Blood Orange and Meyer Lemon Shrubs

A shrub (a.k.a. ‘drinking vinegar’) is a mixture of fruit, sugar and vinegar. It was popular in Colonial America as it was a way to easily preserve fruit pre-refrigeration, and has enjoyed a resurgence in the past decades as a non-alcoholic apertif or as an element in cocktails. My first home batch (2013) used a ‘cold shrub’ process, macerating meyer lemons and basil in sugar for four hours to draw liquid and flavors out of the fruit, then straining and combining with cider and white vinegars. I also soaked blood oranges and star anise in brown sugar and maple syrup, then mixed this one with cider vinegar. Future experiments would involve extracting more flavor from the peel over longer durations, once I learned about oleo saccharum…