World's most refreshing drink?
This Cherry-Lime-Black Pepper Shrub captures in a bottle the happiest part of summer.
Shrubs — those fruit-and-vinegar concoctions that had a major moment ten or twelve years ago — suddenly feel deliciously relevant again. Avoiding alcohol? A fizzy shrub makes a joyous apéritif. Minding your gut microbiome? Here’s a snazzy way to sip that vinegar. Looking for a light alcoholic quaff that’s bursting with happy flavor? A shrub serves as a magnificent starting-point.
Summer is the ideal time to play with shrubs, as vinegar happens to be highly refreshing, and ripe fruit is here for the muddling.
Case in point: Cherries! We’re at the height of the season, which won’t last long.
No heat required
You don’t need to turn on the stove to make a fruit shrub; you just need a little time: about 24 hours — plus fruit, sugar, vinegar and a fridge.
I thought about turning cherries into a shrub because, to tell you the truth, the jumbo bag of organic Bings in a bowl on my counter were less-than-fabulous, watery and wan. Why not concentrate their reticent flavor in a shrub? Maybe a shrub version of a cherry-lime rickey?!
I knew I wanted to enhance the cherry flavor with lime zest, so I used a vegetable peeler to shave those limes (just the green part, no pith) then muddled the zest strips with sugar. According to food scientists, that’s the best way to maximize that zest flavor. Into a bowl of squished cherries went the zesty sugar, along with crushed black peppercorns, which struck me as cherry-lime friendly.
After an overnight rest in the fridge (with a couple of stirs), the cherries release a lot of juice that mingles with the sugar to become a syrup. Pour the whole mess into a strainer set over a bowl, and press out as much juice as you can. Next stir in white-wine vinegar and the juice of those limes you zested. Voilà : There’s your shrub.
Now bring that shrub to life
Fill a glass with ice, add an ounce and a half (120 ml) of your beautiful, deep-red shrub, top with sparkling water and stir. There you have it: a Cherry-Lime-Black Pepper Fizz, the drink of the summer. My summer, anyway — I’m going back to the store for more cherries today so I can keep the shrub on hand all season long. Maybe even beyond: fruit shrubs can keep for months in the fridge.
Application-wise, I didn’t stop with the zero-proof fizz: Cherry-Lime-Black Pepper Shrub, I thought, would be amazing in a gin & tonic.
And so it is! I could not be more excited about this. When concocting it, I went light on the gin (I used The Botanist, just an ounce, or 30 ml), used half that much shrub, and a big splash of Fever Tree tonic water. A couple of those squished cherries went on top as a garnish, along with a lime wedge. So good!
Next up: Cherry-Lime-Black Pepper Spritz. This will be built in a large, ice-filled wine glass, with prosecco, and possibly a skosh of Select aperitivo, maybe a splash of sparkling water. Squished-cherry and lime wheel garnish. If you manage to put one together before I do, let us know in a comment how what you did and how it is!
Keep those squished cherries
Which reminds me: You don’t need to discard those mashed, macerated cherries: Not only do they make great drink garnishes, they’re also a fantastic topping for ice cream. Vanilla’s a given — but I happened to have some homemade almond ice cream in the freezer. Wow! Together they were better than I imagined. The cherries would also be dreamy atop pistachio ice cream or gelato.
Oh, I almost forgot: Here’s the recipe for Cherry-Lime-Black Pepper Shrub:
Don’t wait — the cherries will be gone before you can say bada-bada-bing.
Love, Leslie
Sounds good.
You might see what sloe gin cocktail recipes you can find out there & sub in your cherry shrub.
I made a cherry shrub a few weeks ago and kept thinking it was missing something — black pepper! genius!