White Currant Shrub

Recommended The Bar-Tender's Guide by Jerry Thomas (1862, p.67) — Jerry Thomas 1862

1. Prepare the currants in a jar as for jelly and strain the juice.
2. Combine two quarts of the juice with a gallon of rum and two pounds of sugar.
3. Strain the mixture through a jelly-bag and bottle.

Nose

Light berry fruit and spirit sweetness lead the nose.

Palate

The palate is more spirit-driven than the water-mixed cherry shrub, but still defined by preserved fruit brightness and cordial sweetness.

Finish

It finishes fruity, mellow, and gently warming.

Summary

A bottled rum-and-fruit preparation that shows shrub moving toward liqueur and cordial territory.

White Currant Shrub helps broaden the shrub family beyond simple fruit syrup plus water service. In Thomas, shrubs can also be spirit-preserved bottlings with an obvious affinity to later house cordials and fruit liqueurs.

Filtration matters here because the finished shrub is meant for storage and measured later use. The cleaner the bottling, the more convincing the final serve will be.

Compared with Cherry Shrub, this version makes the family look more alcoholic, more concentrated, and closer to a bottled bar ingredient than to a ready-mixed summer refresher.

Recommended How to Mix Drinks; or, The Bon-Vivant's Companion by Jerry Thomas (1876, p.69) — Jerry Thomas 1876

1. Prepare the currants in a jar as for jelly and strain the juice.
2. Combine two quarts of the juice with a gallon of rum and two pounds of sugar.
3. Strain the mixture through a jelly-bag and bottle.

Nose

Light berry fruit and spirit sweetness lead the nose.

Palate

The palate is more spirit-driven than the water-mixed cherry shrub, but still defined by preserved fruit brightness and cordial sweetness.

Finish

It finishes fruity, mellow, and gently warming.

Summary

A bottled rum-and-fruit preparation that shows shrub moving toward liqueur and cordial territory.

White Currant Shrub helps broaden the shrub family beyond simple fruit syrup plus water service. In Thomas, shrubs can also be spirit-preserved bottlings with an obvious affinity to later house cordials and fruit liqueurs.

Filtration matters here because the finished shrub is meant for storage and measured later use. The cleaner the bottling, the more convincing the final serve will be.

Compared with Cherry Shrub, this version makes the family look more alcoholic, more concentrated, and closer to a bottled bar ingredient than to a ready-mixed summer refresher.