To make Hibiscus grenadine.

So Kkocka I think it was, asked how to find Hibiscus grenadine.
AND I was cleaning the kitchen and found some Hibiscus powder I have had for some time now.
Being as this is national pomegranate month I thought I would make some using this powder.
All you need is a few pomegranates and some simple syrup plus the Hibiscus powder.
Did not write down the ratios, but not much Hibiscus powder was needed.
The Hibiscus powder gave it a deep red color and the flavor was better than pomegranate grenadine
I have made many times in the past.

How To Deseed a Pomegranate
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyTRkUTtgic&spfreload=10

After you deseed you then Squeeze the juice out using cheese cloth into a bowl.
Toss out the seeds.
next mix the simple syrup (4oz?)and Hibiscus powder (1/2tsp?)
Now heat this not long say 10 mins.
Now add pomegranate juice say (4oz?)

Did add some vanilla sugar too cuz I like it.
This was very good!
Going to make some Sorbet out of mine.
Most of the time we make ice cubes with it and put it in our Champagne that we drink every night.

Hmmm... that may be too loose to be grenadine. I would say buy pomegranate juice (cooking will lose any of the fresh flavor qualities anyway) and simmer the hibiscus/Jamaica (in markets they are frequently labeled Jamaica and cost about a quarter of what "Dried Hibiscus Flowers" cost)for about 20 mins. Then strain out the flowers, add the sugar, and reduce.

"(in markets they are frequently labeled Jamaica and cost about a quarter of what "Dried Hibiscus Flowers" cost)"

Good to know I will try this.
I like to know where things come from even if I may only make the real deal once.

"Hmmm... that may be too loose to be grenadine."
It is a bit thinner for sure.

"Would say buy pomegranate juice (cooking will lose any of the fresh flavor qualities anyway"

I should have been more clear on that part as I don't cook the juice because it does mess with the flavor.
Put the fresh pomegranate juice in at last after the heat is off and has cooled some.
You heat only to dissolve the Hibiscus powder, not to reduce.

"I would say buy pomegranate juice"
Have used the POM Wonderful® pomegranate juice concentrate, it is good but not as good to me.($15.00 per bottle?}
http://www.pomindustrial.com/products/pom-juice-concentrate-liquid/?gclid=CKnA6se8lMICFe47Mgodxn8ATA

One more thing,
I like to buy odd spices like Hibiscus powder online from my spice sage.
Cool stuff here at my spice sage.
http://www.myspicesage.com/?gclid=CNWP_ZS9lMICFQgzaQod7o0A9g

See Jamaica here on Amazon.
Hibiscus Flowers Flor De Jamaica 8 Oz By El Sol De Mexico...
Will get some local as that is $15.00 or so,with $8.00 being ship costs, and the Hibiscus powder was $7.00 plus ship.
http://www.amazon.com/Hibiscus-De-El-Sol-Mexico/dp/B0000GKV6C

Looks like it's good for you too.

Health Benefits of Jamaica aka Hibiscus Flowers...

Jamaican is high in Vitamins and Minerals with powerful antioxidant properties. It helps lower elevated blood pressure, bad cholesterol and detoxify the entire body.

Antioxidant levels in Agua de Jamaica are higher than vegetable juice, tomato juice and orange juice; and compares to Cranberry Juice and Pomegranate Juice with more antioxidant levels than these juices.

The antioxidant properties in Jamaica juice helps provide our bodies with protection against free radicals, molecules which cause heart disease, stroke, hypertension, Alzheimer’s, premature aging and cancer. Jamaica juice also helps flush the prostate, the liver, kidney and bladder.

Since Jamaica is high in electrolytes such as chloride, magnesium, potassium and sodium, the tea or juice can be used to replenish electrolytes in the body after exercise, a day in the sun or a long day on the beach.

