Sharkbait’s Cocktail of the Week: I Demand A Shrubbery

Hello and happy Friday yet again. For the second straight week I’m going off the board and making something up as I go along. In a recent shopping trip, I picked up a rhubarb and honey shrub for Mrs. Sharkbait and figured I would do some experimenting with it.

I determined that tequila would play very well with these flavors, and needing to add a little more liquid to cut the thickness of the shrub, I went with lime juice. Having no shrub experience before, this should be an interesting experiment.

Tequila Shrub:

2 oz. Blanco tequila

.5 oz. Rhubarb and honey shrub

1 oz. Fresh lime juice

Add all ingredients to a shaker filled with ice. Shake and strain into a rocks glass with a large ice cube. Garnish with a lime wheel.

The shrub dominates the nose. I get a lot of vinegar I get a little bit of rhubarb as well. Nothing much from the tequila or the lime juice. Not surprising since vinegar has an extremely strong odor, so it would be hard to cover that up. If I’m being honest here, the nose isn’t all that appealing. Vinegar isn’t something I would normally associate with a cocktail, and I think the nose is one reason why.

The sip starts out bitter and slightly vinegary (if slightly vinegary is even possible) from the shrub, but then the tequila and lime juice combine to mellow out the bitter and vinegar front. The rest of the sip mellow, and ends with a citrus and bitter flavor. The end flavor reminds me of grapefruit for some reason. Not having much experience with rhubarb, but I wonder if that ingredient, combined with the lime juice mimics the grapefruit flavor. Either way, I like the finish of this. The tequila is very muted in this application. You can tell it’s in there, but I think a tequila hater would enjoy this one. I don’t get any honey at all. I wonder if it’s purpose is to mellow out the other flavors and add some viscosity to the shrub itself.

For my first experience with a shrub, I think I did well here. I’m interested in experimenting more with this flavor, as well as some others I’ve seen around. I think I’m going to stick with tequila and gin as the base spirits though. Based on this experience, vodka might not have enough flavor to balance the vinegar, and I wouldn’t go near any whiskey or rum with this.