Shrub Contest Winner: Wild Plum Shrub in a Nightshade Cocktail
Updated: June 30, 2015
The shrubs have been made and the cocktails mixed and, though it took a little longer than usual, I have made a decision on the shrub drink contest and we have a winning recipe.
The Nightshade was the cocktail that caught my attention the most and it comes to us from Jeremy Kempter of Old Town Distilling Co. in Colorado. The recipe mixes his organic vodka with a wild plum shrub, blueberries, and lavender and it is an unforgettable cocktail that you have to try. Read more on the Nightshade recipe page...
Congratulations to Jeremy and thank you!
As far as the contest goes, I am once again impressed with every single cocktail that was submitted. There is not a drink in the list that is not worth noting, so I will allow you to browse the collection.
Whether you are a long standing fan of drinking vinegars or a newbie that is intrigued, this has become one of the best collections of shrub cocktails that I've seen online and they are fun to explore. Though shrubs are just beginning to get the recognition that they deserve, it is recipes like this that can easily push these into the mainstream, making shrubs as popular as infused syrups.
I have to extend my appreciation to everyone who submitted a recipe, I have not personally explored shrubs to this extent until now and I enjoyed each of your drinks. Thank you!
Learn more about shrubs and browse drinks...
Learn more about the cocktail contest and browse more results...
Submitted by: Jeremy Kempter, Beverage Director, Old Town Distilling Co. Barrel Room, Fort Collins, Colorado
More from Kempter:
Nightshades are a family of flowering plants, which include vines, weeds and, yes, shrubs. Some nightshades are highly toxic, and some have psychoactive properties, yet there are members of the Solanaceae family that have true medicinal value.
After a stressful day, this cocktail could be just what the doctor ordered, allowing you to decompress, reinvigorate and throw shade on life's worries. More »
Submitted by: Jason Westplate,Cocktailian, JMW
Servings: 1
Glass Type: old fashioned glass
Ingredients:
Directions:
for any cold-process shrub: mix equal parts fruit/peel/herb with sugar and apple cider/red wine vinegar; let stand in a mason jar at room temp for 2 days, strain and re-jar; refrigerate for two weeks and keep for 6 months +
Method:
Add 1/2 tablespoon of absinthe rouge to the bottom of a chilled old fashioned glass and rinse thoroughly--discard remaining absinthe. In a mixing glass with ice, add bourbon, shrub, and liqueurs; stir until well chilled (~30 seconds), strain and pour over a large cube of ice.
Inspiration: I love well matured shrubs, so I'll often use a shrub from the previous year in my drink builds--specifically those that use unfiltered and unpasteurized apple cider vinegars. Their incredible balance of sweet and malic-acidity help build truly flavorful and interesting drinks. This cocktail surrounds the bold, clean taste of white peach with aged bourbon--a phenomenally rich foundation, and the variety of liqueurs and hibiscus infused absinthe provide funky and intense spice top notes. This is a sipping drink in the style of a pre-prohibition whiskey cocktail: as the large ice slowly melts the character of the peach rounds out very nicely.
Submitted by: Brian O'Rourke, blogger at www.Cookingbythebook.com Twitter: @brianCBTB
Yield: 1 large cocktail
Ingredients:
Preparation:
Place all the ingredients in a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake vigorously for 30 seconds and pour into a chilled glass.
Source: Brian O’Rourke
Strawberry Pepper Shrub
Yield: 2+ cups
Ingredients:
Preparation:
Place the strawberries and sugar in a metal bowl. Using a pastry cutter, chop through the berries to mash them and mix with the sugar. Add the crushed pepper and stir to mix. At this point, taste test and if you desire add a little more sugar or pepper.
Cover the bowl and refrigerate for a day.
Remove the bowl, taste test again, and adjust again. Pour the bowl contents into blender, add the vinegar and process. Taste test, yet again, adding more vinegar if you desire. Your preferences here are your guide. What you do want to taste is the pepper. It will be dominated by the strawberries and vinegar at first, but the pepper should ultimately rise to the occasion and should provide finish.
Put the blended and adjusted contents back into a bowl and refrigerate for another day. This gives everything time to meld for 24 hours and let you get every bit of berry flavor into your shrub.
