Grenadine is the most popular fruit syrup used by bartenders. Unfortunately, the most popular and easy-to-find brand of grenadine, Rose's, has no acutal fruit in it at all. It's high fructose corn syrup with red food coloring in it.
Yum.
Grenadine is actually supposed to be a sweet syrup made from pomegranate juice, which lends it a distinctive color and flavor, though the corn syrup version has become so prevalent, that a straw poll I did revealed that many people believed grenadine was cherry flavored. It can be difficult to find a bottle of the real thing, but the Sonoma's Syrup Co sells an all natural, pomegranate grenadine that I was able to pick up at Williams-Sonoma, despite the fact that it is not listed on their website. The taste is worlds away from the corn syrup stuff and you can feel good about eliminating one more source of high fructose corn syrup in your diet.
May is National BBQ Month and National Hamburger Month
Cupcakes, not for dessert (unless beef is your idea of a treat)
Because eating French Fries in the car is so tough
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
6-27-2006 @ 11:48AM
Hawk said...
I wonder if you could accomplish real grenadine by taking a bottle of Pom and reducing it, adding sugar if necessary?
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6-27-2006 @ 12:30PM
Nicole Weston said...
That's a good question, Hawk. The ingredients on the Sonoma Syrup Co grenadine list juice, sugar and vanilla, so I think it could work!
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6-27-2006 @ 12:43PM
johnb said...
due to allergies to red food coloring, my girlfriend and i made our own real grenadine. whenever pomegranates are in season, we buy a large batch, peel them, and throw the little fruits into a seive and mash them up. make a simple syrup with the juice, and store it in standard squeeze bottles.
looking for something even more unique? try blood oranges.
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6-27-2006 @ 6:30PM
Rick said...
I think I wrote this up on kaiserpenguin.com somewhere, but I couldn't find it.
Grenadine
Ingredients:
16oz pomegrante juice (POM works just dandy)
2c granulated sugar
1oz vodka (as a preservative)
1. Combine juice and sugar over medium heat and stir around until the sugar dissolves.
2. Remove from heat, stir in vodka, bottle, and pop it in your refrigerator. Keeps for a couple of months.
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