Dry January Shrub Recipes: Cranberry-Pomegranate-Clove-Orange and Pineapple-Rosemary-Ginger
Dry January 2023
If you’re locking up the liquor cabinet and picking up the seltzer water this January, you’re not alone. In December, one in five adults indicated they would participate in Dry January, abstaining from alcohol for the length of the month.
Whether you are using January as a chance to start the year with fresh juice recipes, reassess your drinking habits, or launch into long-term sobriety, you can rest assured you’ve started 2023 off well.
What a Month Without Drinking Can Feel Like
Many people who take a month off from alcohol say they feel more energetic, sleep better, and stay better hydrated.
Note: If you’re reading this over a mimosa or silently kicking yourself for the beer you sipped on last night, please don’t! Be gentle with yourself. The Gregorian calendar tells us we start again every January 1, but as you know, each day–each minute–gives us another chance to reassess where we are and what we want to do. It’s never too late to jump into Dry January — Dry July has a nice ring to it too!
When Seltzer Won’t Cut It
Of course, Dry January and resolutions overall can only be truly effective if the habits we learn from them are sustainable for the long term. Rather than seeing this as a month where you aren’t allowed to drink alcohol, it could be more beneficial to reframe your goal as a month where you can try out different recipes for new delicious beverages. A little bubbly water can go a long way, but when your taste buds are craving something more substantial, adding a delicious fruit shrub might be the way to go.
Enter the Shrub: A Tasty Non-Alcoholic Beverage
If you haven’t heard, a shrub is a sweetened, vinegar-based syrup often infused with fruit, herbs, and other spices. The term “shrub” is borrowed from the Arabic word sharāb meaning “to drink.”
Another term for shrub is “drinking vinegar,” which is an apt description; we’d also like to add “delicious and fruity” as well as “offers a satisfying bite.” One of the many reasons people turn to shrubs during Dry January is because of what you might call the “adult taste” of a shrub: the bite, or kick, of the combination of fruit and vinegar can scratch the itch when your taste buds are craving a cocktail. Please note that if you ferment this longer than we do, there is a good chance alcohol will be made, so longer is not better for our goal this month. More on fermentation in this great YouTube video with John Kohler.
In our test kitchen we tried out two shrub recipes: one featuring cranberries, oranges, and pomegranates, and another made up of pineapple and ginger juice. We used stage one to grind the ingredients. All of it, spices, peels, cores, everything. This increased the surface area of the produce and we found that this step cut the fermentation process from three days to two.
Pro tip: Some recipes call for distilled white vinegar or white wine vinegar for a shrub, but we prefer to use apple cider vinegar for its fruity tang.
Cranberry-orange-pomegranate-clove shrub
Tannins from the pomegranates make this a delicious mocktail.
Ingredients
- cranberries
- oranges
- pomegranates
- cloves
- agave
- apple cider vinegar
Directions
- Grind cranberries, oranges, pomegranates, and cloves (no grid plate needed).
- Scoop mash into a jar and add agave, let sit for 2 days.
- Strain, wrap contents and press.
- Add one part to 8 of apple cider vinegar (¼ cup to 2 cups to start)
Pro tip: use extra orange peel to garnish your glasses!
Pineapple-ginger-rosemary shrub
Ingredients
- pineapple
- ginger
- rosemary
- agave
- apple cider vinegar
Directions
- Grind pineapple, ginger, and rosemary (no grid plate needed).
- Scoop mash into a jar and add agave, let sit for 2 days.
- Strain, wrap contents and press.
- Add one part to 8 of apple cider vinegar (¼ cup to 2 cups to start)
How Will You Drink Your Shrub?
Shrub syrup tastes delicious as a mocktail: try it with sparkling water, tonic water, ginger beer or ginger ale. If you leave the syrup for a few more days, the flavor will mellow out, and you can pour it over ice.
(And yes, it tastes pretty great with vodka, gin, and bourbon, too, but that’s not what we’re here for, is it?)
How Long Will a Homemade Shrub Last?
If you store your shrub in an airtight container, it should not need refrigeration. That said, if you have space in your fridge, keeping the shrub cool won’t hurt it.
Once you open the shrub, it’s a good idea to keep it in the fridge. It should last anywhere from 6 months to a year.
Cold-Pressed Juice Will Do the Trick
At PURE, we pride ourselves on trying a wide variety of tasty cold-pressed juices and sharing the recipes with you. If you’re looking for additional tasty beverages to get you through Dry January, check out these recipes: orange chili matcha cocktail, powerhouse cranberry pomegranate juice, and ginger turmeric orange lemon shots.
About the Ingredients
cranberries: made up of 90% water, cranberries are mostly carbs and fiber and contain vitamin C, vitamin E, vitamin K, and manganese.
oranges: packed with phenolic compounds like hesperidin and naringenin, oranges are also a great source of vitamin C, fiber, folate, potassium, calcium, and thiamine.
pomegranates: full of vitamin C, calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorous, potassium, and folate.
cloves: the flower buds of the evergreen clove tree, cloves are a sweet spice.
pineapple: delicious and rich in vitamin C, manganese, and bromelain, a group of digestive enzymes.
ginger: ginger contains gingerol, the compound behind its sharp heat.
rosemary: rosemary is high in manganese and contains carnosic acid.
apple cider vinegar: a centuries-old pantry staple that adds a fruity tang to shrubs.
Sources
Are Cranberries Healthy? 6 Surprising Benefits
Oranges: Nutrients, Benefits, Juice, and More
Pomegranate: 10 Health and Nutritional Benefits
Pineapple: 8 Impressive Health Benefits
11 Proven Health Benefits of Ginger
6 Benefits of Apple Cider Vinegar, Backed by Science
8 Surprising Health Benefits of Cloves
This article is for educational purposes only and is not medical advice. Talk to your doctor before changing your diet, especially if you have a health condition or take medication.