A Shrub Cocktail Recipe: The Ultimate Hot Or Cold Weather Companion

A Shivelight shrub cocktail is the perfect summertime solution when you want a chilled cocktail. For those brisk cold days in winter, choose one of our Signature hot drink recipes as your seasonal favorite in a mug! Every cocktail mixture benefits from our mixers. These are made with a natural fermentation for the ultimate in refreshing seltzer spirits.

Why Our Cocktail Shrub?

Ready to add some spice to your cocktails? Along with these premium local ingredients, our mixers contain apple cider vinegar. Also known as ACV, this is what makes this drink a shrub.

Healthy and cleansing, this vinegar compared to white vinegar or red wine vinegar serves as a complement to other fruits quite nicely!

  • Adds complexity to mixed drinks
  • Boosts depth in beverages
  • Contains less fruit sugar
  • Easy to store
  • Stimulates appetite

Choose Our Apple Cider Vinegar Mixers

Our Combinations range from sweet to sour and mild to spicy, with plenty of bitter notes.

Check out our Bitterroot Apple & Cinnamon made with Pacific grown tart apples and locally sourced sharp knapweed honey. Here you have that zinging heat of cinnamon to spice up the shrub. Made right here in the Bitterroot Valley, this syrup is an ideal base for any beginner in shrub cocktail making.

Our Ginger Honey is an even spicer combination thanks to the use of raw ginger juice. The fresh, raw ginger in our bottles comes from local root. This plant is grown exclusively for our company at the Deluge Farm natural hot spring.

For a cocktail drink that has more of a berry taste, consider the Flathead Cherry Shrub made from locally grown Montana cherry trees.

The Huckleberry Shrub comes from another amazing local fruit. Similar to a blueberry in shape and color, these fruits are wild growing in rugged Pacific locations.

A Healthier Shrub Cocktail Mixer

Shrubs are a healthy alternative to other beverage mixers. Those mixes are typically full of highly processed ingredients and bleached white sugar devoid of nutrients.

Instead, you have a low in sugar alternative for mixing with alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages. In fact, this is a form of drinking vinegar.
What is drinking vinegar? Similar to ginger beer, this is a healthy drink. Since we use vinegar made from apples to make our mixers, there is that basis of flavor rather than say strawberries. This gives cocktails and other beverages an apple-flavored zing!

Drinking vinegars work on the body like any vinegar does—it cleanses and detoxes the system. Our drinking vinegars also stimulate the immune system and one’s appetite. This encourages vigor and vitality.

Shrub Cocktail Guide

Each of the shrubs turn out to be quite complex. These drinking vinegars lend a wonderful flavor to any mixed cocktail. Make an array of cocktails including those we have here on the site. Of course, cooking with these drinkable vinegars is fine, too.

St Mary’s Shandy

  • 1 oz Bitterroot Apple & Cinnamon, Flathead Cherry, Ginger Honey, or Huckleberry Shrub
  • 2 oz Champagne or Sparkling wine
  • 3 oz Light lager

Add any shrub into a highball glass. Add either Champagne or sparkling wine. Carefully top with the lager; go slowly to avoid an eruption of foam. Do not stir before sipping with delight.

Martin City Mimosa

  • 1 oz Bitterroot Apple & Cinnamon, Flathead Cherry, Ginger Honey, or Huckleberry Shrub
  • 5 oz Champagne or Sparkling wine
  • 1 strawberry

Pour shrub into a flute glass. Slowly add the Champagne or sparkling wine. Slice the strawberry; discard green stems and leaves and any white pith of the strawberry. Add a few strawberries to the bubbling mimosa. Slide strawberries to the top for a garnish.

Three Apples

  • 1 oz Bitterroot Apple & Cinnamon Shrub
  • 1.5 oz Apple brandy
  • 1.5 oz Hard cider
  • 1 Apple wheel

In a shaker, toss shrub, apple brandy, and ice. Shake well. Strain into a martini glass. Top the mixture with hard cider. Add the apple wheel to the rim.

Cocktails Made With Shrub

Are you looking for a creative cocktail to add to your extravagant wedding? Are you hoping to amaze your house guests or family with finely crafted adult beverages? Or maybe you would just like to treat yourself to an exceptionally tasty cocktail at the end of a long day. Whatever your reasons may be, these cocktails are sure to impress.

To find a comprehensive catalog of our favorite adult recipes made with shrubs, explore our full product list. Got a new creative beverage recipe you want to share? Visit our Facebook page and share away! Here are a few stellar cocktail recipes with a variety of our fruit-flavored shrubs.

History of Shrubs

A shrub is a type of vinegar that was made in the 15th century. Thanks to it being a vinegar, these can be stored in a jar and do not have to be kept cool. This was great for a time when there were no standard or safe methods to refrigerate food.

Everyone couldn’t drink wine all day, so drinkable vinegar became a popular drink in a jar. It was a lifesaving liquid, especially in those warm summer months when people really needed something healthy to quench their thirst.

Try One Of Our Delicious Recipes

Fruit shrubs offer versatility in the kitchen whether you are making a mimosa or a cool shandy. Concoct alcoholic cocktails that will elevate your drinking experience. Uplift your spirit with these beverage recipes.

