Alex Zweber,
Owner
What is a shrub?
"Bartender Alex Zweber is betting on his insider’s knowledge of the craze for creative cocktails. Zweber, of Minneapolis, launched Sharab Shrubs in 2016. He will begin selling three flavors of the vinegar-based cocktail mixers: strawberry, apple rosemary, and Asian pear with ginger and cinnamon.
Zweber worked with AURI Food Scientist Lolly Occhino to figure out the nutritional information and sugar content of his beverage. After fermenting fruit and sugar for several days, he strains out the solids and adds white vinegar or apple cider vinegar. Sharab Shrubs “work well in cooking and in drinks,” he says, “giving a bit of sugar, a bit of tang, and some fruit flavor.”
Zweber, a longtime bartender at Surdyk’s Flights in the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport, is up on craft cocktail trends. “I could see the need for a product like this in the market,” he says. He started experimenting with fruit and vinegar combinations at home. As word got around, liquor sales reps started asking him about shrubs." -Liz Morrison
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Shrubs date back in one form or another to the Middle East where in ancient Iran they made a drink called sekanjabin which was made from water, honey and vinegar. The word sharab, which is Arabic for drink, is where the words shrub, syrup, sherbet and sorbet all derive from.
What these drinks all had in common is that they all involved some form of fruit preservation, as back then there was no form of refrigeration. Fast forward to the 1700’s where colonial Americans would take vinegar and pour it over fruit and allow it macerate for days, afterwards straining off the solids and adding some form of sweetener.
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At Sharab Shrubs we offer a unique approach to shrubmaking by using a multi day cold press process to make sure that only the best flavors come out, which you’ll notice with every sip.
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Want more info on our shrubs?
Thank you for your interest in Sharab Shrubs ! If you would like to have our shrubs in your store, please fill out this form and we will contact you as soon as possible.
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