14 Apr Holy Mocktail Week: The Zinger Negroni Mocktail
Holy Mocktail Week: The Zinger Negroni Mocktail
The world felt dire enough that Lent seemed to call for the extreme.
Fasting from alcohol.
It’s the worst, and I don’t recommend it. But it’s good to know I can in fact go without. And now it’s Holy Week. So we’re celebrating the end now in sight by sharing some of our favorite mocktails, in case you too have practiced the terror of temperance.
We learned over the past six weeks that mocktails are shockingly difficult to create. Monday we talked about how lime (or another type of citrus) is a crucial mocktail ingredient, on Wednesday we talked about the secret mocktail power of salt, yesterday we talked about oil, and today end with perhaps the best: the shrub.
I think it’s safe to say that shrubs have now officially become a thing. Everyone from mixologists, to herbalists, to your neighborhood hippie have discovered that these tangy fruit preserves are in fact awesome. We hopped on the shrub bandwagon after a trip to Woodberry Kitchen in Baltimore, and then proceeded to embrace shrubs here, here, here, here, and here. This shrub is extra tangy, yet somehow still paired so well with all that citrusy lemon. It’s true to it’s name; so proceed with some caution. But it looks so lovely, can be be properly served in a cocktail glass, and has just enough bite that it’s finally a mocktail that you will slowly sip just like a cocktail.
The Zinger Negroni Mocktail Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 oz grapefruit shrub (see below)
- 1 oz lemon juice
- 1 oz black cherry juice (don’t use tart cherry juice)
- Club soda
Instructions
- Combine all ingredients in cocktail shaker.
- Add ice.
- Shake 30 seconds.
- Strain into cocktail glass.
- Top with club.
- Garnish with lemon twist
Grapefruit Shrub Recipe
From Clinton Kelly
Note: Other shrub recipes we’ve used before call for blending the fruit with the vinegar and sugar and then slowly straining it through a fine mesh strainer, the upside of which the shrub is ready right away. The downside: I really dislike the straining part. This one caught my eye because you can just throw it all together and let it sit for several days; because it’s not blended, straining is super easy. I do thinking blending gives it a stronger fruit taste, but this worked just fine.
Ingredients
- 2 large grapefruits, peeled and roughly chopped (approx. 2 cups fruit)
- 1 1/2 cups vinegar
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
Directions
- Peel grapefruits and remove as much pith as you can from all the segments. Chop into chunks (I did fairly large ones).
- Add grapefruit pieces to a glass mason jar.
- Add sugar and vinegar.
- Shake until sugar is dissolved.
- Make sure fruit is covered by the vinegar.
- Refrigerate for a few days (I waited 5 days), shaking every day or so.
- Strain out grapefruit pieces, and then return shrub to a clean mason jar.
- Keep refrigerated. Shake before using.
