Long before I started shaking up cocktails at dinner parties anddumping vodka into water filters, I loved Shirley Temples. Those cherry-red mocktails are the perfect drinks for kids: the crisp bubbles tickle your nose and taste buds, the sweet lemon and lime flavors keep it refreshing, and the maraschino cherry garnish elevates the drink from regular soda to a real treat.
The essential flavor in a Shirley Temple is grenadine, a sweet red syrup. The old-school, bottled grenadine I grew up with is the bright color of a bar's neon signs, its intense sweetness dominating over a vague fruit flavor.
But while looking throughthis summer's best cocktail books, I found a recipe for DIY grenadine inSmuggler’s Cove, a great tiki tome. The Smuggler's Cove grenadine is darker, richer, and much less saccharine than the stuff you buy in the bottle, with a subtle flavor and fruity undertones that go subtly enhance tropically inspired drinks (aka everything you want to be sipping on right now).
And it’s a lot easier to make it yourself than you’d expect. Here's how to do it: Take equal parts sugar and pure (i.e. unsweetened) pomegranate juice and bring it to a boil. Cook just until the sugar dissolves, about one minute.And that's it.Bartenders often add lime juice orrose waterto their mixes, but you don't need to. The homemade grenadine syrup will last for a month in the fridge.
To put that scarlet syrup to use, add a few dashes to rum and orange curaçao tomake an El Presidente. Make yournext Tequila Sunriselook like a sunset]. Combine it with bourbon fora fruitier, punchier take on an Old Fashioned.
And if a non-alcoholic drink is more your style? Break out thosemaraschino cherries. You know what to do.
