Homemade Grenadine and Pomegranate Cocktail Recipes

Cocktails are medicinal. Stop sniggering.

The aromatic mixers used in classic cocktails—vermouths, fortified wines, bitters and fruit infusions—are essentially the same curative concoctions brewed by medieval apothecaries.

Over the centuries, these traditional spirits evolved into the bitter liqueurs popular in Europe—and increasingly, in the US.

Europe’s traditional apéritifs and digestifs

Well into the 90s, many French and Italian villages produced their own signature aperatifs, digestivos or amaros. Made from secret family recipes, these alcoholic, alchemical infusions included roots, herbs, peels, vegetables and fruits.

Today only a handful of botanically-based liquors remain. Cinzano—an aperitif of “aromatic plants from the Italian Alps”—for example, and Cynar, made from artichokes.

Unfortunately, few true fruit syrups—the simple but intense infusions that give distinctive flavor to many classic cocktails—still exist.

No fruit in today’s fruit syrups

Take grenadine. Likely you only use this neon-red syrup for sweetening and coloring Shirley Temples. With good reason: commercial grenadine is little more than corn syrup, water and red dye.

This vapid sweetener bears little resemblance to real grenadine, traditionally made with pomegranates. Once produced by small, regional makers, today pomegranate-based grenadine has gone the way of copper stills and candle-lit bistros.

To enjoy grenadine’s sweet, tangy, fruity flavor—and the taste sensation it gives your classic cocktails—you have to make your own Homemade Grenadine.

And lucky for you, it’s a cinch. You just simmer down pomegranate juice till it reduces to a wine-dark plasma.

Time was, you’d have to spend hours peeling, smashing and straining pomegranates to extract a cup or two of juice. My grandmother did this to produce her famous pomegranate jelly, made from fruit that grew on a pomegranate tree near the arbor in her yard.

You can make grenadine from bottled pomegranate juice available at Trader Joe’s or your local supermarket.

For a completely kitted-out cocktail trolly, you’ll want to make both Homemade Grenadine and Pomegranate Molasses, see directions below. Homemade Grenadine’s fruity flavor notes and tannic tartness add nuanced flavor to Singapore Slings and Pink Ladies. Stirred into a glass of chilled champagne along with a splash of vodka, Homemade Grenadine makes a revelatory Kir Royale, see recipe below. And Pomegranate Molasses is the secret ingredient in Persian Pomtinis, recipe below.

Pomegranate Molasses is also wonderful…

• Poured over pancakes or waffles
• Drizzled on ice cream or pudding
• Stirred into Middle Eastern dishes such as Ashe-e Anar and Muhammara.

Homemade Grenadine

4 cups 100% pomegranate juice

Into a heavy saucepan, pour the pomegranate juice. Bring to a boil, lower flame and simmer juice until it reduces by half. Let Grenadine cool. Pour into jars or bottles. Cover with tight lids and store in refrigerator.

Makes 2 cups Homemade Grenadine

Homemade Pomegranate Molasses

4 cups 100% pomegranate juice

Into a heavy saucepan, pour the pomegranate juice. Bring to a boil, lower flame and simmer juice until it reduces by three-quarters. Let Molasses cool. Pour into jars or bottles. Cover with tight lids and store in refrigerator.

Makes 2 cups Homemade Pomegranate Molasses

Persian Pomtini

For each drink you will need:
2 ounces vodka
1 ounce 100% pomegranate juice
1-2 teaspoons Homemade Grenadine (recipe above)
Juice of half a lemon
Handful of cracked ice
Fresh pomegranate seeds or slice of lemon

Place all ingredients in a cocktail shaker, cover and shake vigorously. Pour into a martini glass and garnish with pomegranate seeds or lemon slice.

Pomegranate Kir Royale

For each drink you will need:
1 teaspoon Pomegranate Molasses
1 teaspoon vodka
4 ounces Champagne, Prosecco or other dry sparkling white wine
Twist of lemon

In a champagne flute, mix the Pomegranate Molasses and vodka. Tip the flute slightly and pour in the Champagne, letting it run down the side of the glass to fill—this keeps the bubbly from becoming too effervescent and overflowing the flute. Stir gently and garnish with lemon twist.

Apothecary image courtesy of D.C.Atty