Now, you have a decision to make. You can use this shrub as it stands, thick and viscous. Or you can create a very fine syrup by sieving the contents to eliminate the solids. I’ve done both, enjoyed both. If you are a purist and want no solid-sensation on your tongue as your drink, then you do want to sieve. But, when you do, press hard to extract every drop you can get.
More from O'Rourke: To get the mango tequila here, I followed the lovely directions in Infused by Susan Elia MacNeal. You make it today and it's two months until you can enjoy it; worth every second.
Submitted by: Patrick Cicere - Instagram @thecocktailspin
2 oz Bourbon
1 oz Homemade Apple Shrub
.25 Cinnamon Infused Rock Syrup
.25 oz Mezcal
2 Dashes Angostura Bitters
Combine all ingredients in a cocktail shaker. Add ice and shake. Double strain into a rocks glass with a large ice cube. Garnish with apple slice and cinnamon stick.
Submitted by Allison Evanow, Square One Organic Spritis
Add leaves from 1-inch of rosemary sprig and all other ingredients (except ginger beer) to a cocktail tin. Shake with ice and strain into a Collins glass filled with ice. Top with ginger beer and garnish with two blackberries skewered on a sprig of rosemary.
Blackberry shrub syrup: Boil 2 cups of water, 1 cup of sugar and 1 1/2 cups of blackberries until reduced to 2 cups. Strain out the berries. (reserve the whole berries for use as garnish) Put berry syrup back in the pan and add 1 cup of balsamic vinegar and simmer on medium low for 20 minutes. Cool and store in a squeeze bottle.
Submitted by: Zachary Calfee, owner of Armada, a craft cocktail bar in Knoxville, Tennessee
Add oakheart, triple sec, and falernum shrub into a mixing tin with ice and shake vigorously. Strain into a rocks glass with 2 ice blocks. Top with one dash fee brothers cardamom bitters. Twist lime twists to expose oils and spear with a cocktail pick. Oils need to be expressed to bring out the lime smell when you drink the drink.
Submitted by: ChristosBafas, Bartender specializing in fusion cocktails, Santorini, Greece, The Beach Bar at Perissa Beach
1. Put one rosemary sprig with a barspoon hot water in mixing glass and gently muddle it.
2. Add all the rest ingredients.
3. Add good quality ice cubes.
4. Shake well for about 20-30 seconds.
5. Add 2-3 ice cubes in a caipirinha type glass and double strain inside.
6. Flame a little the second rosemary sprig and garnish your cocktail.
7. Let the most notorious tale seduce you!
Apricot shrub is cold made and consists of:
2 cups fresh chopped apricots
2 cups of superfine sugar
1 1/2 cups of apple cider
In the beginning pour apricots and sugar in a jar and leave for 24 hours in fridge to moisture. Then you add the apple cider and leave for 24 more hours. After you put inside 2 lemon slices and leave it in the fridge. It is ready for use after 5 days, remove the lemon slices, and it can maintained for up to 6 months time.
The shrubs have been made and the cocktails mixed and, though it took a little longer than usual, I have made a decision on the shrub drink contest and we have a winning recipe.
The Nightshade was the cocktail that caught my attention the most and it comes to us from Jeremy Kempter of Old Town Distilling Co. in Colorado. The recipe mixes his organic vodka with a wild plum shrub, blueberries, and lavender and it is an unforgettable cocktail that you have to try. Read more on the Nightshade recipe page...
Congratulations to Jeremy and thank you!
As far as the contest goes, I am once again impressed with every single cocktail that was submitted. There is not a drink in the list that is not worth noting, so I will allow you to browse the collection.
Whether you are a long standing fan of drinking vinegars or a newbie that is intrigued, this has become one of the best collections of shrub cocktails that I've seen online and they are fun to explore. Though shrubs are just beginning to get the recognition that they deserve, it is recipes like this that can easily push these into the mainstream, making shrubs as popular as infused syrups.
I have to extend my appreciation to everyone who submitted a recipe, I have not personally explored shrubs to this extent until now and I enjoyed each of your drinks. Thank you!
