What is Grenadine?

Grenadine takes its name from grenade, French for pomegranate. The cocktail ingredient is a reduced or sweetened pomegranate syrup: fruit acid, tannin, and sugar, used in small volume as a modifier (Jack Rose, Tequila Sunrise, and other drinks that want red fruit without fake cherry). It is not a two-ounce pour.

Much of what is sold as grenadine in North American groceries is a different product — colored and flavored high-fructose syrup with token or no pomegranate. It will dye a drink; it will not taste of the fruit.

Real grenadine: pomegranate, berry, and a little tannin from the arils and rind. Grocery grenadine: red sugar water, often high-fructose corn syrup, artificial color, and a flavor that reads as cherry-adjacent rather than pomegranate.

Classic recipes assumed pomegranate. As bottled mixers industrialized in the 20th century, American grenadine drifted toward dye and corn syrup because color was cheaper to guarantee than fruit. The drinks kept their pink-red appearance and lost the tart, tannic edge that made the syrup useful as more than coloring.

Pomegranate-based bottles (or a homemade reduction of juice and sugar) restore that function.

A quarter- to half-ounce is the usual range; taste as you go. Real grenadine is tart enough that it can replace some of a sour’s citrus-and-sugar work; dyed syrup only adds sweetness and color, so you may need more lemon or lime.

Refrigerate after opening. Homemade grenadine is juice plus sugar, optionally with a little pomegranate molasses or orange flower water, cooked briefly and cooled.