One more,

Aqua de Jamaica Recipe

Jamaica juice is a healthy and refreshing Mexican tradition

1 ¼ cup of dried Jamaica Flowers
3 cups of water
4 cups of water to make 2 quarts of the final drink
½ cup of sugar
Ice cubes

1. Place the dried flowers in a small pot with the 3 cups of water. Bring them to a boil. Boil them for about 20-30 minutes over medium-low heat.
2. Set aside for at least 4 hours or overnight with the flowers and water together.
3. Bring to a boil the 4 cups and water and sugar until the sugar dissolves and let cool.
4. Strain the liquid into a pitcher and add the 4 cups of water and sugar. You can adjust the added water if you feel it is to tart to your palate.

Have other health benefits that we missed in our description of Agua de Jamaica? Let us know what your additional health benefits are and your recipe for Jamaica juice!

Your spice dealer is gouging you for inferior product.

The one issue with you juicing your own poms and not cooking it is that you are dramatically reducing shelf life and supermarkets stock pom brand juice, plus they have coupons all the time.

I usually just eat the seeds from the tree I have and stick to the pasteurized juice for when I want stuff for syrups.

"dramatically reducing shelf life"
I use it fast and or freeze it.

"Your spice dealer is gouging you for inferior product."
Thought it was good, worked for me.
Will try the leaves as well though.

"I usually just eat the seeds from the tree I have"
That would be nice.
Never seen a pomegranate tree, post pic's.
Should be loaded now? Is that right?

Cooking it (bringing it to the correct temperature even) would save you the eventual risk of having to toss out a batch because it spoiled in the freezer. Yes, things only have a few months shelf life in a properly set up freezer.

Pre-ground is generally a bad choice for any spice as unless it is ground to order and used in an equally brief timeframe you will lose much of the flavor.

The key is "Was", harvest time for me is roughly mid October, there isn't much to show since they are more or less hedges...

Wow thanks for the photo!
So about how many Pomegranates can you get per year?

This Pomegranate grenadine does not last long here.

Plus I seal with one of these to help with freezer burn.
vacmaster-chamber vacuum,
http://www.webstaurantstore.com/ary-vacmaster-vp215-chamber-vacuum-packaging-machine-with-10-seal-bar/120VMASVP215.html?utm_source=Google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=GoogleShopping&gclid=CNXc_crylcICFcVaMgodClgAWQ

It depends on the cultivar and rootstock, a dwarf one (as seen above) can easily produce 50 or so pieces a year, a larger one can go past 100.

Buying an $800 cryovac sealer seems like overkill for the home cook, unless you're running a full butcher shop out of the back.

"overkill for the home cook"

Ha! that's me, I'm all about overkill.
Got it for sous vide cooking but do not have the Immersion Circulator yet.
BUT it is a fun tool in the kitchen, everybody should have one.

Cooking was a hobby and Occupation / livelihood long before tiki so I have way less into Cooking really.
If you don't count the restaurant, but then I made that back and more so it's a push.

Guess you won't be buying this then.
Modernist Cuisine,
http://www.amazon.com/Modernist-Cuisine-The-Science-Cooking/dp/0982761007

Molecular gastronomy is too much of a gimmick right now for it to be a serious contender. I also despise how sous vide is being hailed as some kind of saving way for people to not fuck up cooking meat, it sort of does it but not really since you will still be searing it to make the outside not look terrible and there are many characteristics lost by not cooking it the entire time on that surface.

"saving way for people to not fuck up cooking meat"

Well meat would not be my first choice of foods to cook.
And fish is just bad cooked this way I hear.

But would want to do vegies and other stuff but again have not got that far.

"Molecular gastronomy is too much of a gimmick"

True, but if you think about it Tiki or Polynesian restaurants were a gimmick too.
That's what we will never get to see is the whole newness that Polynesian restaurants were
back in the day.
The foods the drinks and even the art was so new.
Most people had never heard or seen, eaten the stuff that was in the Kahiki.
People now have at least seen a tiki joint on tv.

The bloom is off the rose.

True, but if you think about it Tiki or Polynesian restaurants were a gimmick too.
That's what we will never get to see is the whole newness that Polynesian restaurants were
back in the day.
The foods the drinks and even the art was so new.
Most people had never heard or seen, eaten the stuff that was in the Kahiki.
People now have at least seen a tiki joint on tv.