Learn more about shrubs and browse drinks...
Learn more about the cocktail contest and browse more results...
•Nightshade
Submitted by: Jeremy Kempter, Beverage Director, Old Town Distilling Co. Barrel Room, Fort Collins, Colorado
- 1.75 oz Native Nectar Organic Vodka
- .75 oz blueberry puree
- .5 oz wild plum shrub
- .5 oz fresh lemon juice
- .25 lavender honey
- 2 lavender sprigs
- Muddle lavender sprig in shaking tin
- Set aside second sprig for garnish
- Fill with ice and remaining ingredients
- Shake like hell
- Double strain in prepared coupe
- Garnish with spanked lavender
More from Kempter:
Nightshades are a family of flowering plants, which include vines, weeds and, yes, shrubs. Some nightshades are highly toxic, and some have psychoactive properties, yet there are members of the Solanaceae family that have true medicinal value.
After a stressful day, this cocktail could be just what the doctor ordered, allowing you to decompress, reinvigorate and throw shade on life's worries. More »
•Keep Shaking that Bush
Submitted by: Jason Westplate,Cocktailian, JMW
Servings: 1
Glass Type: old fashioned glass
Ingredients:
- 2 ounces Bulleit Bourbon (10yr)
- 3/4 ounce white peach shrub
- 1/4 ounce Luxardo maraschino liqueur
- 1/4 ounce Domaine de Canton ginger liqueur
- rinse Amerique 1912 absinthe rouge
Directions:
for any cold-process shrub: mix equal parts fruit/peel/herb with sugar and apple cider/red wine vinegar; let stand in a mason jar at room temp for 2 days, strain and re-jar; refrigerate for two weeks and keep for 6 months +
Method:
Add 1/2 tablespoon of absinthe rouge to the bottom of a chilled old fashioned glass and rinse thoroughly--discard remaining absinthe. In a mixing glass with ice, add bourbon, shrub, and liqueurs; stir until well chilled (~30 seconds), strain and pour over a large cube of ice.
Inspiration: I love well matured shrubs, so I'll often use a shrub from the previous year in my drink builds--specifically those that use unfiltered and unpasteurized apple cider vinegars. Their incredible balance of sweet and malic-acidity help build truly flavorful and interesting drinks. This cocktail surrounds the bold, clean taste of white peach with aged bourbon--a phenomenally rich foundation, and the variety of liqueurs and hibiscus infused absinthe provide funky and intense spice top notes. This is a sipping drink in the style of a pre-prohibition whiskey cocktail: as the large ice slowly melts the character of the peach rounds out very nicely.
•The Tequila Mango Strawberry Pepper Wonder
Submitted by: Brian O'Rourke, blogger at www.Cookingbythebook.com Twitter: @brianCBTB
Yield: 1 large cocktail
Ingredients:
- 2 ounces mango tequila
- 2 ounces strawberry-pepper shrub
- 1 ounce simple syrup
- 1 ounce orange liquor [ideally Liqueur à L’Orange]
Preparation:
Place all the ingredients in a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake vigorously for 30 seconds and pour into a chilled glass.
Source: Brian O’Rourke
Strawberry Pepper Shrub
Yield: 2+ cups
Ingredients:
- 2 cups strawberries, hulled and quartered
- ½ cup sugar [or more to taste]
- 2 tablespoons peppercorns, crushed with mortar and pestle
- ½ cup apple cider vinegar [or more if you prefer]
Preparation:
Place the strawberries and sugar in a metal bowl. Using a pastry cutter, chop through the berries to mash them and mix with the sugar. Add the crushed pepper and stir to mix. At this point, taste test and if you desire add a little more sugar or pepper.
Cover the bowl and refrigerate for a day.
Remove the bowl, taste test again, and adjust again. Pour the bowl contents into blender, add the vinegar and process. Taste test, yet again, adding more vinegar if you desire. Your preferences here are your guide. What you do want to taste is the pepper. It will be dominated by the strawberries and vinegar at first, but the pepper should ultimately rise to the occasion and should provide finish.
