Helpful Techniques: Shrubs
One of more prevalent trends of the last few years, especially within health food markets, is the re-emergence of shrubs and drinking vinegars. When you look through the aisles of them, you’ll see them promote dozens of different benefits, ranging from improved health to skin care, hair care, energy levels, and immunity levels. While the health benefits of vinegars have long been reported and discussed, what is often a second thought is the spiritual energies that these ingredients bring with them. Here, we’ll talk about what shrubs are, the two standard methods for making them, and what intentions are inherently there as well as what sort of intentions you can easily add.
What is a shrub?
Shrubs, or drinking vinegars as they are often referred to now, are mixtures of fruit, sugar, and vinegar. Often times, herbs and spices are also added to the mixture to heighten both the flavor and any health or spiritual benefits. The result is a fruit forward, tangy mixture that opens up a lot of possibilities with what you can do with it. For those who enjoy strong flavors, it can be sipped or shot as is, or it can be diluted with club soda for a bright and refreshing drink. It can even be used as a cocktail ingredient, thrown into salad dressings, or used as a marinade for meats and vegetables.
How do I make a shrub?
The Cold Method: This is the traditional way to make a shrub, and will generally provide a brighter, greener fruit notes as well as a sharper vinegar profile due to the lack of heating. The general recipe is as follows: 2 cups of chopped or crushed fruit, 1 cups of sugar, and 1 cup of vinegar. Place the fruit and the sugar inside an airtight container, mix it all up, and let it sit for two days in the refrigerator. The mixture will macerate, meaning that the sugar will pull most of the juice and quite a bit of the nutrients out of the fruit. After the two days, the mixture should be watery and the sugar should be nearly completely dissolved. Press that mixture though a fine mesh strainer, making sure to get as much of the juice out as possible. From there, add your vinegar and place into your bottle of choice. Whereas you can use this right away if you are in a hurry, I recommend letting this sit for a while in the refrigerator to allow the vinegar to mellow slightly and for the flavors to come together more. If you want to add herbs and spices to this, you can add them to the sugar before tossing the fruit in it. The herbs and spices will infuse into the mixture as it macerates, and will carry it into the final product.
The Hot Method: Ill be honest: this is the method I use most of the time. It is significantly faster, generally being completely ready to use within an afternoon. The addition of heat does cause the flavors to be a little muted, and with fresh fruit you will lose some of the green notes in them. However, this method works extremely well for fruits without a lot of water content, such as apples, cranberries, and berries, in addition to allowing you to use dried fruit if that is what you have on hand. This method will also extract more flavor out of any herbs and spices you choose to add to it. The general recipe here is: 1 cup of chopped fruit, 1 cup of water, 1 cup of sugar, and 1 cup of vinegar. Add your fruit, water, and sugar to a small pan, and bring it up to a low simmer. Stir until all the sugar is dissolved, then let it simmer for five minutes before removing from the heat. Let it cool to room temperature, then strain out the solids. Add your vinegar, then bottle. For herbs and spices, just cook them with everything and strain them out before adding the vinegar. This will improve slightly as it sits, but will be pretty much ready to go as soon as it’s chilled.
I don’t have the fruit I want to use, can I use fruit juice instead?
Absolutely. My recommendation is to make a heavy syrup by mixing 2 cups of sugar into 1 cup of hot water, and stirring until it’s dissolved. Allow that to cool, then add 1 cup of your fruit juice and 2 cups of vinegar. This is by far the fastest and easiest way to make a shrub, and does create quite a good product. There will be purists that tell you the only way to make a true shrub is the cold method listed above, but don’t listen to them: do what works for you, with the time and energy you have. The intentions you’re putting into it mean more than any technicalities other people might try to put on you.
What type of vinegar should I use?
Although any type of vinegar can be used, there are a few that I recommend more than others. These are vinegars that not only won’t overpower or underwhelm when mixed in a shrug, but will also add intentions that more readily line up with most fruits that are commonly used for these. Vinegars in general are known for beauty and fertility intentions, although what a vinegar is made from will influence these.
Apple Cider Vinegar: This is considered the staple for shrubs. It is extremely easy to find and adds a subtle fruitiness itself that causes it to stand out less than stronger vinegars will. Beyond that, this type of vinegar specifically is known to have numerous health benefits. This vinegar will not only work well for any sort of health drawing or when looking for aid in recovery, the apple association lends a further association with beauty, youth, and love.
Balsamic Vinegar: Made from grapes, balsamic vinegar is known around the world for it’s distinctly rich tang, and it syrupy consistency. Although not a common vinegar for shrubs, it’s strong flavor and milder acidity make it a wonderful choice when paired with things like blackberries, figs, cherries, or peaches. Grapes lend intentions of abundance and celebration to the vinegar, allowing it to work well for both financial and professional manifestation.
Sherry Vinegar: Probably my personal favorite vinegar for making shrubs with, although sherry vinegar can be harder to find. It is richer than a white wine vinegar, but not as harsh as a red wine vinegar. This complements milder or sweeter fruits incredibly well, as well as fruits that are already acidic. I highly recommend this with blueberries, pineapples, mangoes, and pears. Akin to balsamic vinegar, this also adds intentions of abundance and celebration.
Why should I make a shrub?
Much like making cordials, shrubs share benefits of versatility and shelf life. They are easy to make in large batches to have on hand, and because of the vinegar will last even longer in the fridge than cordials will. Keeping them on hand will give you an easy way to add health, abundance, beauty, or fertility manifestation into your daily life.
Shrubs vs Cordials, what to make?
Any recipe for a cordial can be turned into a shrub, and vice versa. At the end of the day, the addition of vinegar as an acid is the most significant difference, and is the main question you need to ask yourself on deciding what to make. Vinegar not only has it’s own strong flavor, but it has it’s own strong intentions as well. Cordials either have no acid in them, or add a citrus to cut through the sweetness. The intentions on citruses are generally associated with cleansing, brightness, and purification, and these may play nicer with the intentions you are looking to achieve with your recipe.
One other thing to consider is how you are planning on consuming this; vinegar may be an acquired taste, but shrubs are delightful to drink by themselves and don’t need dilution. Cordials, even with a citrus present, are often times extremely sweet when drank undiluted, and generally are seen more as ingredients. If time or energy is a concern, I would lean towards making a shrub because I don’t need to do anything to it.
Stay tuned for a few of our favorite shrubs to make, and let us know any exciting shrubs you all decide to throw together!