The bloom is off the rose.

They still are a gimmick, their 90's incarnation was "Pan-Asian" and in the early to mid 2000's it was called "Asian-Fusion". All incorporate things and add soy sauce but make it geared towards the American palate.

The cocktails were mostly on shaky ground too since they were not as much balanced for flavor of the spirit as much as either getting you wasted, covering up the taste with sweet, or making them visually appealing over anything else.

Which is funny when award-winning new tiki drinks like "Death in the South Pacific" don't appear to get a mention here.

"Which is funny when award-winning new tiki drinks like "Death in the South Pacific" don't appear to get a mention here."

Here is the problem it's not a west coaster that made the drink, had it been one it would have been on TC tiki mag, EVERYWEHERE.

(was created by Washington bartender Evan Martin)

I like the dead man garnish on this drink.

http://www.amountainofcrushedice.com/?p=9298

Death in the South Pacific – By Evan Martin

0.75 oz. Appleton Estate Extra 12 Year Old rum

0.75 oz. Rhum Clement VSOP rum

0.5 oz. Grand Marnier

0.33 oz. Trader Tiki’s Orgeat Syrup

0.33 oz. Fee Brothers Falernum

3 dashes Absinthe

0.5 oz. Fresh Lime Juice

0.5 oz. Fresh Lemon Juice

0.5 oz. Fee Brothers Grenadine

0.5 oz. Cruzan Blackstrap rum

Add all ingredients except for the grenadine and Cruzan Blackstrap to a Zombie shell glass and fill with crushed ice. Swizzle the drink well to mix and frost the glass and then pour in grenadine. Overfill the glass with crushed ice and then pour in Cruzan Blackstrap.

Garnish: Take a bamboo skewer and put a brandied cherry through at the very top followed by 1 pineapple leaf (insert through the middle) and then cut off skin from 1 large orange slice and then cut the strips in half.

Insert the ends through the skewer having them hang on opposite sides of each other. Then insert the straw through the loop in the bamboo skewer. It should look like a guy hanging off of the drink (cherry=head, pineapple leaf= arms, citrus peel dangling away from each other are the legs)

Evan explains: “The drink’s name is a play on Love in the South Pacific and Death in the Afternoon. I found the name fitting as it’s modeled after the Zombie (use of absinthe, good amount of citrus balanced by various sweeteners, and needed a name that gave as much warning as the zombie) as well as its color (should be a light tan with a muddy and bloody looking float) and the death in the afternoon’s use of absinthe.”

• See more at: http://www.amountainofcrushedice.com/?p=9298#sthash.QqFfVLym.dpuf

[ Edited by: tikiskip 2014-11-26 07:14 ]

On 2014-11-26 07:08, tikiskip wrote:
Here is the problem it's not a west coaster that made the drink, had it been one it would have been on TC tiki mag, EVERYWEHERE.

(was created by Washington bartender Evan Martin)
[ Edited by: tikiskip 2014-11-26 07:14 ]

Anyway...

This reeks of Hipster mixology and though it makes no logical sense
or real reason to hate it, I still hate it! so there!

The cat's in the bag
and the bag's in the river.....

[ Edited by: Atomic Tiki Punk 2014-11-26 17:58 ]

If I were a computer wiz like you I would pull up Jack Nicholson's
You can't handle the truth! quote.

I like this one too.

History will be kind to me for I intend to write it
Winston Churchill

HAPPY THANKSGIVING! ATP.

Thank you for your input wizzard419 I was able to find the Jamaica at a Mexican Grocery store
For about $5.00 dollars and will make this using Jamaica flower after this Turkey thing is over.

That gif was in response to your exact sentence... please feel free to review what you wrote. :D

I was being funny, not mad at ATP, or any one really.

My hibiscus grenadine recipe:

1 part pomegranate-cherry 50-50 Pom Wonderful (can use all pomegranate if you prefer)
1 part cane sugar
A couple splashes of pomegranate molasses to taste
A handful of dried hibiscus petals to taste

Heat together on stove. Add a bit of orange flower water to round it off.