Put the blended and adjusted contents back into a bowl and refrigerate for another day. This gives everything time to meld for 24 hours and let you get every bit of berry flavor into your shrub.
Now, you have a decision to make. You can use this shrub as it stands, thick and viscous. Or you can create a very fine syrup by sieving the contents to eliminate the solids. I’ve done both, enjoyed both. If you are a purist and want no solid-sensation on your tongue as your drink, then you do want to sieve. But, when you do, press hard to extract every drop you can get.
More from O'Rourke: To get the mango tequila here, I followed the lovely directions in Infused by Susan Elia MacNeal. You make it today and it's two months until you can enjoy it; worth every second.
•Smokey Apple Bourbon Cocktail
Submitted by: Patrick Cicere - Instagram @thecocktailspin
2 oz Bourbon
1 oz Homemade Apple Shrub
.25 Cinnamon Infused Rock Syrup
.25 oz Mezcal
2 Dashes Angostura Bitters
Combine all ingredients in a cocktail shaker. Add ice and shake. Double strain into a rocks glass with a large ice cube. Garnish with apple slice and cinnamon stick.
•Blackberry Shrub Cocktail
Submitted by Allison Evanow, Square One Organic Spritis
- 1 1/2 oz. Square One Botanical
- 1/2 oz. Rhum Clement Creole
- 1/2 oz. blackberry shrub syrup (recipe is below)
- 1/4 oz. fresh lemon juice
- 2 sprigs of rosemary (one for garnish)
- 2 blackberries for garnish
- ginger beer
Add leaves from 1-inch of rosemary sprig and all other ingredients (except ginger beer) to a cocktail tin. Shake with ice and strain into a Collins glass filled with ice. Top with ginger beer and garnish with two blackberries skewered on a sprig of rosemary.
Blackberry shrub syrup: Boil 2 cups of water, 1 cup of sugar and 1 1/2 cups of blackberries until reduced to 2 cups. Strain out the berries. (reserve the whole berries for use as garnish) Put berry syrup back in the pan and add 1 cup of balsamic vinegar and simmer on medium low for 20 minutes. Cool and store in a squeeze bottle.
•The Chase Guns
Submitted by: Zachary Calfee, owner of Armada, a craft cocktail bar in Knoxville, Tennessee
- 1 1/2 oz Bacardi Oakheart Rum
- 1/2 oz Triple Sec
- 1 oz Armada Velvet Falernum Shrub (find the recipe on the Armada website)
- 1 Dash Fee Brothers Cardamom Bitters
- Garnish with speared Lime twists.
Add oakheart, triple sec, and falernum shrub into a mixing tin with ice and shake vigorously. Strain into a rocks glass with 2 ice blocks. Top with one dash fee brothers cardamom bitters. Twist lime twists to expose oils and spear with a cocktail pick. Oils need to be expressed to bring out the lime smell when you drink the drink.
•Notorious Tale
Submitted by: ChristosBafas, Bartender specializing in fusion cocktails, Santorini, Greece, The Beach Bar at Perissa Beach
- 30 ml Disaronno Amaretto
- 30 ml Jameson Irish whiskey
- 20 ml fresh lemon juice
- 30 ml apricot shrub (recipe below)
- 2 barspoons apricot marmelade
- 1/2 barspoon balsamic cream (dark color)
- 2 rosemary sprigs
- 1 barspoon hot water
1. Put one rosemary sprig with a barspoon hot water in mixing glass and gently muddle it.
2. Add all the rest ingredients.
3. Add good quality ice cubes.
4. Shake well for about 20-30 seconds.
5. Add 2-3 ice cubes in a caipirinha type glass and double strain inside.
6. Flame a little the second rosemary sprig and garnish your cocktail.
7. Let the most notorious tale seduce you!
Apricot shrub is cold made and consists of:
2 cups fresh chopped apricots
2 cups of superfine sugar
1 1/2 cups of apple cider
In the beginning pour apricots and sugar in a jar and leave for 24 hours in fridge to moisture. Then you add the apple cider and leave for 24 more hours. After you put inside 2 lemon slices and leave it in the fridge. It is ready for use after 5 days, remove the lemon slices, and it can maintained for up to 6 months time.
Source...