Post #337365 by The Gnomon on Tue, Oct 9, 2007 8:30 AM

As a kid I probably had a million Shirley Temples and I always ordered mine with a triple blast of grenadine. The flavor was about the same as the syrup in a jar of cocktail cherries. As a kid it was a favorite of mine. Did wonders to the ginger ale.

Also as a kid growing up in Connecticut I got into pomegranates. We'd get mouthfuls of the "berries" (as we'd call them), then after squishing them and drinking the juice, we'd spit out the seeds like a machine gun. Cheap thrills!

I've been drinking Pom since it came out and have tried others as I encounter them, but they all say they're made from concentrate with natural flavoring added. Better than nothing though and a lot easier than juicing pomegranates, although the juice from fresh pomegranates tastes better than juice from concentrates.

Whenever I ran across the Stirrings, I thought it was a great find. It has a pomegranate flavor as opposed to cherry, so I keep that on hand. I don't use it that much though. I think home-made using pomegranate concentrate is the best. Well, I guess that depends on which concentrate you use and if there are additives. As long as it is 100% pomegranate with no preservatives or enhancements you'll have a winner.

Scottes—No need to cook the pomegranate juice to reduce it (the cooking adversely affects the juice). You have concentrate, which is already reduced without cooking. Use that. If you have a concentrate like Fruit Fast, each tbs has the juice of one pomegranate. Even your 3:1 concentrate has reduction by cooking beat. Try it straight. Make funny faces.

The stuff I make now is not grenadine because I make it with Wray & Nephew White Overproof (my cooking, infusion, fruit-soak, and pyrotechnic favorite), so I refer to it as pomegranate syrup and use it in place of grenadine whenever possible (except when making Shirley Temples for kids :) ).

I'm planning to make a batch using fresh pomegranates soon. I was going to do it this past weekend, but the pomegranates at the store looked awful.

Grammar got me this time.

[ Edited by: The Gnomon 2007-10-09 08:31 ]