Although this many mistakenly believe this bright red syrup ingredient has cherry or strawberry origins, cocktail enthusiasts know that at the heart of every grenadine recipe is pomegranate juice. Lending the red syrup both its sweet flavor and colorful appearance, juicy pomegranates combine with sugar and transform into the beloved drink ingredient. With its few ingredients and short list of steps, it's easy to make your own batch of grenadine on the fly using one of these recipes.
Easy Homemade Grenadine
The easiest way to create grenadine from home is to take unsweetened pomegranate juice and dissolve sugar into it, letting the heated mixture cool into the syrupy texture you're familiar with. Just a cup of pomegranate juice and a ¼ cup of sugar yields enough grenadine to make about 24 one-ounce servings, which will last about a month when refrigerated in a tightly sealed container.
Ingredients
- ¼ cup sugar
- 1 cup unsweetened pomegranate juice
Instructions
- In a saucepan, combine the sugar and pomegranate juice. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar.
- Simmer for about five minutes or until the mixture has thickened, stirring occasionally.
- Remove from heat and let the mixture cool.
- Once cool, pour the mixture into a sealable bottle and refrigerate in between uses.
Various Ways to Customize Your Homemade Grenadine
While the basic recipe will gift you with a batch of deliciously sweet grenadine, you might find adding such ingredients as rosewater, lemon juice, or orange peels can create a grenadine that's better suited to your cocktail's flavor profile. Take a look at some of the ways you can tweak the basic grenadine recipe by adding just one or two simple ingredients.
Tart Homemade Grenadine Recipe
Basic grenadine recipes are naturally incredibly sweet, and adding just a tablespoon of lemon juice to your mixture brings balanced acidity to the syrup. This recipe yields about 24 one-ounce servings and will last about a month in the fridge.
Ingredients
- ¼ cup sugar
- 1 cup unsweetened pomegranate juice
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
Instructions
- In a saucepan, combine the sugar and pomegranate juice. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar.
- Simmer, stirring occasionally, for about five minutes or until the mixture has thickened.
- Stir in the lemon juice and remove from the heat. Give the mixture a quick taste and if it's not tart enough, add some more lemon juice.
- Once cool, pour the mixture into a sealable bottle and refrigerate between uses.
Botanical Homemade Grenadine
Rosewater isn't just for skincare, as you can add it and other food-grade botanical waters to your grenadine recipe. Just make sure you're really careful about how much you add to your batch because floral ingredients can become perfumey quickly. Adding slightly too much floral water will overpower your grenadine flavor. This batch makes about 24 one-ounce servings that will keep for about a month in the refrigerator.
Ingredients
- ¼ cup sugar
- 1 cup unsweetened pomegranate juice
- 1 dash food grade orange flower water or rosewater
Instructions
- In a saucepan, combine the sugar and pomegranate juice. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar.
- Simmer, stirring occasionally, for about five minutes or until the mixture has thickened.
- Remove from heat and cool.
- Once cool, pour the mixture into a sealable bottle. Add a dash of orange flower water or rosewater.
- Seal the bottle and thoroughly shake before refrigerating.
Farmer's Market Homemade Grenadine
Another great benefit of making your grenadine from home is that you get to control exactly what ingredients you put into your body. This recipe, which yields about 24 one-ounce servings, will keep in the fridge for about a mnth. It focuses on using natural and organic materials to give you the purest mixture possible. With the orange peels, make sure you use only the orange part. The pith, which is the white part on the underside of the peel, imparts bitter flavors.
Ingredients
- ¼ cup organic sugar
- 1 cup organic unsweetened pomegranate juice
- 3-4 one-inch orange peels from organic oranges
Instructions
- In a saucepan, combine the sugar and pomegranate juice. Bring to a boil on medium heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar.
- Simmer for about five minutes or until the mixture has thickened, stirring occasionally.
- Remove from heat and set aside.
- Take each orange peel in between your fingers and twist them over the top of the pans to express the orange oils into the mixture.
- Drop the orange peels into the hot liquid. Stir and allow to steep until the liquid has cooled.
- Pour the cooled mixture into a sealable bottle and refrigerate in between uses.
Ways to Incorporate Grenadine Into a Cocktail
Despite its widespread popularity today, grenadine wasn't actually used in abundance until the early 20th century, as one literature review discovered after combing through various 19th and 20th century historic cocktail books for references to the pomegranate mixture. Modern mixologists most frequently use the iconic red syrup for its color properties as well as its sweetness.
You'll find many ways to incorporate grenadine into delicious mixed drinks.
- Since grenadine doesn't contain alcohol, it's perfect for use in mocktails.
- You'll find it in nonalcoholic drinks like a Shirley Temple and a Roy Rogers.
- Grenadine is also a sweetener and coloring agent in boozy libations like the tequila sunrise.
- Due to its syrupy nature and sugar content, grenadine is denser than other cocktail ingredients, so it's a lovely bottom layer in layered drinks.
- Don't forget to turn to your trusty grenadine recipe when making your favorite layered shots, as well.
- Remember, with grenadine, a little goes a long way because it is so sweet. Start with a small amount and add more to taste.
Grenadine Recipes Made Easy
If you want to avoid the overpriced and artificial preservatives included in your grocery store's bottled grenadine, try making a homemade batch for yourself and see what you think. Soon you'll find out that homemade beats out store-bought every time.
