Sour Cherry Shrub

With the very last of our sour cherries, we decided to go for a shrub, otherwise known as a drinking vinegar.

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These were quite popular long ago, but had fallen out of favor until the cocktail cognoscenti decided to explore them. They’re tart, refreshing and, well, good for your gut.

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We found a good recipe to get us started on the blog Everybody Likes Sandwiches.  Greg put it together and we sipped it to welcome in our long July Fourth weekend.

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We tried it with both gin and bourbon (2 ounces of booze, one of shrub and one of seltzer) and preferred the bourbon. Try both and let us know!

[amd-zlrecipe-recipe:52]
Sour Cherry Shrub
By Everybody Likes Sandwiches 

2 1/2 cups sour cherries, pitted
2 cups sugar
Zest of 1 lime
1 teaspoons almond extract
2 cups raw apple cider vinegar
Pinch of kosher salt (optional)
1/2 teaspoons citric acid (optional)

Add the cherries, along with the sugar, lime zest and almond extract into a large 1-litre wide-mouth mason jar. Let sit at room temperature for a day or two or three (I did 3 days), giving the jar a shake and a stir occasionally to help melt the sugar. When the sugar has melted (no grains, ma!), use a fine mesh strainer placed over a bowl to strain the syrup from the cherries. Use a rubber spatula or your favourite implement of choice to press out all the syrup. Reserve the spent cherries for another use (mixed into yogurt is a delicious suggestion). Whisk in the apple cider along with the salt and citric acid into the cherry syrup and return the shrub into a clean, large glass mason jar. Will keep in the fridge for a couple of months, but it probably won’t last that long. While the shrub is ready to drink immediately, its flavour will change over the course of a few days. Makes approximately a half jar of syrup.

To serve, mix 1 part shrub with 3 to 4 parts water or soda. Enjoy!

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