OT: grenadine

Hello Emery,

I'm puzzled. You have access to the internet, and didn't think to search for the answer?

] Hello Emery, ] ] > I wonder if any of our beverage experts can illuminate the mysteries ] > of Grenadine. ] > ] > My belief was that Grenadine is made from pomegranate syrup. But ] > the bottle of supposed Grenadine that Adele pulled from the closet, ] > with pictures of various red fruits on it, contains no pomegranate at ] > all. ] > She didn't buy my argument that this is the cheap stuff, a decent bar ] > grenadine (as used for cocktails) would indeed be based on the ] > afore mentioned juice.. ] > What think ye? ] ] I'm puzzled. You have access to the internet, and didn't think to search ] for the answer? ] ]

]

Hi Hal, and thanks for the courteous reply. I see from re-reading that my post was less than clear. Of course, I know what Grenadine per se is made from. I looked in the Oxford Companion to Food just to verify, which is naturally somewhat richer than wikipedia (an otherwise most useful resource).

My question is posed in the second part. We wonder whether that grenadine served in decent bars (I'll leave that definition open) contains the juice, or whether most is now based on other fruits.

No doubt an extensive web search on available brands will yield, after time, results that support either argument, to the satisfaction of neither party. Hence recourse to that most convenient and reliable of arbiters, afw.

I hope my reply serves in some measure to assuage your curiosity.

-E

P.S. Welcome to AFW. :)

I have been around many years, and I have never seen grenadine that contains pomegranate that was made in the US, although the old books say that grenadine is made from pomegranates. I have not checked to see what a Ritz bar uses.

What I am now using is "Vedrenne Grenadine Pomegranate Syrup" from France, made in Nuits-Saint-Georges. Notice the mention of pomegranate in the name. It has natural flavor and color and is not quite as flashy a red as the imitation stuff. It contains sugar, water, pomegranate extract, and citric acid. My guess is that true grenadine is much more expensive to make than the imitation stuff. Since you live in France, it sounds as if the imitation stuff is beng sold there also. Perhaps laws were never passed in the US and France to require that grenadine be made from pomegranates.

Reply to snipped-for-privacy@cwdjr.net .

] I have been around many years, and I have never seen grenadine that ] contains pomegranate that was made in the US, although the old books say ] that grenadine is made from pomegranates. I have not checked to see what ] a Ritz bar uses. ] ] What I am now using is "Vedrenne Grenadine Pomegranate Syrup" from ] France, made in Nuits-Saint-Georges. Notice the mention of pomegranate ] in the name. It has natural flavor and color and is not quite as flashy ] a red as the imitation stuff. It contains sugar, water, pomegranate ] extract, and citric acid. My guess is that true grenadine is much more ] expensive to make than the imitation stuff. Since you live in France, it ] sounds as if the imitation stuff is beng sold there also. Perhaps laws ] were never passed in the US and France to require that grenadine be made ] from pomegranates.

Hi CWDjr,

Thanks for the informed response. It seems there is an element of truth in both sides of the argument... Indeed there is the imitation stuff here, too, but I will take a look in a good "caviste" and see what they've got going.

-E

Emery Davis wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@address.com:

Hi Emery!

I think this is really a funny coincidence. When driving back home to Austria from our holiday in Burgundy a couple of weeks ago, my wife asked me to buy a bottle of grenadine in a huge supermarket in Belfort. She used to drink 'lait grenadine' a lot when she visited France as a child with her family. I rushed into the supermarket - we were already in a hurry -, tried to pass by the wine section (couldn't avoid realizing that they had four different Vin Jaunes and even a L'etoile :-)) and grabbed a medium priced sirup bottle with a big Grenadine logo. Back in the car after further inspection of the bottle I found out to my big amazement that the sirup contained all different kinds of red fruit but no pomegranate at all. My father in law who speaks French fluently was quite upset and went back to the counter and tried to clear up the mistery, but alas - because of the fact that I had left the receipt for the sirup at the cashier the woman responsible for reclamation wouldn't even talk with my father in law.

So now we are the proud owners of a bottle of grenadine that contains no pomegranate.

Sorry for the long story but I found it really funny that you made the same discovery :-) !

Regards, Robert

Funny, I bought some recently that probably has no red fruit at all, though it does say "natural and artificial flavors" (after corn syrup and citric acid). If it had anything good in it, they'd certainly say so.

[] ] So now we are the proud owners of a bottle of grenadine that ] contains no pomegranate. ]

Thanks for the great story Robert! The small world department never ceases to amaze...

-E