Homemade Grenadine

Grenadine is a bar syrup that is instantly recognized by its bright red color. What many drinkers don’t know, is that grenadine is a pomegranate flavored syrup – or it should be, since “grenade” is the French word for pomegranate. For years, almost no bars had real grenadine. They had corn syrup with lots of red food coloring and no flavor – and many still do. Thanks to the craft cocktail movement, real grenadine is back in style and will actually give your drinks both color and flavor.

Grenadine is easy to make using pomegranate juice, sugar and sweet-tart pomegranate molasses. The pomegranate molasses is found cheaply at middle eastern markets, along with an ingredient called orange flower water that many grenadine recipes call for. I like the intensity of the molasses, but can’t stand the orange flower water, so I use a splash of orange bitters in my grenadine to add some complexity.

Yield: 1 1/4 Cups

Ingredients
1 cup Pomegranate Juice
3/4 cup Sugar
2 tbsp Pomegranate Molasses
1-2 tsp Orange Bitters

First pour the pomegranate juice then the sugar into a sauce pan. Add the pomegranate molasses and heat over a medium flame until all of the sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and add 1-2 teaspoons of orange bitters to taste. Sometimes I’ll add as additional teaspoon of vanilla extract depending on the type of drinks I’ll be making.