Grenadine
Grenadine is a red bar syrup named from grenade, French for pomegranate, and the house version is just that: pomegranate juice and sugar in equal weights, warmed gently and never boiled. Many bought bottles contain no pomegranate at all, only sugar, acid, flavouring and red colouring. It colours and sweetens a drink in measures of 5 to 22.5ml.
Quick Facts
We keep it refrigerated once opened: a bought fruit grenadine for a couple of months, home-made for a week.
None of the 14 listed allergens. Recipes change: check the bottle.
About Grenadine
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.
Pomegranate syrup by name, often not by contents
The name is French: grenade means pomegranate, and grenadine began as pomegranate juice, sugar and water. The Oxford Companion says pomegranate-based and artificial variants are both widely available, so the bottle on a supermarket shelf may contain no pomegranate at all. The drinks were written for the fruit version, which is tart as well as sweet.
The house version is juice and sugar, warmed but never boiled
Equal weights of pomegranate juice and caster sugar, 250g of each, warmed gently until the sugar has gone, make about 400ml. Keep it under a simmer: boiling reduces the juice and dulls the fruit, and the house recipe is not a reduction. Pomegranate molasses and orange flower water are optional, a teaspoon and two drops. It keeps one week in the fridge.
House grenadine against bought bottles and the swaps (keeping times are ours)
House grenadine
- Pomegranate
- Juice, half the weight
- Colour from
- The fruit
- Keeps once open
- One week, refrigerated
- In a drink
- Tart, red fruit
Bought, fruit-based
- Pomegranate
- Listed near the start
- Colour from
- The fruit, sometimes added colour
- Keeps once open
- Two to three months, refrigerated
- In a drink
- Close to house
Bought, flavoured
- Pomegranate
- None
- Colour from
- Dye
- Keeps once open
- Months, often unrefrigerated
- In a drink
- Sweet and red only
Raspberry syrup
- Pomegranate
- None
- Colour from
- Raspberry
- Keeps once open
- One week home-made
- In a drink
- Different red fruit
| Syrup | Pomegranate | Colour from | Keeps once open | In a drink |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| House grenadine | Juice, half the weight | The fruit | One week, refrigerated | Tart, red fruit |
| Bought, fruit-based | Listed near the start | The fruit, sometimes added colour | Two to three months, refrigerated | Close to house |
| Bought, flavoured | None | Dye | Months, often unrefrigerated | Sweet and red only |
| Raspberry syrup | None | Raspberry | One week home-made | Different red fruit |
Density makes the sunrise
Sugar syrup is heavier than spirit or juice, so grenadine poured last falls through the drink. The Tequila Sunrise is built on that: 45ml of tequila and 90ml of orange juice, then 15ml of grenadine down the side. A shaken drink such as the Jack Rose, with 22.5ml against applejack and lemon, is pink all through.
Using Grenadine
Usage
Measured at 5 to 22.5ml, mostly for colour and a tart red-fruit edge. It is the only sweetener in a Jack Rose, the sunrise in a Tequila Sunrise, and the pink in a Pink Lady or Bacardi Cocktail.
House Recipe
Ingredients
- 250g pomegranate juice (about 240ml), bottled or fresh
- 250g caster sugar
- Optional: 1 teaspoon pomegranate molasses
- Optional: 2 drops orange flower water
Method
- Warm the juice gently and stir in the sugar until it dissolves, without letting it boil.
- Off the heat, stir in the pomegranate molasses if using.
- Cool, add the orange flower water a drop at a time, then bottle.
- Label with the date and refrigerate.
Food safety
Fruit juice with nothing preserving it but sugar: keep it cold, and discard it if it fizzes, smells fermented or grows mould.
Pro Tip
Set the citrus in a sour first, then bring the grenadine up to it. Its sweetness varies more from bottle to bottle than simple syrup’s does.
Top Tips
- Read the ingredients: pomegranate should come first or near it.
- Warm the juice and sugar only until the sugar disappears. Boiling cooks the fruit flavour away.
- Pour it last down the inside of the glass when a recipe wants the sunrise layer.
- Date the home-made bottle; it keeps one week.
Possible Substitutions
- Raspberry Syrup: a different fruit profile
- Simple Syrup: with pomegranate juice: approximate
Production Method
Pomegranate juice and the same weight of sugar, heated just enough to dissolve the sugar and never boiled. Commercial versions may use other fruit concentrates, flavourings or colouring in place of pomegranate.
History & Context
The Oxford Companion, a secondary source, says grenadine was originally a pomegranate syrup used by French apothecaries to hide the taste of medicines, and that Victor Rillet patented the first American grenadine on 5 October 1869, pressed from real pomegranates; competitors used artificial ingredients, and late nineteenth-century recipes rarely contain any pomegranate. Punch says the name most likely comes from the French grenade. Darcy O’Neil of Art of Drink disagrees: he finds the 1901 Standard Manual of Soda recipe, flavoured with oil of cloves, is not a pomegranate syrup, and suggests the name referred to the red clove-pink flower.
More to explore
Common Questions
What is grenadine made of?
How do you make grenadine?
How long does homemade grenadine last?
Is grenadine alcoholic?
Why does grenadine sink to the bottom?
What can I use instead of grenadine?
What drinks use grenadine?
Sources.
Correct as of 19 October 2026.
- The Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails (Doug Stailey), “grenadine” (secondary source: a French apothecaries’ pomegranate syrup; Rillet’s 1869 US patent; imitations and artificial variants).
- Punch, “Grenadine” (secondary source: historically pomegranate juice and sugar; the name most likely from the French grenade).
- Art of Drink (Darcy O’Neil, 25 February 2021), “What is grenadine made from?” (named-author specialist site: the 1901 Standard Manual of Soda recipe and the clove-pink “grenadine”; disputes the pomegranate reading of the name).
Made with Grenadine
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Often Used With
Updated 19 October 2026