Grenadine is a bright red syrup, often used as an ingredient in cocktails such as the Sea Breeze and the Tequila Sunrise. It is a non-alcoholic syrup, known for it’s super sweet yet subtly tart flavor. If you’ve ever had a Shirley Temple or a Roy Rogers, you’ve probably had grenadine. Since these two drinks lack any alcoholic content, they can be served to young people or people who prefer not to drink alcoholic beverages as a sort of “mocktail”.

The term grenadine originated from the French word grenade which means pomegranate, with pomme meaning apple in French, and granate being a derivation of the Italian word for seeds.

Classically, grenadine is simply made by combining pomegranate juice with sugar and then boiling the mixture until it becomes a syrup. Now days however, many manufacturers of grenadine have replaced real pomegranate juice with artificial ingredients. You might be familiar with the brand “Rose’s” as they are definitely the most popular brand of grenadine sold in the United States.

Here are the ingredients in their grenadine: high fructose corn syrup, water, citric acid, sodium citrate, sodium benzoate, red 40, natural and artificial flavors, blue 1.

I got that right off the bottle, I totally have some in my fridge right now, so that means I didn’t copy that from anyone else.

If you’re needing some grenadine but you’d rather avoid the high fructose corn syrup and all the artificial ingredients that come along with most commercial brands, you might be better off just making grenadine from scratch right in the comfort of your own kitchen. It isn’t hard at all. In fact it’s quite easy and you can adjust exactly how sweet or tart your grenadine becomes.

Here’s a link to the recipe: How to Make Your Own Homemade Grenadine