With summer’s tail still licking at the Bay, there’s nothing better than a drink that’s cool and fruity with enough zippiness to battle the heat. In other words, a shrub – a refreshing beverage made from the simple ingredients of vinegar, sugar and fresh fruit or herbs.
Shrubs – not to be confused with scrubs, the beta males that TLC rapped about – have been around since at least 17th-century England, when bootleggers combined fruit with booze to mask foul tastes. But in the last decade, they’ve gained popularity in America, both as cocktail mixers and for the supposed wellness benefits of vinegar and botanicals.
Shrubs are easy enough to bottle in a home kitchen and are a great way to repurpose fruit scraps from pie and jam making. The East Bay is fortunate enough to have two shrub-makers a stone’s throw from each other: Yumé Boshi in Oakland and INNA in Emeryville. Yumé owner Ayako Iino and INNA’s Dafna Kory recently chatted about their love of shrubs – how they got into making it and what they find fascinating about this unique drink.
Ayako Iino, owner, Yumé Boshi
Q: You use ume plums for your shrub base which, in Japan, are preserved into a sour pickle called umeboshi. How’d you get into that?
A: I grew up in Japan, and umeboshi is something every mother and housewife would make. My mother used to have a plum tree, and I remember watching the beautiful flowers early in the spring. In the rainy season, the fruits grow bigger – turning green, greener and then yellow and falling down. So when spring came, we’d make ume liquor, called umeshu, and when the fruits got more ripe and soft, we’d make umeboshi.
Q: You’ve interned for Chez Panisse and worked at Oakland’s Oliveto. From a chef’s perspective, what do you find interesting about shrubs?
A: It’s a natural way to have abundance in times of no abundance. Stone fruit can have a good year or a bad year for harvests. So preserving is the traditional way all over the world to utilize the abundance of the season. Also, our shrub came out as part of the Japanese philosophy of eating everything from head to toe, root to flower. Don’t throw anything away, when it’s still tasty!
Ayako Iino, owner of Yumé Boshi, crushes a bowl of cinnamon while working at an Oakland communal kitchen creating her products. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)
Q: Where do you get your plums?
A: They come from the Central Valley, grown organically by a Japanese-American family. There’s a very short window of harvesting from late May to early June. The popularity of these plums is slowly rising, so the cost is rising as well. Ten years ago, nobody wanted to buy this very sour, you-can’t-eat-it-raw plum, but now they do.
Q: Have shrubs led you in any fun culinary directions?
A: I’m branching out from my versions of Japanese preserved fruit to interesting savory foods. I’m working on an umeboshi and shiso dressing, a chai tea mix and also a Japanese curry paste.
Details: Yumé Boshi shrubs ($23 for 12.7 ounces) are sold at Berkeley Bowl, Preserved, Rainbow Grocery Cooperative and the Kensington Sunday farmers market and online at yumeboshiplum.com.
Dafna Kory, owner, INNA
Q: What was your introduction to shrubs?
A: I started as a jam maker, and the shrubs came about as a way to use up all the scraps from fruit. It turned out great. The funny thing is now, we make so much shrub, we don’t use scraps anymore. We source fruit from farmers now to make the shrub, mostly from within a 200-mile radius. We live in a fruit basket here, so that’s enough to fill our shelves quite well.
Q: What are some of your favorite uses for shrub?
A: It is essentially a beverage concentrate, so all the fun things are probably going to end up being drinks. I think people really enjoy having shrubs as a nonalcoholic alternative, when there’s a lot of drinking going on at parties. Also, it’s really good for cocktails.
Q: Any advice for people who want to get into shrub-making?
A: My advice for making shrub — or any fruit-preserving project – is to start with a very small batch. Experiment on a small scale, so you can learn from the process and see what changes you want to make. It’s more fun and less stressful, because you don’t have huge bubbling vats.
Also, what you put in is what you get out. Use good ingredients with good flavor, because if the fruit or herbs don’t taste great (on their own), it won’t taste good at the end. Mint is popular, but if you like rose geranium or thyme, follow your palate and experiment.
Details: INNA shrubs ($17 for 12.7 ounces) are sold at the company’s kitchen at 1307 61st St., Emeryville, at stores like Berkeley Bowl West, Market Hall Foods, Monterey Market and Preserved, and online at innajam.com.
Ruby Grapefruit Shrub Paloma
This cocktail is a personal favorite of Kory’s. It uses INNA’s Marsh Ruby grapefruit shrub, which is sweet and slightly bitter from pink-grapefruit zest.
This Paloma cocktail is a personal favorite of Dafna Kory, owner of shrub and jam-making business INNA in Emeryville. It uses INNA’s Marsh Ruby grapefruit shrub. (Molly DeCoudreaux Photography)
Serves one
INGREDIENTS
1.5 oz silver tequila
1 oz INNA Marsh Ruby grapefruit shrub
4 oz sparkling water
Slice of grapefruit or sprig of rosemary, cut on the end to release the scent
DIRECTIONS
Add ice, grapefruit shrub and tequila to a glass, stir to chill. Top the glass with sparkling water, stir to mix, add the garnish of your choice and enjoy.
– Courtesy of Dafna Kory of INNA, innajam.com
Simple Shrub Refresher
This easy-to-make mocktail highlights the unique flavor of Japanese ume plums.
INGREDIENTS
Yumé Boshi shrub (any flavor)
Sparkling or plain water
A glass of ume and California citrus shrub created by Ayako Iino owner of Yumé Boshi in Oakland, Calif., on Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)
DIRECTIONS
Mix one part shrub with 8 to 10 parts sparkling or plain water. Stir together and pour over ice. For a more concentrated version, use one part shrub with 4 to 6 parts sparkling or plain water, stir together and pour over ice.
– Courtesy of Ayako Iino of Yumé Boshi, yumeboshiplum.com