Todd Wagner

Usually when I mention to someone the idea of mixing vinegar and alcohol, their eyes roll back into their head as if imagining taking a shot of salad dressing. While this is greatly amusing to me, I decided to enlighten the masses by mixing up a tasty vinegar cocktail of my own.

It just so happened that the wonderful people at We Olive introduced me to some of their many vinegars; of course, they have an amazing supply of olive oils as well. I was particularly impressed when I tasted their Red Raspberry Champagne Vinegar. The acidity was complemented with an elegant sweetness of fresh raspberries. After five or so more tastes (I could seriously drink that stuff straight) I took home a bottle and got to work.

Now, the first thing that comes to mind when thinking vinegar and  cocktail is a shrub. A shrub is a syrup that combines fruit, usually berries, with vinegar and is used to create various cocktails. I’ve seen many recipes call for berry shrub — one of my favorites being the Jans’ Conundrum by the great Jamie Boudreau. In his blog, Mr. Boudreau discusses his version of a berry shrub using both blackberries and raspberries, along with red wine vinegar.  Two important things to note here: shrubs are very simple to make and contain very straightforward ingredients, namely sugar, water, vinegar, fruit, and the occasional extra spice, say ginger; shrubs are usually made with white wine, red wine, or in this case champagne vinegar, not balsamic. Balsamic vinegar is already quite sweet on its own, especially if using a well-aged balsamic. This is not to say that balsamic should not be used in cocktails (shhh…more to come on that in a later post) but rather, it’s not the best choice of vinegar to add to what is essentially a simple syrup base to make your shrub. Again, the We Olive Raspberry Champagne vinegar was light, in taste not in texture, elegant, and bursting with bright raspberry flavor. For this reason, I decided I’d stick with a very simple shrub recipe (using raspberries of course) and ultimately a simple cocktail recipe as well, in hopes of accentuating the red raspberry vinegar.

Here is my raspberry shrub recipe:

• 1 pint fresh raspberries
• 1/2 cup sugar (I like to use baker’s sugar – very fine and gummy)
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 cup We Olive Red Raspberry Champagne Vinegar (pictured above)
• 1 heaping teaspoon of love (optional)

On your stove top, make a simple syrup by bringing sugar and water to a simmer. Once the sugar is completely dissolved (~2 mins) reduce heat to ~medium and add the raspberries. Let the raspberries simmer for 15 minutes, but keep an eye on them. You don’t want the raspberries to boil over and/or burn, but you don’t want them sitting there in a still pot either. Let them bubble a bit and even help them reduce by breaking them down with a spoon. After 15 minutes you should have a lovely, aromatic, fruity syrup.  Now add the vinegar. Go ahead and get this up to a nice heavy simmer for 15 more minutes, stirring occasionally. Again, keep an eye on your pan. There is a lot of sugar in there, and sugar burns easily. Once finished, remove from the stove, strain, and pop in the fridge to cool before you make your cocktail. I like to put concoctions such as these into mason jars with a piece of masking tape on them (name, date, etc).

As I mentioned, I wanted to keep the cocktail simple and not mess too much with the sweet raspberry flavor. I went with a rum shrub for three reasons: rum is my favorite spirit; rum is commonly used in shrub cocktails, along with brandy; rum is my favorite spirit . I went ahead and followed a pretty traditional rum shrub recipe, using rum, berry shrub, and ginger ale.

Here’s my We Olive Raspberry Rum Shrub Cocktail recipe:

• 2 oz. Sailor Jerry Spiced Rum (hints of vanilla and cherry worked great w/raspberry – so did the 92 proof)
• 1 oz. red raspberry shrub
• 4 oz. ginger ale

Simply build your cocktail in a highball glass full of ice (I used a double old fashioned glass) stir, and sip! I’d probably garnish with a lime in case you’d like to add a little tartness, although I garnished with a few more fresh raspberries because I was hungry.

The end result is a well-balanced refreshing cocktail, with a unique flavor. The vinegar is subtle, but present in its contribution of acidity to the drink. Citrus, so commonly used to counter-balance the sweetness of a cocktail, is not necessary in this instance, allowing the raspberry to shine.

That’s all for now people. Please let me know your thoughts on the cocktail if you give it a try. Also, let me know if you have any other tasty shrub recipes, vinegar-based cocktails, or any questions whatsoever. Thank you to Keli Rivers at the Hotsy Totsy Club in Albany for your advice and your super tasty cranberry ginger shrub recipe – it was heavenly, and to Drew and the other ladies at We Olive for your amazing product and inspiration!

Looking forward to your comments!

@toddwagner