Strawberry Shrub Collins
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A shrub will change your life – and your cocktails.
By Erin Henderson
A life changing shrub may sound like a bold statement. It’s not.
A basic blend of plant, sugar and vinegar, these ancient elixirs are tangy, sweet, and compellingly delicious. In fact, if you like kombucha, you will love a shrub. I started making shrubs after a kombucha bender in Nicaragua last February that burst open the gates for this latest culinary obsession. Happily, unlike kombucha, shrubs come together in hours, not weeks, so instant gratification can sooth your dropping dopamine.
Shrubs, which comes from the Arabic word sharāb meaning, “to drink,” has been used since the Babylonian times when flavoured vinegar was added to water to make it safe to drink. Shrubs made their way around the world over the centuries, eventually getting very popular with the British Navy to fight scurvy. In the last decade, these medicines of yore have made a strong comeback with creative mixologists looking to add dimension to their drinks and health-bent yogis searching for the next fountain of microbiome invincibility.
You can flavour a shrub with any plant – fruit, vegetable, even herb. I found beautiful, hot-house grown, organic strawberries to make mine. Next time I might add peppercorn or basil to the mix. Or not. And as fruit becomes more abundant as summer approaches, I’ll make more shrubs from watermelon, peach, apple, and pears.
I add a splash to fizzy water to sip throughout the day. And when it comes to cocktails… oh baby, the sky’s the limit. I’ve got big plans for this summer’s poolside G+T’s and I’m thinking a strawberry shrub will add a sassy kick to our super-popular rosé sangria.
But here, riffing on the classic Tom Collins – a straightforward blend of lemon juice, gin, and sugar – strawberry shrub wakes things up a bit.
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Strawberry Shrub Collins
Makes: 1 drink
Bartender Level: Easy
Ingredients:
- 2 oz London dry gin
- ½ oz simple syrup
- 1½ oz strawberry shrub*
- Soda for topping
- Fresh strawberry for garnish
How You Make It:
Fill a tall glass with ice. Add gin, simple syrup, and strawberry shrub stirring to combine and chill. Top with soda, garnish, and serve.
Strawberry Shrub
Makes: about 1 ½ litres
Bartender level: easy
Ingredients:
- 2 lbs strawberries, preferably organic, washed well, hulled, and cut into pieces
- 1 ½ cups sugar
- 1 ½ cups water
- Pinch of salt
- 2 cups apple cider vinegar
How You Make It:
- In a very large glass or ceramic bowl, add cut strawberries.
- In a sauce pot set over medium heat, bring sugar, salt, and water to a gentle boil, stirring to dissolve sugar.
- Pour sugar mixture (simple syrup) over strawberries and allow to cool.
- When room temperature, add vinegar to the strawberry mixture and stir to combine
- Place the bowl in the fridge to macerate for up to 8 hours or overnight.
- Strain the fruit from the liquid, reserve strawberries for a future use (see below)
- Put the liquid in jars and store in the fridge until needed. (Shrubs will easily last two weeks.)
- Add ¼ cup to 8 oz of sparkling water, or to taste, and enjoy.
