Grenadine

Well, somebody gave me a bottle of tequila, and I thought, what the hell, I’ll google it and see if there’s anything palatable than can be done with it. So that led me to Grenadine, which I now know is a pomegranate syrup used in a lot of cocktails. Only, as with a lot of things, these days there’s none of the original ingredient in it if you buy it at the supermarket. It’s basically sugar syrup and artificial red colouring. So, what was I to do but make my own?

The first step is peeling (de-seeding? disassembling?) the pomegranates. I was lucky, having picked them up on sort of a whim at Morrisons, that they were actually really ripe and good.

Having boiled it up with a bit of water to keep it from burning (which it threatened to do at first) I strained it, ignoring the conventional advice not to mash the pulp. Damned if I’m going to make do with half the product, even if it would be lovely and clear.

I got just over a cup, mixed it with an equal quantity of sugar and boiled it for a bit. Recipes disagreed about how long, but they all said a number in minutes, which I know to be irrelevant, so I just boiled the sugar into dissolution.

Luckily, Elmo had just finished a jar of jam, so I sterilised it and bottled some for later use. Meanwhile, Elmo and I are enjoying a glass each of Tequila and sangrita. Well, I say “enjoying”…

Luckily, there are also grenadine and gin cocktails, because I’m pretty sure I’m going to donate the rest of this tequila to the nearest student house party.