• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Nordic Kitchen stories

Inspired by family recipes

  • Home
  • Recipes
    • Baking
    • Bread & Buns
    • Breakfast
    • Brunch
    • Cakes
    • Canapés
    • Desserts
    • Dinner
    • Drinks
    • Festive
    • Foraged Food
    • Fika
    • Fish
    • Healthy
    • Lunch
    • Main
    • Meat
    • Pickling
    • Preserving
    • Scandinavian
    • Snacks
    • Sourdough Baking
    • Soups
    • Starters
    • Vegan
    • Vegetarian
  • Bespoke Cakes
  • Events
  • About
  • Contact
  • Photography

Blackcurrant Shrub Drink

18th July 2020 By Louise Leave a Comment

Blackcurrant Shrub Drink

Blackcurrant Shrub Drink

Ever heard of shrub drinks?  A shrub is a tangy and thirst quenching beverage that’s really refreshing and astonishingly simple to make.

Making a shrub is basically a way of preserving. It’s an infused syrup, made with fresh ingredients, fortified with apple cider vinegar and then aged, which develops its complexity and flavour. When freshly brewed, shrubs possess a strong taste of vinegar. However vinegar is the key to their amazing taste. With time, all of a shrub’s harsh vinegar edges round out and meld with the syrup to make the perfect hybrid of sweet and sour.  Shrubs can make for a sophisticated non-alcoholic or alcoholic drink, especially for people who find syrups too sweet.

You can make shrubs with practically any kind of fruit and some vegetables. From forced spring rhubarb to summer berries and stone fruit.  In winter citrus works well as does apple, pear and pomegranate.

As a general rule of thumb the sugar and vinegar ratio is the same.  I generally make cold pressed shrubs however you can cook the fruit and sugar.

Here’s a few examples of great combinations:

Rhubarb + ginger

Peach + cardamom

Strawberry + lemon balm

Red plum + cinnamon

Pear + cinnamon + star anis

Pomegranate + pink peppercorn

Pink grapefruit + rosemary (Use the flesh of the grapefruit only)

* You can replace the sugar with honey as the sweetener.

Blackcurrant shrub drink
Print Recipe

Blackcurrant Shrub Drink

Prep Time15 mins
Total Time15 mins
Course: Drinks
Servings: 1 bottle

Equipment

  • 1 x 750ml sterilised bottle with lid

Ingredients

  • 300 g Blackcurrants washed
  • 190 g Caster sugar
  • 3-4 Blackcurrant leaves
  • 6-8 Lemon balm leaves
  • 190 ml Apple cider vinegar

Instructions

  • Begin by placing the blackcurrants and sugar in a deep rectangular dish. Crush the berries with the back of a spoon or a potato masher.
  • Place the blackcurrant and lemon balm leaves in a pan with 100ml water, bring to a simmer and then remove from the heat to infuse. Leave to cool. Add the infusion to the blackcurrant mixture and stir. Cover and place in the fridge for 3 days. Stir a couple of times within that period.
  • When it's ready the blackcurrants will be sitting in a rich purple syrup. Now pass the the crushed berries through a fine sieve. Add the vinegar to the berry syrup and stir with a sterilised spoon. Pour into the sterilised bottle and seal. Leave undisturbed for at least 3 days before drinking. The shrub mellows as it matures.
  • Serve diluted with sparkling water or tonic. Keep in the fridge for up to 3 months.
Blackcurrant Shrub Drink

Blackcurrant Shrub Drink

Tips:

  • Experiment with different fruit, herb and spice blends.
  • Make sure your utensils are scrupulously clean and the bottle you store the shrub in is sterilised.

Share this:

  • Print
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest

Filed Under: Drinks Tagged With: drinks, preserving

Previous Post: « Rye Sourdough Brownies
Next Post: Healthy Green Gazpacho »

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




Primary Sidebar

About Louise

Hej, I'm Louise, a food enthusiast living in Marlow, Bucks, UK. Welcome to my culinary adventures in my Nordic Kitchen. Read More

Topics

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest

Newsletter

Please subscribe to receive all new recipes by email.

Latest posts

Easter Salad of Quails Eggs & Hasselback Potatoes

Saffron Spiced Easter Salad

30th March 2021

Swedish Saffron and Vanilla Buns

30th March 2021

Nettle & Pine Nut Parcels with Whipped Feta

Nettle & Pine Nut Parcels with Whipped Feta

25th March 2021

Rhubarb & Ginger Cake

Rhubarb & Ginger Cake with Coconut Kefir

11th March 2021

Seared Sea Trout with Lemongrass Veloute

Seared Sea Trout with Pea & Lemongrass Velouté

5th March 2021

Footer

Follow Me on Instagram

I hope you all had a good Easter weekend and were I hope you all had a good Easter weekend and were able to catch up with family or friends after time apart. 

I just wanted to jump on here this morning to say I’m taking a little step back from Instagram for a while to dedicate time to recipe development and research. You’ll find me on stories though, I’m not completely disappearing. Hopefully you can bear with me for a few weeks. 😊
Have a great short week friends.
Easter Saturday lunch ~ scrumptious Beetroot Cured Easter Saturday lunch ~ scrumptious Beetroot Cured Gravlax with Mustard Sauce and delicious crispbread courtesy of @petersyard [gifted]

Life’s good with these little details.
Happy Easter ~ Glad Påsk 🐣 Hope you all enjo Happy Easter ~ Glad Påsk 🐣 

Hope you all enjoy the lovely long weekend.
🌱Wild Garlic Garganelli & Purple Sprouting Broc 🌱Wild Garlic Garganelli & Purple Sprouting Broccoli 🌱

Subtle flavours of garlic with purple sprouting, lemon, butter & Parmesan.  Simple pleasures in the last rays of sunshine 😊
Wild Garlic Garganelli 🌱 What do you do when y Wild Garlic Garganelli 🌱

What do you do when you find yourself with lots of wild garlic and a delivery of fresh eggs? You make pasta of course!  With the season just beginning, it’s just too tempting not to use these fragrant leaves in just about everything.
What have you been making with your wild garlic?

Copyright © 2021 · Nordic Kitchen stories | Cookie Notice | Website by Callia Web