The Modern American Shrub

The sugar/vinegar combination sounded interesting, so I mad a "peach" shrub and a "strawberry" shrub, both with a bit of spearmint from the garden added at the beginning. Both were/are delicious, especially when diluted with a bit of club soda and a jigger of gin added.

My question is, how long do you think the "shrub" mix will keep in the fridge? Does the concentration of sugar/vinegar retard spoilage? I don't want to use all the "shrub" mix too quickly, as I may then graduate from semi-alcoholic to total alcoholic.

Thanks in advance,

JimF from Sewell

Thanks for this. Last summer I had a strawberry and lime shrub with just a hint of black pepper at a wonderful, creative restaurant in Lake Placid. It was one of the most delicious drinks I have ever had, and it happened to be alcohol free. I hope shrubs continue to catch on, because they are not that easy to come by, but oh so good!

This seems like switchel to me. I don't know how it's a new thing when Laura carried the switchel that Ma made for Pa out to him while he was haying at the beginning of "The Long Winter". Don't sneer. You know you know it by heart too.

Just add some vodka and it would be lovely!

What Peggy referred to is a vestige of old English habits in America. Fruit-and-vinegar mixtures were well-known in parts of the English countryside, Yorkshire in particular.

Acid-based drinks are certainly not unusual. Some lemonade has always been on the sour side. What about the current rage for "sours" in the beer world? The Belgians have their lactic lambic and red ales, and so forth.

Everything old is new again you see. I am awaiting for the revival of the Harvey Wallbanger.

The Hudson Standard makes amazing flavors of shrubs almost exclusively sourced from NY's Hudson Valley. We love serving them at Valley Variety's cooking classes and dinners. They're refreshing simply mixed with club soda and even tastier with sparkling wine.

Thank you for this - I had been experimenting a bit with homemade sodas and suspected that vinegar might somehow be a good alternative to citrus for getting that acidic zing, but never quite got up the gumption to try anything (although I had gotten as far as letting my fruit sit with a touch of vinegar and honey before adding to plain yogurt). Now I not only have the inspiration and guidance for giving it a go, there is a whole historical context to explore. The posts about switchel were also a revelation - molasses as sweetener sounds really good. I'm already thinking about trying something with strawberries and balsamic - or pears with white wine vinegar and tarragon as first attempts.

"The shrub is a fast-rising star among both cocktail-nation kids and teetotalers with good palates."

This sentence read like complete nonsense to me. I had never heard of a "shrub" before but the writer assumes I have and it took several paragraphs to figure out what in the world they meant. Silly me, I thought it was a plant....

And if you're in or near Seattle, WA, there are Sweet Caroline's shrubs at a nearby farmer's market. Just saying!

I've been mixing drinks and cooking with a variety of shrubs from Shrub Drinks. They are amazingly versatile, and the Old Fashioned made with the Balsamic Cherry is a real favorite. I work on the drinks and my wife works on the cooking end. She makes vinaigrettes and salsas with them.

Try some of the Som drinking vinegars from Pok-Pok. Mmm.

Tait Farm Foods in Pennsylvania has been making and selling shrub since at least the 1980s; we always have a couple different flavors in our refrigerator. They make a great addition to many cocktails or mixed with seltzer. My current favorite is ginger. Very refreshing. (And available online.)

apple cider vinegar to me means the "raw" product produced by Bragg, that's both unfiltered and strong. Is there another brand /product recommended or is that the jam?

Up here in the Finger Lakes we favor switchel to cool down after a hot day of haying. Or winery touring.

The inventiveness of drink-mixers is nearly infinite, as is the number of permutations of drinkable liquids. Has a cocktail of grenadine, garlic juice, olive oil, and vodka been yet tried? :-))

switchel and rum: one part each of apple cider vinegar, blackstrap molasses, spring water, mix well and drink 1:1 with black rum.