus to the recipe (you can read about choosing hibiscus in the corresponding material). For the proportions indicated in the recipe, it will be enough to take 4-6 tbsp. l. hibiscus, which should be added along with molasses and orange water. Strain the finished syrup from the hibiscus petals should be about 2 hours after removing it from the heat.
- Often grenadine is prepared with the addition of blackcurrant juice (less often redcurrant juice is used). Choose proportions based on your preferences. Instead of juice and, accordingly, vodka, you can use Creme de Cassis, not forgetting that it has a strength about 2 times lower than vodka. You can also use other juices, for example, cranberry juice or something like that.
Grenadine cocktails
Jerry Thomas’s 1862 book, Bartenders Guide: How To Mix Drinks, the first printed manual for bartenders, mentions many syrups but not pomegranate. Almost 70 years later, in 1930, the world saw the book “The Savoy Cocktail Book” by Harry Craddock, which contains about 100 drinks, which should include grenadine. However, most recipes say “raspberry syrup or grenadine.” It is difficult to say what happened in this time period, since the appearance of grenadine as such is still considered a mystery.
Perhaps pomegranate syrup appeared at the end of the XNUMXth century somewhere in France or England, which were “closer to the East” than all other countries. Be that as it may, grenadine appeared, and with it a huge number of “adult” cocktails, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic, appeared.
Cocktail Jack Rose / Jack Rose
- 50 ml of apple or calvados
- 20 ml of homemade grenadine
- 20 ml fresh lime juice
Shake with ice. Pour into a rocks or cocktail glass.
Cocktail El Presidente / El Presidente
- 45 ml rich white rum
- 45 ml white or dry vermouth
- 1 tsp orange liqueur (Curaçao or Grande Marnier)
- 0,5 tsp homemade grenadine (or more to taste)
Mix in a mixing glass with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Decorate with an orange peel curl.
Cocktail Texas Fizz / Texas Fizz
- 45 ml London dry gin
- 15 ml freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 20 ml of freshly squeezed orange juice
- 1 tsp homemade grenadine (or more to taste)
- 60-90 ml dry sparkling wine
Shake without sparkling wine with ice. Pour into a flute and top up with sparkling wine.
Cocktail Offender / Scofflaw
- 45 ml rye whiskey
- 30 dry vermouth
- 20 ml fresh lime juice
- 15 ml of homemade grenadine
- 1 dash orange bitter
Shake with ice. Pour into a cocktail glass and garnish with an orange peel curl.
Cocktail La Yapa / La Yapa
- 30 ml rye whiskey
- 30 ml freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 15 ml Fernet-Branca balm
- 15 ml of Velvet Falernum liqueur
- 15 ml of homemade grenadine
- 2 dessert bitter Angostura
Shake with ice. Pour into a cocktail glass and garnish with an orange peel curl.
Cocktail Badger / The Badger
- 60 ml raspberry vodka
- 30 ml vanilla vodka
- 60 ml cranberry juice
- 30 ml of homemade grenadine
- 30 ml orange juice
- 30 ml simple syrup
Build in highball with ice. Stir, decorate with a curl of orange peel.
Mocktail Shirley Temple / Shirley Temple
- 200 ml ginger ale
- 15 ml of homemade grenadine
- 15 ml fresh lime juice
Build in a high tumbler with ice. Stir, garnish with a cherry.
Mocktail St. Kitts / St Kitts
- 75 ml of pineapple juice
- 25 ml fresh lime juice
- 15 ml of homemade grenadine
- cold ginger ale
Shake with ice without ale. Pour into a highball glass, top with ginger ale.
Drink adult cocktails like an adult!