make your own: rhubarb syrup + a springtime cocktail.

May 27, 2015

rhubarb syrup + rhubarb strawberry smash | reading my tea leaves Bottling up a bit of springtime to keep in your refrigerator for summertime refreshment seems like a reasonable thing to do. Especially with the summery weather we’ve been having. And so I did.

My favorite thing about visiting my mom and dad is the bounty that you can root out from their yard without hardly any more effort than stepping outside in your bare feet and scrounging around a bit. My mom transplanted a bit of rhubarb from a friend’s garden twenty years ago and like clockwork, every Memorial Day, it’s ready for the picking. Over the weekend I tramped out to the garden and picked a bunch to turn into a tart and sweet rhubarb syrup.

I mixed some into a bourbon cocktail made for enjoying right then and there and poured the rest into an old jar to bring back to Brooklyn. It’ll be good for pouring over ice cream, mixing with seltzer for a fizzy and alcohol-free refreshment, or stirring into tart gin and tonics.
rhubarb syrup + rhubarb strawberry smash | reading my tea leaves There are as many recipes for rhubarb syrup as there are days in the month of May, but they all rely more or less on sugar, water, and rhubarb stalks. The exact proportions get played with according to taste and habit. I used eight stalks of rhubarb and a cup each of sugar and water for mine and once the rhubarb had melted into pulp, I yielded almost two full cups of syrup. rhubarb syrup + rhubarb strawberry smash | reading my tea leaves Cut up rhubarb stalks and discard the leaves—they’re decidedly not edible.
rhubarb syrup + rhubarb strawberry smash | reading my tea leaves Rhubarb Syrup

1 cup sugar
1 cup water
1.5 cups rhubarb stalks, washed and cut into 1-inch pieces (about 8 stalks)

Combine sugar, water, and rhubarb pieces into a heavy bottomed saucepan. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat and simmer until the fruit has broken down completely and the color from the stalks has leached into the syrup. (This takes about twenty minutes. Depending on the color of your stalks the syrup will range from light pink to a deeper magenta.) Strain your mixture over a fine mesh sieve. (If you’d like, you can save the rhubarb fruit for spooning over ice cream—but a fair warning: it will be a slightly unfortunate color of green.)
rhubarb syrup + rhubarb strawberry smash | reading my tea leaves
Bottled leftovers in a Bonne Maman jar that my mom had saved. This would keep all summer in the refrigerator if we weren’t guaranteed to speed through it before then.
rhubarb syrup + rhubarb strawberry smash | reading my tea leaves Strawberry Rhubarb Smash
Adapted from Saveur

Makes one drink.

juice from 1/2 a lemon
3-4 mint leaves
1 ounce rhubarb syrup
1 ounce bourbon
1-2 strawberries, washed and hulled
mint, strawberry, or lilac flower for garnish

(I mixed up a batch of four drinks in one go, but purists will likely want to do the mixing individually.)

Here’s how:

Muddle together strawberries, lemon juice, & mint. Top those off with rhubarb syrup and bourbon and shake or stir with ice. Strain into a glass filled with ice (or, go ahead and let some of that strawberry pulp makes its way into the glass, too.) Garnish with mint, strawberry, or tiny lilac flowers, as your heart desires.
rhubarb syrup + rhubarb strawberry smash | reading my tea leaves Strawberries, mint, and lemon juice, muddled.
rhubarb syrup + rhubarb strawberry smash | reading my tea leaves Rhubarb syrup and muddled strawberries and mint, ready for combining.
rhubarb syrup + rhubarb strawberry smash | reading my tea leaves James and I gave my dad a bottle of Widow Jane bourbon (made right here in Brooklyn!) for his birthday that he was kind enough to share with the rest of us.
rhubarb syrup + rhubarb strawberry smash | reading my tea leaves No cocktail shaker? Never you fear. I mixed up a batch of four drinks in a large beaker instead, and gave the mixture a stir with a spoon before pouring into glasses. No damage done.
rhubarb syrup + rhubarb strawberry smash | reading my tea leaves The finished product, topped off with a bit of topsy-turvy mint—and a lilac blossom or two, if you remember.
rhubarb syrup + rhubarb strawberry smash | reading my tea leaves I don’t believe in straining the fruit out of a smash. Not all of it anyway. Let a juicy strawberry or two tumble into your glasses. Consider it dessert. 

More strawberry goodness HERE and HERE.

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8 Comments

  • Reply Linda Zimmerman May 27, 2015 at 1:18 pm

    Delicious!! Beautiful photos!

  • Reply Kate May 27, 2015 at 1:19 pm

    Sounds delicious!

  • Reply Jenni Haikonen May 27, 2015 at 7:26 pm

    I love finding new ways to use rhubarb. For some reason it's a fruit that's so very nostalgic for me. This looks delicious and I can't wait to try it!

  • Reply Sally May 27, 2015 at 11:00 pm

    Rhubarb makes me strangely happy. It's pink. It comes so early in the season. And now it gives me excuse to make a cocktail. Looking forward to making this…

  • Reply Sarah May 28, 2015 at 12:21 am

    This looks delicious and is such a pretty color. Lovely photos you've taken!

  • Reply Miina May 28, 2015 at 8:21 am

    Rhubarb syrup is in my to-do list, as are candied lilacs! Your post reminded me it 🙂

  • Reply Sophia May 31, 2015 at 12:23 pm

    So delicious. I made two batches of this syrup. I'm more of a "slightly sweet, mostly tart drink" drinker, so for the second batch I tried using somewhere around 1/4-1/3 c. sugar and 1 3/4 c. water with the rhubarb. Came out just sweet enough with some great tartness. Anyway, having fun with this drink.

  • Reply Elizabeth July 3, 2015 at 1:10 pm

    Hi Erin, this looks delicious! I made some yesterday to sweeten some iced tea, and it's wonderfully refreshing and subtle (in tea). Perfect for the hot weather here in Paris!

    I'd also be interested in a post about minimalism in the kitchen – how do you handle the number of pots/pans, kitchen gadgets, managing spices, pantry staples and food shopping. Our apartment here is probably about twice the size of yours, but our kitchen is really small, so I'd be curious to know your thoughts. Thanks!

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