• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Home
  • About Me
    • Contact
  • Recipes
    • Recipes Visual Index
    • How to Make Ice Cream without an Ice Cream Maker
    • Kitchen Cheat Sheet
    • Kitchen & Pantry Essentials
  • Services
    • Contact
  • Shop

A Cookie Named Desire logo

Home - drinks - Pumpkin Shrubs

Published: Oct 24, 2016 · Modified: Aug 13, 2019 by Amanda Powell · Estimated time to read: About 3 minutes to read this article. · This post may contain affiliate links.

Pumpkin Shrubs

pumpkin shrubs logo

Sweet pumpkin, spicy ginger, and warming spices come together to create an irresistible glass of pumpkin shrubs. This deceptively simple drink is like fall in a glass; it’s perfect on its own or mixed with your favorite spirit. 

pumpkin shrubs are the perfect autumn drink

Today is one of the best days in autumn besides Halloween and Thanksgiving. Today is #virtualpumpkinparty day! This is the day that food bloggers from everywhere share a tasty pumpkin recipe for everyone to enjoy! This is the second year it’s been around and I’ve been waiting for it since the first one ended last year. And in case you were wondering, yes, I did realize when I made my short-lived pumpkin ban that I would need to make a pumpkin recipe for this. But since I knew I was joining in again before I made that ban, I considered it an exception to the rule. Not that it matter anymore that I broke my ban making pumpkin brioche and brown butter pumpkin chocolate chip cookies.

Pumpkin shrubs are the grown-up version of Harry Potter's pumpkin juice. Perfect on its own or in a cocktail

I have an obsession with shrubs. They are a drinking vinegar with a very long history in the world because of its health benefits. I started making my own at about the same time I started making my own kombucha. During the summer I had plans of sharing a few shrub recipes with you, but after being sick and moving, it completely slipped my mind. It wasn’t until I started brainstorming unique recipes to share for the virtual pumpkin party that I came up with the idea of making pumpkin shrubs. My original idea was making pumpkin fries, which I might still make one day. I’ve had that idea in my head and written down in my notebook since last year, so who knows when that’ll actually happen.

You will never have anything like pumpkin shrubs. Perfect as a cocktail with a splash of bourbon

I’ve never had anything like pumpkin shrubs before. If you’ve never felt like you really could pinpoint what the actual flavor of pumpkin is, this drink will show you just that. Sure, you can taste the ginger and spices and vinegar in the shrubs, but the taste of the pumpkin is unmistakable. I used my signature blend of pumpkin spices: ginger, cinnamon, and cardamom. They are my favorite and work especially well here in the pumpkin shrubs. Fresh ginger gives the shrubs a wonderful spiciness, while the cinnamon and cardamom gives it this really amazing warmth. Together, it is like pure fall in a glass.

Fall in a glass, you won't want anything else besides pumpkin shrubs

A sip of pumpkin shrubs will have you dancing in a pile of golden yellow and ruby red leaves in your infinity scarf and boots. It’s perfect to drink on its own, but you can also add a touch of sparkling water to dilute it a bit since it is a thicker drink. I personally love to use it in a cocktail. Personally, I love adding bourbon or even vodka. I have this maple infused bourbon in the house and it is really good with the pumpkin shrubs.

Enjoy pumpkin shrubs - its like fall in a glass

The best part about pumpkin shrubs is that it is a very simple process to make. It is simply a matter of mixing the ingredients together, waiting, and then straining out the juice.

Yield: approx 3 cups

Pumpkin Shrubs

Pumpkin Shrubs

Deliciously simple pumpkin shrubs is like drinking fall in a glass!

Prep Time 35 minutes
Total Time 35 minutes

Ingredients

  • 2 lbs 6 oz pumpkin puree*
  • 1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
  • 1 3/4 cups apple cider vinegar
  • 3 tablespoons freshly grated ginger
  • 1 tablespoon, plus 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 2 1/2 teaspoons ground cardamom

Instructions

  1. In a large bowl, mix together all the ingredients. Cover tightly and store in the refrigerator for 48 hours.
  2. Strain the juice from the pumpkin puree using a cheesecloth. For best results, strain the puree two or three times to get as much of the liquid from it.
  3. Pass the strained juice through the cheesecloth to ensure there are no bits of puree in the juice.
  4. Store the juice in an air tight container.

Notes

*If you are using fresh pumpkin, you will need to use a small pumpkin that is at least 3lbs in weight to get the amount you need. Gut and cut the pumpkin in half, then roast at 350 for about an hour. Scoop out the pumpkin inside and puree.

© Amanda Powell

You can find everyone’s tasty pumpkin recipes on Sara @ Cake Over Steak‘s and Aimee @ Twigg Studio‘s blogs!

pumpkin shrubs


About Amanda Powell

Baker, photographer, and sometimes world traveler behind A Cookie Named Desire. Obsessed with helping people live life sweetly with delicious food to share with the special people in your life and creating lasting memories.

Previous Post: « Chunky Monkey Coffee Creamer
Next Post: Apple Spice Cake with Cinnamon Frosting »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Liz @ Floating Kitchen says

    October 24, 2016 at 8:37 am

    GIRL! This is brilliant. I’ve only made shrubs with berries and never in a million years would have thought about using pumpkin. Super cool. And the color is FAB. Oh and you know I’m definitely adding bourbon!

    Reply
    • Amanda says

      October 24, 2016 at 1:04 pm

      I’ve only had it with berries too, but then I heard someone talking about tomato and cucumber shrubs, then I realized that you can really make shrubs with anything, so why not pumpkin? I tried it with a few different types of bourbon and rye, definitely see if you can use some maple bourbon because it was amazing together!

      Reply
  2. Aimee | Wallflower Kitchen says

    October 24, 2016 at 3:42 pm

    This sounds DELICIOUS and your photos are gorgeous. Love <3

    Reply
  3. Medha says

    October 24, 2016 at 6:29 pm

    Seriously gorgeous photos! These are so fun and I love the idea of making a pumpkin shrub- also the cardamom sounds so yum in there 🙂

    Reply
  4. heather (delicious not gorgeous) says

    October 24, 2016 at 7:23 pm

    i love the color of this!! and i’ve never had a shrub before, but kombucha (someone called it buch and said it like BOOCH the other day and it sounded very off to me even though it’s not that bizarre) is so refreshing that i bet this would be amazing.

    Reply
    • Amanda says

      October 26, 2016 at 9:42 am

      I totally call kombucha “booch” sometimes when I wanna feel like I am one of the cool kids haha. You will love shrubs, especially if you love kombucha! It’s sweeter and doesn’t have any carbonation, but it still has that bite to it.

      Reply
  5. Sarah | Well and Full says

    October 25, 2016 at 4:07 pm

    Maple bourbon + this shrub sounds FANTASTIC. I’ll be over in an hour to have some, okay? 😉

    Reply
    • Amanda says

      October 26, 2016 at 9:40 am

      Bring over some pumpkin hummus and it’s a deal!

      Reply
Newer Comments »

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Connect With Me!

  • Bloglovin
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter
Author Bio
Baker, photographer, and sometimes world traveler behind A Cookie Named Desire. Obsessed with ice cream and run-on sentences. Check out my bio for more information about me, or email [email protected] with questions!

Copyright © 2019 A Cookie Named Desire on the Brunch Pro Theme

×
  • Home
  • About Me
  • Contact
  • Recipes
  • Services
  • Store

Modern Mobile Menu Social icons

    • Bloglovin
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest