Grenadine Reviews
Finding grenadine syrup isn’t very hard, but you won’t likely find a decent one at your local grocery store, nor most restaurant supply companies. You may find good grenadine at specialty shops or online. But that leads to the question; Is there such a thing as good grenadine? I’d have to say yes there is, but for the most part they are all very sweet and bright red in colour. So depending on your application, you may decide which is right for your cocktails, because the flavours vary widely and so does the price. Most are artificially flavoured, some are all natural and some are in between.
In my previous post about grenadine syrup a couple of people comment that the use of grenadine is more about flavour than sweetening and colour, which is contrary to my views. One of the things I failed to mention is that most bars use grenadine that has no pomegranate juice in it. These generic brands of grenadine usually contain the following:
Ingredients: Liquid sugar, glucose, water, citric acid, artificial flavour, sodium benzoate, colour and traces of sulphites.
Please note that there is no mention of natural flavour or pomegranate. This would indicate to me that this is primarily a sweetener and colourant. Sure it does have some flavour, but it doesn’t seem to be the manufacturers primary concern. Most generic grenadine use vanilla as a flavour instead of pomegranate, which give you that cream soda flavour. Sure, there are some companies that are starting to use natural flavours and avoiding artificial colour, but they are the minority. Don’t get me wrong, I love the idea of all-natural products, but so many bars look at the bottom line before they look at the ingredient list.
In this round-up there are five grenadine, representing a good cross section of the market. Included are reviews of grocery store variety grenadine all the way to all natural grenadine and levels in between.
Fee Brothers American Beauty Grenadine
Deep red colour. Rich flavour, very sweet with good viscosity. Red fruit flavour, but doesn’t have the natural sourness of real pomegranate juice. More on Fee Brother’s Grenadine
Monin Grenadine Syrup
Bright red, sweet and sour flavour closer to real pomegranate juice than others in the round up. No artificial flavours. More on Monin Grenadine
Sonoma Syrup Company Grenadine
Light reddish brown in colour, excellent pomegranate flavour with hints of vanilla. Not as sweet as other grenadine. More on Sonoma Syrup Co. Grenadine
Trader Vic’s Grenadine
Bright red with a sweet flavour. Not as viscous as others like Fee’s and Chateau Thierry. Almost a cream soda flavour. More on Trader Vic’s Grenadine
Chateau Thierry Grenadine
Bright red, very sweet and viscous with a berry/vanilla like flavour.
Monin comes the closest to the flavour of real pomegranate juice. The Sonoma brand comes close, but it has a vanilla flavour that puts it on the edge. Fee Brother’s in good and has a decent flavour, but lacks in the acidity. Trader Vic’s is a basic grenadine. The Chateau Thierry was a baseline test on the super market brand grenadine. Very simple flavour, nothing special.
For cocktails that are dependent on quality ingredients, with cost not really a consideration, I’d pick the Sonoma or Monin. For bars that want an upgrade in the flavour department, but not cost, you can’t go wrong with Fee Brothers.
The one thing that tasting all of these grenadine syrups leaves you with is that there is a lot of sugar in them. Even though they have flavour, you’d only be able to use a small amount of grenadine in any well balanced cocktail, otherwise it would be just too sweet. After all that tasting I think I’ll go brush my teeth and take some insulin.
410 Comments on Grenadine Reviews
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Hm Darcy I am not so sure about some of your statements.
It is like sweet and sour mix - it is much cheaper then fresh squeezed juices - however it is a big NO in the bar!
So I would anytime check the more authentic products - doesn't matter what the current "behaviors" are...
You just should try Monin Pomegranate - if you taste it against Monin Grenadine it is eye opening! It is much darker, and has a really pungent-sour sting... much less sweet than the grenadine...
Can you get pomegranate concentrate? It is also worthy a try - and it is even healthy! And you can use it pure or you can flavor your own simple syrup with it...
I'm sooo glad you checked out the Sonoma Syrup Co. grenadine. The four syrups I've tried from them were all outstanding, but the grenadine, I thought, demanded a more creative approach than standard Rose's or or other grocery store brands. The powerful pomegranate flavor makes the syrup hard to use for the two most common partners of grenadine, coke and sprite. The Sonoma Shirley temple is passable, but foreign, but the Rob Roy it makes taste like wax. That isn't to say that the product lacks anything -- it's an excellent ingredient for any bar, just don't try to use it like the stuff that's been sitting in your well for years. Also, pretty please review Sonoma's Meyer Lemon Syrup. As much as you advocate making your own sour mix from scratch, that stuff tastes better than any bar sour i've ever had, and you only need like three drops to fully flavor any drink.
Dom, I'm not much of a believer that the world will change its tastes or ideals over night. Sadly, the majority of bars will still look at the bottom line when purchasing mixers. So, when I do a review I take a look at it from the stand point of the average bar and try to provide ideas on where they can make subtle improvements, not wholesale changes.
My preference is to have perfect cocktails everytime, using only fresh ingredients and quality spirits. But I realize that I'm probably only going to get that at a bar like yours or a few others.
Also Michael has a good point, true grenadine makes for unattractive cocktail colours and can throw people off when they taste it. Some people don't like change.
Darcy,
Have you tried adding any coloring to your homemade grenadine? I'll have to agree with previous comments that the flavor is more important to me than color. If not, why not just use red #4 in your simple syrup?
Rick,
At home a drink of any colour is fine, but behind the bar it is not. Think about going to a fine dining restaurant and the chef not caring about the plating and presentation of your meal. Bartenders need to care about presentation.
Just because something tastes better doesn't mean it will sell more, especially if it looks terrible. And sales drive business.
As for adding food colouring, I haven't tried it, but I should.
Okay, I'm confused. What's the difference between grenadine and pomegranate syrup? I have been using Monin's pomegranate syrup as grenadine.
Grenadine is a catch all term for pretty much any sweet red syrup flavoured with pomegranate or vanilla. Usually the flavour is artificial.
Pomegranate syrup is specifically pomegranate based, without other flavours. Sometimes it can be sweetened pomegranate molasses or concentrate.
When I want actual 'pom' taste, I have been really digging using pomegranate molasseses/ or sometimes just pomegranate syrup. You can find it at Mediterranean stores and it's so concentrated that you hardly have to use much all - so the price is actually pretty cheap. As mentioned before, it great since it's all natural pure sweetener.
It is however very dark, so difficult to use as a red coloring mixer.
I think you should include Angostura Brand Grenadine in the mix. I've found it to be a bright color and tart flavor and the closest to making it yourself. The only drawback, I believe, is it is not made with pure cane sugar.
Everybody talked about taste vs color...
Why not take homemade syrop and add some coloring in it? Best of the 2 world?