Easy And Delicious Strawberry Shrub Recipe
This Strawberry Shrub recipe is a deliciously tangy, sweet, and slightly acidic drink that can be enjoyed on its own, as a mixer, or used as a base for cocktails. It’s a great alternative to store-bought sodas on hot days too.
Key Ingredients
Turning fresh fruit into a homemade fruit shrub is a great way to preserve seasonal bounties. They make delicious sodas to enjoy on a hot summer’s day and are especially refreshing when mixed with some fizzy water and lime juice.
- Fresh strawberries – Use very ripe strawberries for the best flavor.
- Raw apple cider vinegar – this is preferable to a pasteurized version as it contains natural bacteria and yeasts from the fermentation process. Champagne vinegar is equally delicious if you can find it, or have made your own.
- Raw sugar – this is my preference but any you have is fine. I would avoid using brown sugar, panela sugar/rapadura sugar or any other dark varieties as they will make the resulting shrub look very muddy. It will be fine to drink but not very nice to look at.
You can stick with these base ingredients or try some optional extras. Herbs like chopped basil leaves or mint leaves can add lots of flavor.
Substitutions And Variations
Add some fresh basil or mint leaves to the bowl and muddle with the strawberries. Add the sugar and continue on with the recipe.
Any number of vinegars can also be used in place of the apple cider vinegar. Champagne vinegar, white wine vinegar, and coconut vinegar can all impart different flavours to the shrub. Try it with each of them and see which you prefer.
Experiment with different shrubs, as many seasonal fruits will work well in this recipe. Try blueberry, cherry, peach or other stone fruits. Elderberries are divine too if you can find them.
For a grown-up drink, use this shrub to make a Strawberry Shrub Cocktail! Add to gin or any other of your favorite spirits – white spirits work best.
How To Make A Strawberry Shrub
Shrub recipes can be made in two ways – fermenting fruit in sugar for a few days and then combining it with vinegar (cold method), or making a simple syrup to cook the fruit in and then also heating the vinegar (hot method). Cold infusions are great for things like berries, stone fruit etc. The hot infusion is best suited to fruit that becomes more flavorful when cooked – rhubarb is a great example.
Ferment The Fruit
- Wash the strawberries and cut the green tops off (see the notes section in the recipe card for how to use these!)
- Cut larger strawberries in halves or quarters and add to a medium bowl or large, clean jar.
- Crush the berries just a litte using a muddler or a fork.
- Add the sugar and give it all a quick stir with a spoon.
Add The Vinegar
- Cover the bowl with a clean kitchen towel (tea towel) and leave to soak at room temperature for a few days stirring it several times each day. This helps dissolve as much of the sugar as possible and initiate fermentation, which will produce a mildly tart fruit syrup.
- When the syrup starts to taste tart (days three to five), pour the mixture through a fine mesh strainer or nut milk bag and catch the liquid in a bowl (this is the shrub mixture you’ll use as a base for drinks). Gently press on the strawberries with a spatula to get out as much liquid as possible. Avoid pushing through any fruit pulp, as it’s just the liquid that’s needed. Keep the strawberries to have with yoghurt or discard them.
- Measure out the strawberry liquid and add an equal amount of vinegar to it.
- Pour the finished shrub into a big glass bottle and store in the fridge for several months.
To enjoy, pour a little of the shrub into a tall glass with some ice and chopped extra strawberries then top with plain or bubbly water. It can also be used to add plenty of flavour to sauces, marinades and salad dressings.
Tips For Success With This Recipe
While a cold infusion can take more time, don’t skip on the fermentation process. This traditional method is what produces the probiotic bacteria in the shrub.
The sweetness can be adjusted in this recipe to suit your preference. One cup of sugar will give you a shrub that’s more tart and ferments faster. Two cups will produce a sweeter shrub, that will take several days to ferment. One cup is the minimum I suggest to ensure the fermentation process is not affected. While either amount is a lot of sugar, just keep in mind a shrub is used just like cordial. You’re generally only adding a small amount as the base of a larger drink. Though on occasion – a small glass of straight strawberry shrub is delicious!
Storing And Freezing
The shrub can be made in advance and stored in the refrigerator for several months. I always store mine in a clear bottle so it’s easy to identify if any mould has formed. This has never been an issue with any batch even close to 12 months of storage. However, it’s still a safe practice to follow.
While this drinking vinegar can be frozen, the high sugar content means it won’t freeze solid. It will be more of a slushy consistency though still safe to use.
Strawberry Shrub FAQs
Cordial is generally sweeter than a shrub, which is slightly sour because of the fermentation of the fruit, and the vinegar used. Additionally, cordials will always taste the same, whereas the flavour of a shrub will continue to develop over time.
These delicious beverages are similar but not the same. Kombucha relies on a scoby for the fermentation process and uses much less sugar.
More Drinks Recipes
- Ginger Beer Mocktail
- How To Make Jun Tea
- Jun Tea (With Blueberry And Lime)
- Maca Latte
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Easy And Delicious Strawberry Shrub Recipe
Equipment
- 1 Medium-sized bowl
Ingredients
- 2 cups strawberries, ripe
- 1 cup raw sugar (see note 1)
- 2 cups apple cider vinegar, raw and unfiltered
Instructions
- Wash the strawberries and cut the green tops off (see the notes section below for how to use these!)
- Cut larger strawberries in halves or quarters and add to a medium bowl or large, clean jar.
- Crush the berries just a little using a muddler or a fork and pour the sugar over.
- Mix the strawberries and sugar together then cover the bowl with a clean kitchen towel (tea towel) and leave to soak at room temperature for 2 – 5 days (see note 1 below). Stir the mix several times each day to help dissolve as much of the sugar as possible and initiate fermentation.
- When the syrup tastes mildly tart (days 2 to 5), pour the mixture through a fine mesh strainer or nut milk bag and catch the liquid in a bowl (this is the shrub mixture you’ll use as a base for drinks).
- Gently press on the strawberries with a spatula to get out as much liquid as possible. Avoid pushing through any fruit pulp, as it’s just the liquid that’s needed. Either keep the strawberries to have with yoghurt or discard them.
- Measure out the strawberry liquid and add an equal amount of vinegar to it then pour the finished shrub into a big glass bottle and store in the fridge for several months.
- To enjoy, pour a little of the shrub into a tall glass with some ice and chopped extra strawberries then top with plain or bubbly water. It can also be used to add plenty of flavour to sauces, marinades and salad dressings.