Grenadine
A pomegranate syrup, sweet and lightly tart, named from grenade, the French for pomegranate. Real grenadine is fruit juice and sugar and tastes of the fruit; the supermarket bottle is usually sugar, acid and red colouring with no pomegranate in it at all.
Quick Facts
Flavour Profile
Primary Flavours
Tasting Notes
Sweet and lightly tart with bright red fruit character and subtle acidity when made from real pomegranate. Artificial versions are sweeter and less complex.
Recommended Brands
Budget Choice
Monin Grenadine: widely stocked and actually pomegranate, which not all red syrup is
Premium Choice
De Kuyper Grenadine: the step up for a drink where the grenadine is doing real work, as in a Jack Rose
Storage & Handling
Keep refrigerated once opened. A real pomegranate grenadine lasts a few months chilled; one made at home, with less sugar and nothing preserving it, is good for about a month.
Shelf Life
Commercial: 2–3 months refrigerated after opening. Homemade: 2–4 weeks refrigerated
Usage
Poured in small measures, 10ml to 15ml, as a sweetener that also colours. It carries enough acidity to sit in a sour without flattening it, which artificial versions do not, and it sinks through a built drink rather than mixing.
Pomegranate, Or Not
Grenadine started as a pomegranate syrup and the name says so: grenade is French for the fruit. What sits on most shelves now took a different route. Read the back of a cheap bottle and the list runs glucose-fructose syrup, water, citric acid, flavouring and a red dye, in an order that puts pomegranate nowhere. The drinks were built for the original, so the substitution shows. A sour that should carry a fruit note behind the sweetness gets only sweetness, and the colour arrives with nothing underneath it.
Making It
Equal parts pomegranate juice and sugar, warmed only enough to dissolve the sugar, is the working ratio and takes a few minutes. Bottled juice is fine and saves an argument with the seeds. A spoonful of pomegranate molasses deepens it, and a few drops of orange flower water is the traditional finishing note, easy to overdo and hard to take back out. Made this way it holds about a month refrigerated. That is short beside a rich sugar syrup, because there is less sugar in it and nothing else doing any preserving.
Why It Sinks
Syrup is denser than spirit or juice, so grenadine poured last drops through the glass and settles at the bottom. The Tequila Sunrise is built on that behaviour rather than on any trick: tequila and orange juice go in first, the syrup goes down the side, and the gradient forms on its own. In a shaken drink the density is irrelevant, because the shake mixes everything. It does explain why a built highball can look striped and taste uneven if nobody stirs it through.
Buying and Keeping
Ingredients decide this one. Look for pomegranate juice at or near the front of the list and no colouring at the end, and treat a bottle that states a fruit percentage as the more honest one. Price tracks that closely enough to serve as a rough guide. Once opened, a real grenadine belongs in the fridge and lasts a few months. The artificial kind will sit in a cupboard almost indefinitely, which is a fair indication of what is in it.
Pro Tip
Real grenadine should taste like fruit, not sweets. Check the ingredients list.
Top Tips
- Check the ingredients before the label. Pomegranate should be near the front, not a colouring at the end.
- Pour it down the side of a built drink if the gradient is wanted, and stir it through if it is not.
- 10ml goes a long way in a sour. Set the citrus first and adjust the grenadine to it.
Possible Substitutions
- Pomegranate molasses (much more concentrated)
- Raspberry syrup (different fruit profile)
- Simple syrup with pomegranate juice (approximate)
Production Method
Traditionally made by reducing pomegranate juice with sugar. Commercial versions may use fruit concentrates, flavourings, or colouring in place of real juice.
History & Context
Grenadine originated as a pomegranate syrup in the Middle East and Mediterranean. It became a staple of early cocktail culture, though modern mass-market versions often diverge from the original recipe.
Common Questions
What is real grenadine?
Pomegranate juice cooked with sugar into a syrup, and nothing else required. The name comes from grenade, French for pomegranate. Bottles that list glucose-fructose syrup, citric acid and a red dye are grenadine by colour alone, and the drinks built around the original show the difference.
How do you make grenadine?
Warm equal parts pomegranate juice and sugar until the sugar dissolves, then cool it and bottle it. Bottled juice works perfectly well. A spoonful of pomegranate molasses adds depth and a few drops of orange flower water is traditional. Keep it refrigerated and use it within a month.
Why does grenadine sink?
It is denser than the spirit and juice above it, so poured last it falls through the glass and settles. The Tequila Sunrise depends on exactly that. Stir a built drink through if an even flavour matters more to you than the gradient does.
Which drinks use grenadine?
The Jack Rose, the Ward Eight, El Presidente and the Bacardi cocktail all lean on it, and the Tequila Sunrise uses it for colour as much as for sweetness. In each case it does two jobs, sweetening the drink and adding a fruit note that sugar alone cannot.