This recipe is for all those craft cocktail drinkers out there. I have been researching shrubs for about 6 months now, so I was super excited to see this inspiration in the Costco magazine. I get inspiration all over the place…and this one just happened to come from Costco! First things first, you need to make a shrub. What is a shrub? It is a vinegar syrup. Weird, I know. However, they’ve been used forever as soda. You can use them with club soda as a virgin cocktail or use it with club soda and alcohol for a cocktail! This has a vinegar bite that you will appreciate if you like kombucha. If you have never had kombucha, you may want to try a cranberry kombucha prior to putting the effort for this shrub!
Cranberry Sage Cocktail
Ingredients:
1 pound cranberries
1 cup honey
1 cup apple cider vinegar
2 fresh sage leaves
vodka
club soda
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350F. Place the cranberries on a parchment lined baking sheet and bake for about 20 minutes. Transfer the roasted cranberries to a quart sized mason jar. Add the honey and cover and seal the mason jar. Shake it so the cranberries are covered with honey. Let it stand in the dark, cool place for 5 hours.
Add 1 cup of apple cider vinegar to the cranberries and shake the mixture to dissolve as much of the honey as possible. Add the fresh sage leaves and shake so they are soaking in the vinegar. Let the mixture stand for 24 hours in a dark, cool place, shaking regularly.
Strain the mixture through a seive and store in a clean mason jar.
Serve 2 oz of cranberry sage shrub, 2 oz vodka, with some club soda. Garnish with a couple cranberries.