With the cherry and orange elements, it's easy to turn into fassionola by mixing it with raspberry syrup.

On 2014-11-27 11:09, tikiskip wrote:
I was being funny, not mad at ATP, or any one really.

I totally got it!
Happy Turkey Day to you also Skip!!! :lol:

On 2014-11-28 01:17, Colin wrote:
My hibiscus grenadine recipe:

1 part pomegranate-cherry 50-50 Pom Wonderful (can use all pomegranate if you prefer)
1 part cane sugar
A couple splashes of pomegranate molasses to taste
A handful of dried hibiscus petals to taste
Heat together on stove. Add a bit of orange flower water to round it off.
With the cherry and orange elements, it's easy to turn into fassionola by mixing it with raspberry syrup.

Thanx for adding that Colin!
I think mine maybe closer to fassionola than hibiscus grenadine.
But I just wanted a fruit flavor for other uses like sorbet and ice for Champagne.
Funny you should say add raspberry for fassionola when I make ice for Champagne I also add some
Chambord to the mix, not too much as it won't freeze then.

Your version looks good and makes me think a dash of lemon to cut some of the sweet may be a good thing to add as well.

Does anybody have a way to press the juice out of cane sugar, like the cane.
I have seen those sugar cane presses but they can be costly.
Is that the only way?
Can you cook it out?

Would be fun to try to juice this raw cane as I now see it every now and then in stores.

Cane crushers are the only way to do it. You can check out the large number of people who apparently ruin their juicers and such trying to find ways to not buy the crusher.

Though... why do you want cane juice? If it is to use as a sweetener, you would need to reduce it and at that point you would have the same product as cane syrup.

At a restaurant called cuba libre they made drinks with it.
http://www.cubalibrerestaurant.com/en/philadelphia/

And I know it was a gimmick, but they were good.
Plus just want to do it so I can say I have, would tire of doing this
the first or second time I did it and move on, this is why don't want to
put a bunch of money into a thing like this.

Check your local farmer's market. If you have a population of people from SE Asia in the area there will likely be a vendor there right now selling the crushed cane juice.

i've walked up to cuban lunch counters in miami that will crush up a cane juice drink for you.

Anyone else have a hibiscus grenadine recipe they wanna share? Lei Low in Houston gave me a bottle of theirs and it was floral and delicious. Makes me never wanna make the typical Pom juice/sugar kind ever again. Curious what variations are out there.

On 2016-02-16 21:35, mikehooker wrote:
Anyone else have a hibiscus grenadine recipe they wanna share? Lei Low in Houston gave me a bottle of theirs and it was floral and delicious. Makes me never wanna make the typical Pom juice/sugar kind ever again. Curious what variations are out there.

I've started making mine with about 1/3 of the sugar substituted for brown sugar after spotting a product that touted it's use of brown sugar as a selling point. Makes it "heavier" for lack of a better word, which is good for drinks where you're doling it out in teaspoons or quarter ounces. I also always use 1 ounce of brandy per 10 ounces of syrup as the preservative and season it with 4 drops of orange flower water.

Also for those of us living near Sprout's markets, they sell whole dried hibiscus there at a much more reasonable price than other grocers, and mexican markets often sell teabags of crushed up flowers in the same section that they stock yerba buena and such.

Sounds good Pat.
How about Agave nectar, have always thought that was a cross between a brown
sugar flavor and regular cane sugar.
It would have less of that brown sugar flavor though.

Or even coconut sugar that stuff is cool too.

On 2016-02-17 08:31, tikiskip wrote:
Sounds good Pat.
How about Agave nectar, have always thought that was a cross between a brown
sugar flavor and regular cane sugar.
It would have less of that brown sugar flavor though.

Or even coconut sugar that stuff is cool too.

I think the agave would be tasty, but to keep the final product "syrupy" in consistency I would reduce the pomegranite-hibiscus infusion a little more than usual, since the agave already has some liquid in it.