Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Food & Drink

Drinking Vinegars: What They Are and Why You Should Drink Them

Shandana A. Durrani
By

drinking vinegars
Image used with permission by copyright holder
For centuries, people around the world have been drinking vinegar to ward off ailments such as indigestion and chronic fatigue. In the United States, drinking vinegars were (and are) commonly known as shrubs and date to the 1700s. In addition to curing ailments, drinking vinegars were (eventually) used in cocktails, which is how after decades of relative obscurity shrubs are back on menus across the country.

On their own, drinking vinegars are a great alternative to sugary drinks like soda. In cocktails, shrubs are often used to replace citrus, as shrubs do not cloud when shaken in a drink.

Recommended Videos

If you’re interested in trying drinking vinegars, there are a couple that you can pick up in stores or online.

Pok Pok Som Chef Andy Ricker of Pok Pok fame created Pok Pok Som in 2005 for use in specialty cocktails. Customers loved it so much the restaurant began serving it with a splash of soda water on the rocks. Som comes in a variety of flavors, from ginger to apple to rhubarb and tamarind. Nothing is ever too sweet so even the sweeter-sounding flavors won’t make you feel as if you’re drinking syrup. New York City’s PDT recently used Pok Pok Som in a specialty cocktail. Ask for the Som Collins.

Genki Su Drinking vinegar has long been a tradition in Japan, dating back to feudal times. Genki Su, created by Japanese-American Takako Shinjo, offers four varieties of handcrafted drinking vinegars flavored with fruit and herbs such as apple and shiso (a Japanese herb similar to mint) and sweetened with honey and Stevia, making them a low-calorie alternative to soft drinks.

McClary Brothers Michigan-based McClary Brothers uses local herbs and fruit in its drinking vinegars, which are made in small batches. The apothecary-style bottles hold a selection of specialty flavors including pineapple and fennel, apple pie, and rhubarb. Seasonal flavors rotate throughout the year and most are tart with a bit of an earthy undertone. McClary suggests mixing the vinegars with bourbon, whiskey or rum for cocktails, or soda for a healthy tonic.

Suja Organic and non-GMO, San Diego, California-based Suja’s drinking vinegars are cold-pressed juices, made from a mixture of apple cider vinegar and coconut vinegar, and come in eight different flavors, including flavors like Strawberry Balsamic, Lemon Cayenne, and Ginger Turmeric.

Or, for the adventurous and creatives ones out there, you can make your own. Michael Dietsch’s book Shrubs is a perfect introduction into the beverage in addition to giving plenty of recipes for how to make them.

(Updated on 1/17/17)

Editors' Recommendations

Shandana A. Durrani
Shandana A. Durrani
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Shandana A. Durrani has been a magazine editor and travel writer for more than two decades. Her work has appeared in numerous…
The 10 best rosé wines that everyone should drink
It's time to finally try rosé
Rose wine glasses

Rosé rules -- no ifs, ands, or buts. You’ve most definitely seen dudes drinking rosé, with the pink wine sold in forties. Chances are, you’ve heard the term “brosé” at least once or twice in your life. Heck, people are cooking with rosé. Can you believe that? It's a sweet wine worth talking about.

All this talk about the drink prompted us to go on a quest to find the most exceptional ones this rosé season. With plenty of great options in the market, we chose to narrow down our list to these best rosé wines for your next hot date, guys' night, or solo Netflix binge. Still reluctant to try this magical wine? We listed seven reasons why you should start drinking rosé.
Best rosé wines

Read more
How to start your own home bar: the essential spirits
Home Bar

When you start getting into cocktails, drinking them is only half the fun -- making them is part of the appeal too. If you start making your own drinks at home, you'll soon find that you can often create better or more interesting drinks than what you're served in most bars. And even better, making drinks for other people is a great way to try out new combinations, learn about spirits, and make your friends and family happy too.

However, moving beyond the simple spirit plus mixer style of drinks which most people make at home and into the world of cocktails means that you'll need a wider array of spirits on hand than you might be used to. It can take some time and research to build up a well stocked bar, and choosing high quality spirits isn't a cheap endeavor. It's worth it, though, for the pleasure of being able to try out classic cocktail recipes and experiment with making up your own creations too.

Read more
You’re overlooking the most important ingredient in your cocktail
Steel Hibiscus cocktail.

When you list off the most important parts of making a good cocktail your mind likely goes immediately to good ingredients: quality spirits, freshly squeezed citrus juices, and well-matched mixers. You might also consider the importance of using the right tools, like getting a proper mixing glass so your stirred drinks can be properly incorporated, or a good strainer so that there aren't little shards of ice in your cocktails. And then there are the fun additions like elaborate garnishes, bitters, or home-made syrups which can add a personal touch to your drinks.
All of those things are important, absolutely. However I think there's one ingredient that can make or break a good cocktail, and it's something many drinkers don't ever stop to consider. It's the humble but vital ingredient of ice.

Why ice is so important
In mixed drinks like a gin and tonic or a screwdriver, ice is added to the drink primarily to chill it down to a pleasing temperature. That's a topic we'll come back to. But in cocktails which are shaken or stirred, ice is far more important than that. Cocktails are typically composed of between around 20 to 30 percent water, and this water comes from the ice used in the preparation process.
When you stir ingredients in a mixing glass or shake them in a shaker with ice, you are chipping away small pieces of the ice so that it dissolves and blends with your other ingredients. You might imagine that water doesn't make much of a difference to taste, being tasteless itself. But it's vital in opening up the flavors of other ingredients. That's why many whiskey drinkers like to add a dash of water to their whiskey when they drink it neat.
If you're ever in doubt of how important water is to cocktails, it's worth trying to make a drink with no ice. Even if you mix up the ideal ratios for a drink that you love and put it into the freezer so that it gets to the chilled temperature that you usually enjoy it at, if you sip it you'll find that your drink tastes harsh, unbalanced, and incomplete. Even for special room temperature cocktails like those designed to be drunk from a flask, you'll generally find water being added at a rate of around 30%.
When you make your cocktails you should be sure to stir for a long time – around 30 seconds is a good start – or to shake for a good while too – I typically do around 12 to 15 seconds – in order to melt enough ice to get plenty of water into your cocktail. Despite what you might imagine, this won't make the cocktail taste watery but will rather make the flavors stand out more as well as often improving the mouthfeel of the drink. A good rule of thumb is to mix or shake until the vessel is cold to the touch. That means your ingredients are sufficiently incorporated with the ice.

Read more