If grenadine has turned up in a recipe or caught your eye at the store, here's what you need to use it with confidence and how to choose it, cook it, store it, what to substitute, and 15 recipes to try it in.

What is grenadine?

Grenadine is a sweet, deep-red syrup that bartenders reach for to color and sweeten drinks. The name comes from grenade, the French word for pomegranate, and real grenadine is pomegranate juice cooked down with sugar.

It is not cherry syrup, though years of artificially colored bottles have left many people thinking it is.

A good grenadine tastes tart and fruity under the sweetness, with the pucker that pomegranate brings. It is heavy with sugar, which is what makes it sink, the property behind every sunrise and sunset drink.

How to Use It

Most often grenadine is the splash that turns a clear or pale drink red and the bottom of a layered one. Because the syrup is denser than juice or spirits, it sinks and creates a gradient when you pour it last, the move behind a Tequila Sunrise.

That same trick gives Pacific Sunset Cocktail and Sundowner their graded color. Pour the drink first, then add grenadine over the back of a spoon or straight down the side so it settles to the bottom rather than mixing in.

For kids, grenadine plus lemon-lime soda and a cherry is the Shirley Temple, and a splash in ginger ale or lemonade does the same job. It also belts out classics like the Tequila Sunrise and the gin-based Pink Lady, including the non-alcoholic Mock Pink Lady.

Beyond the glass, a spoonful tints and sweetens desserts. It colors Prize-Winning Cherry Pie filling, sweetens a chilled fruit soup like Strawberry Cream Soup, and ripples through Port Wine Ice Cream.

Pairing and Common Mistakes

Grenadine pairs with citrus, tequila, rum, and other fruit, where its tartness keeps a sweet drink from going flat. It loves orange juice and lime in particular.

The most common mistake is too heavy a hand. A little goes a long way, so start with a quarter to half an ounce; more than that and the drink turns syrupy and one-note sweet.

The second mistake is stirring when you wanted the layered look. Once you stir, the gradient is gone and the whole drink goes uniformly pink. If you want the sunrise effect, add grenadine gently and leave it alone.

Make Your Own

Homemade grenadine beats most bottles, which lean on corn syrup and red dye. Combine equal parts pure pomegranate juice and sugar, warm just until the sugar dissolves, and do not boil hard, which dulls the fresh flavor.

A splash of orange flower water or a squeeze of lemon rounds it out.

The real version is darker and less neon than the bottled kind, and it tastes of actual fruit. Use unsweetened pomegranate juice so you control the sugar yourself.

Substitutes

For color and sweetness, pomegranate molasses thinned with a little sugar and water is the closest match, since it is the same fruit, only more concentrated and tart. Cranberry juice cooked down with sugar gives a similar red and tang.

In a pinch, any red berry syrup, raspberry or strawberry, covers the color and sweetness, though the flavor shifts. Simple syrup with a few drops of red coloring works when you only need the look and not the fruit.

Buying and Storage

Bottles sit with the drink mixers and cocktail syrups. Check the label: brands that list pomegranate juice taste far better than ones built on corn syrup and artificial color.

Unopened, grenadine keeps for a year or more in the cupboard. Once opened, refrigerate it and use it within a few months; commercial bottles with preservatives last longer than homemade, which keeps about two to three weeks chilled and should be tossed if it smells off or shows mold.

Quick facts

In Chinese

石榴

British (UK) term

Grenadine

en français

grenadine

en español

granadina

Recipes using grenadine

There are 15 recipes that contain this ingredient.

All 15 recipes