Ingredient – Grenadine

As I mentioned in this week’s intro post, the Grenadine you find in most grocery stores is actually just citric acid flavored sugar water.  We here at Cocktail Hacker hope to resolve that problem right now.  Grenadine can be made at home quite simply and quickly.  Plus, you get the added bonus that the homemade version tastes much better.

We started our studies and based our recipes on a great post from Paul at The Cocktail Chronicles.  Paul discusses two primary methods for the production of Grenadine.  The first being a cold method, which is very simple to make at home.

The Cocktail Chronicles Cold Method Grenadine:

[Ingredients]

1 cup Pomegranate Juice
1 cup Sugar

[Directions]

1) Combine sugar and juice in a closable jar
2) Shake jar until sugar is completely dissolved

The second method Paul discusses is a hot method, which is a little more involved and requires a bit more time.

The Cocktail Chronicles Hot Method Grenadine:

[Ingredients]

2 cups Pomegranate Juice
1 cup Sugar

[Directions]

1) Add juice to a sauce pan
2) Simmer until reduced by half
3) Remove from heat
4) Add sugar and stir until dissolved

Both methods result in good products but the flavors are quite different.  The cold method keeps more of the fresh flavors of the juice where the hot method results in a much more intensely flavored product.  As such we decided to combine both recipes in an attempt to get both the freshness and intensity.

Cocktail Hacker Grenadine:

[Ingredients]

2 cups Pomegranate Juice
1/2 cup Sugar
1/2 tsp Orange Flower Water [Optional]

[Directions]

1) Add one cup of juice to a sauce pan
2) Simmer until reduced by half
3) Remove from heat
4) Add remaining juice and sugar and stir until dissolved
5) If you like you can add 1/2 tsp of orange flower
water for a more floral taste

Aaron and I really liked the Grenadine that this recipe produced.  It’s much more intense than the cold method yet retains some of the bright freshness of the cold method.  The Orange Flower Water is completely optional.  Aaron preferred it with none and some of the commenters on The Cocktail Chronicles preferred much more.  Also our Grenadine isn’t as sweet as Rose’s and not as thick, so if that’s something you’re needing for the cocktail you’re making, consider adding a little more sugar until you get the sweetness and viscosity you like.

We tried the cold method first a couple weeks ago and found it to be very good, but was even sweeter than the Rose’s product.  So if you’re going that route you might try less sugar to start and add it a little at a time until you reach the level of sweetness you like.  Also, we couldn’t find fresh pomegranates for this post so we used POM juice.  I think the final product is very good, but since POM is made from concentrate I think fresh pomegranate juice would produce an even better end result.

A final note.  As with the simple syrups we discussed I add one oz of Everclear to these to keep them stable longer in my fridge.  Although I enjoy cocktails a great deal, I don’t drink nearly enough of them to go through this much Grenadine in a short amount of time.