When life gives you lemons... you make grenadine...

I hate running around for shit. I will confess, I am a person who doesn't have a lot of patience.

I have my mind set on something, I know what it is, I want it, so I should go to that store and get it. It should be there right? Heck I am an educated consumer, and when it comes to imbibing I want the best of the best... I don't want something ordinary.

I would go to liquor stores, grocery stores, specialty gourmet stores in the area. I would ask or look around and go up to the sales staff and say......

"Do you have any Grenadine other than the regular stuff that isn't made with corn syrup, or artificial color???"

Trades people would then look at me like I had three heads. The most common response I got was, "What's Grenadine??"

This was bad enough. Don't get me started on walking in to liquor stores and talking to proprietors who don't know even what the flying fuck they are selling half the time when I have a question. I could write pages of that... ALL DAY...

Getting back to the point, and I am getting out something on my chest that obviously has been bothering me, if me crassness hasn't been apparent to thine reader right now...

What has been bothering me for the longest was trying to find real Grenadine. The most common brand is of course everywhere and it is called Rose's. As I started becoming more of an imbibing connoisseur, and a bigger cocktail aficionado, I was learning that Rose's seems to have become a bastardized grenadine. Grenadine is a syrup that back in the day was normally distilled from pomegranate fruit. Sort of a generic purple/red syrup.

What's it turned into now is a sugary mess. I say to myself NO MORE of that, there must be something out there, but my hunt turned into lots of brick walls. It was becoming a hopeless cause until something came to mind that made the most obvious sense. I wish I realized it earlier, when life give you lemons... you make you're own GOD DAM GRENADINE!

I was researching online and discovering people just easily made their own. Keripes why didn't I think of this? I make enough syrups as it is this should be a piece of cake. As per suggestion I grabbed some real POM juice, threw it on the stove and began my work. I was tempted to throw all sorts of herb in here, but I really should take it slow at first... baby steps... baby steps I kept telling myself.

I let the solution reduce for some time, until I was satisfied with the flavor. I really wanted to get some of the pomegranate to come out. Then I added sugar. After that it was all combined and set.

The results were quite good. It tasted like a very fruity pomegranate syrup just as I planned, although it was tempting to put herbs in there but that probably wouldn't be a good idea and would make it over complicated.

The results are pictured to my left, and they are what I expected and from what I heard. You will get a much darker syrup than the Rose's brand.

I only made a small amount to start with. There will be many practice attempts to decide on the ultimate ratio and reduction of juice to sugar.

Rose's also make a lime cordial product, and that is actually perfectly used in a Gimlet without a needed substitution.

But for me, I want the pomegranate and don't want to be staring all day at a giant red fire hydrant. So far on first go this one actually seems very promising in terms of texture and taste! Can't wait to officially try it out in a cocktail. Don't take my word for it though, make some yourself!