Pear Ginger Shrubs

Have you heard of shrubs? They are old-timey drinking vinegars that were popular in colonial America to preserve fruit. I've been sitting on a shrubs recipe book for a while, not realizing how easy it is to make em. Seriously easy and doesn’t take that much fruit if you want to make a small batch. This here is a pear + ginger homemade shrubs topped with sparkling water. I love the spicy kick from the ginger.

*Recipe:

3 pears, cored and chopped

1/3 cup grated ginger

1/2 cup turbinado sugar

1/2 cup apple cider vinegar

In a large bowl, combine pears with ginger and sugar. Take a potato masher and start macerating all the ingredients together, until you have a thick soupy consistency. Let this mixture sit overnight in your fridge. Strain the pear mash through a fine mesh strainer and combine with the apple cider vinegar. There you go, now you have your own shrubs! Add about 1 part shrubs to 2 or 3 parts sparkling water or use for mocktails.

*Recipe adapted from Shrubs: An Old Fashioned Drink for Modern Times