Andrea’s Afternoon

  • 1 oz Flathead Cherry Shrub
  • 1.5 oz London Dry Gin
  • 4oz Club soda
  • 1 Lemon slice
  • 1 Lemon wedge
  • 3 Fresh thyme stems

In a highball glass, strip 2 thyme stems and add the leaves. Squeeze in the lemon wedge and muddle with the thyme leaves. Brim with ice. Add shrub and gin. Top off with club soda; stir gently. Decorate the shrub cocktail with the remaining thyme stem and lemon slice.

The Classic

  • 1oz  Bitterroot Apple & Cinnamon, Flathead Cherry, Ginger Honey, or Huckleberry Shrub
  • 1.5 oz Rum
  • 4 oz Club soda 
  • 1 Lemon slice

To an old-fashioned glass, mix shrub and rum. Stir gently. Top off with club soda and a few cubes of ice. Slip a slice of lemon on the edge to serve.

Mission Mountain Mojito

  • 1 oz Flathead Cherry or Huckleberry Shrub
  • 1.5 oz White rum
  • 2 Lemon wedges
  • 2 Lime wedges
  • 6 to 8 Mint leaves
  • 4 oz Club soda

At the bottom of a collins glass, muddle 1 each of the lime and lemon wedges, plus the mint. Brim with ice. Add either shrub and white rum. Top with club soda. Stir gently. Sprinkle the mint leaves. Cut a small slit in each of the lemon and lime wedges. Hang these over the lip before serving.

shrub cocktail

Crown of the Continent

  • 1 oz Huckleberry Shrub
  • 2 oz Tequila blanco
  • 1 oz Triple sec
  • 1 Lemon wedge
  • 2 Lime wedge
  • 1 Orange wedge
  • 1 Strawberry

Squeeze one lime wedge along with the lemon and orange wedges to the bottom of a shaker.  Leave citrus rind in the glass; muddle thoroughly. Add ice to the shaker along with the rest of the ingredients. Shake well; strain the shrub cocktail into a martini glass. Use the last lime wedge to decorate the glass rim. Take the strawberry and slice this thinly. Add slices to the side of the rim.

Woodstove in a Blizzard

  • 1 oz Bitterroot Apple & Cinnamon Shrub
  • 1.5 oz Brandy, Bourbon, Rye, or Spiced Rum
  • 4 oz Warm water
  • 1 Lemon wedge

Pour shrub and your choice of alcohol into a mug. Add warm water and stir. Squeeze and then drop in the lemon wedge. Drink immediately!

Teddy Bear Hot Toddy

  • 1 oz Bitterroot Apple & Cinnamon Shrub
  • 2 Tbs. Honey or Golden syrup
  • 2 oz Apple cider
  • 1 ½ oz Bourbon
  • 1 Lemon wedge
  • 3 Tbs. Whipped cream 
  • 1 Cinnamon stick
  • 1 Crispy fried bacon slice

Add apple cider in a sauce pan. Heat on the stovetop until simmering. To a clear coffee mug, add honey or golden syrup, and apple cider. Stir well to dissolve honey or golden syrup. Add bourbon and shrub. Stir well. Squeeze the lemon in the cup and discard the wedge. Top with whipped cream. Insert cinnamon stick carefully into the whipped cream. Nestle bacon slice over the top of the whipped cream right before serving.

How We Make Our Beverage Mixers

A fresh fruit pulp or concentrate is mixed with white sugar. The sugar mixture is left to ferment for a few weeks to create an intoxicating simple syrup. The berries and their distinct flavors determine the final flavor of every shrub.

During the ferment, the fruit juice eats the sugar molecules and releases a gas. The result is a very mild alcohol made with apple cider vinegar and fruit juice, such as the cherry juice in the Flathead Cherry Shrub.

For instance, our Flathead Cherry is fermented using sugar mixed with fresh cherries. Vinegar is heated and added to the fruit to start the fermentation process. We use the mild, fruity apple cider vinegar for optimal results in our recipe.

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Crafting Distinct Flavors

The finished product is a blend of drinking vinegar and cherry juice. It is not extra sweet—even with the sugar added—because of the fermentation process with the fruit and sugar.

However, it is a fruit syrup so expect some zing! No refrigerator is needed to maintain these mixers either, making them well suited for camping, travel, and life in general.

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Make the Best Shrub Cocktails

At Shivelight, we make and sell many flavors of shrub mixes. These fruit drinking vinegars combine local ingredients that are thoughtfully sourced to enhance your drinking experience.

The use of apple cider vinegar for a base is a free and clear winner! You can truly taste the complexity of the different types of apples from the Pacific Northwest. Toss out those mixtures using cheap processed ingredients. Go for the gold with one of our shrubs like Ginger Honey for your drink cart beverage mix.

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Ready To Try A Shrub Mixer?

Let us help you make the smartest selection in nutritious, naturally made fruit vinegar shrubs. Stimulate your tastebuds, and give yourself the pleasure of a Shivelight Premium Shrub today! We recommend using any shrub of ours in cocktails as a healthy flavor enhancer.

While you are here on the site, search our recipes and mix up your favorite. Then visit our social media and show us what you come up with! Be sure to share your tastiest recipe suggestions in your photos.

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