How to make grenadine and use it in a cocktail

Jewel-like Pomegranates

I’ve been feasting on pomegranates this year. My local grocers has been selling monsters almost too big to fit in two hands at £1.49 each. What interested me more was the chance to buy 5 smaller ones for £1. The seeds add a lovely bite, almost a crunch and a tangy sweetness to a salad or on sprinkled on top of one of the dishes created from one of Ottolenghi’s books.

But what else could I create with these beautiful fruits?

I worked in France when I was younger, and never really thought about what grenadine was made from. It was a delicious syrup diluted with water to make drink that I drank often. I learnt French but still never considered what grenadine meant. Much later, I discovered that grenade is both pomegranate and grenade in French, hence grenadine. I wonder which came first? Were the fruits name after a grenade or vice versa?

At Cocktails in the City, we were particularly impressed with the bars who had made their own cocktail ingredients including tonic water, roasted pepper compote and lemon grass syrup (not all at once I hasten to add!). So, why not make grenadine? After all it’s that wonderful rosy hue in many cocktails.

Having read many recipes, it seemed that there’s no consensus on exactly how it should be made, so I trusted my instincts. I was grateful for the description on one blog to simply extract the juice using a lemon squeezer. This worked very well. Some recipes had you boil the mixture down which seemed to not only change the colour, but left very little liquid. So, let me share my version.

Beautiful Pomegranates

Home Made Grenadine

The size of pomegranates you use is not important. You’re aiming for about 300 ml of juice.

Ingredients

6 pomegranates
Create a sugar syrup from equal parts of sugar and water (I used 150 ml of each)
Lemon juice to taste, 1/2 to 1 lemon

Sieving the juice

Method

Use a lemon squeezer to extract the juice.
Create a sugar syrup. Measure half the quantity of juice you have of water and sugar (I used 150 ml of each). Bring to the boil in a saucepan making sure that all the crystals have been dissolved.
Leave to cool. Pass through a piece of muslin a sieve and allow to cool. Taste and add lemon juice if you think it needs it. I’m keeping the grenadine in the fridge – it’s not going to last long!

Bar Khol’s El Presidente Cocktail

El Presidente Cocktail

Recently, Bar Kohl celebrated 20 wonderful years making some of the very best drinks in Edinburgh. So I turned to Manager, Adam Montgomerie for a recipe I could try at home with my grenadine. Do visit the bar for one of their vast range of fascinating cocktails! This is a stirred drink.

For one cocktail