Rhub a Shrub Shrub

This is an old spring favorite that I never got around to writing up. To be honest, I think it was a little bit above me, at the time. The main ingredient here is a vinegar, you might even call it a shrub.

To make the shrub:

Fill a mason jar with sliced rhubarb stalks

Add a few pinches of saffron, dried angelica root, and green cardamom pods to your taste.

Fill the jar with an equal parts blend of sugar, water, and raw apple cider vinegar.

You can and should leave this concoction on your kitchen counter indefinitely. The vinegar will slowly wake up and metabolize the sugar, growing more complex over time.

After 3-4 days, the shrub will be “ready” but it will continue to develop.

Eventually, you might want to add more sugar.

Rhubarb shrub is beautiful on its own, but to truly find the essence of rhubarb, it is even better to add fresh rhubarb juice. Juice a few rhubarb stalks in your juicer, tasting each ingredient individually.

Your shrub is not my shrub. Your juice is not my juice. Produce is highly variable based on season, freshness, ripeness, and terroir.

A perfectly balanced cocktail isn’t something I can dictate to you with crass ratios and measurements.

You have to locate the heart of the drink.

But start with this:

1.5 oz Good Brandy

1.5 oz fresh rhubarb juice

.75 oz rhubarb shrub

.5 oz simple syrup

Shake over ice and strain into a coupe, garnish with edible flowers.

Is this drink, as I have specified it, good? I have no idea. How sour is your shrub? How tart is your rhubarb juice? when you taste the drink prior to shaking it, are the flavors in balance?

You have to take responsibility for these things.

Cheers.