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The Dry Pour August 11, 2026

Home / Learn / Recipes & Mocktails / From Scratch / Real Grenadine

Real Grenadine

Pomegranate and sugar, gently reduced — nothing like the bright red syrup that gave it a bad name.

beClink Editorial · August 11, 2026

15 minTotal
16Serves
70Calories
Homemade grenadine in a swing-top bottle on a grey cloth, with a whole pomegranate and cut wedges showing the seeds.

Grenadine has a worse reputation than it deserves, and the reason is that most people have only met the neon version — corn syrup, red dye and an idea of cherry. The real thing is pomegranate — tart, deep, and colored by fruit rather than by dye. It takes fifteen minutes, it changes what a Shirley Temple is, and once you have made it the difference is not subtle.

Recipe

Ingredients

  • 250 mlPomegranate juice, unsweetened
  • 250 gWhite sugar
  • 1 tspFresh lemon juice
  • 1 tspOrange flower water (optional)

Steps

Bottle or jar · None

  1. Warm juice and sugar. Put the pomegranate juice and sugar in a pan over a low heat.
  2. Dissolve, below a simmer. Stir until the sugar dissolves completely. Keep it below a simmer — pomegranate turns dull and jammy if you boil it, and the fresh tartness is the whole point.
    Tip: Boiling makes it dull and jammy.
  3. Add lemon. Once clear, take it off the heat and stir in the lemon juice.
  4. Add orange flower water. Add the orange flower water if you are using it. A teaspoon is plenty; it is the note that makes bought grenadine taste like a bar rather than a kitchen.
    Tip: A teaspoon is plenty.
  5. Cool and bottle. Cool completely and bottle. Refrigerate.

Per drink: about 70 calories and 18 g sugar. Estimated from the bottle's label and USDA data.

Make it yours

Reduce the juice first

Simmer the juice alone to two-thirds before adding sugar. Darker, more concentrated, and worth the extra ten minutes.

Add molasses

A teaspoon. Takes it toward the older style, which used pomegranate molasses rather than juice.

A strip of orange peel

In as it cools, out before bottling. Gives the citrus lift that the orange flower water does differently.

A clove or two

Steeped as it cools. Very good in anything served warm or at Christmas.

A Shirley Temple

15ml in the bottom of a tall glass of ice, topped with ginger ale, a squeeze of lemon and a cherry.

With sparkling

A spoonful under non-alcoholic sparkling wine. The color alone does most of the work.

Over soda and lime

The simplest use and the one that shows what you have made. No other flavor to hide behind.

Common questions

Does grenadine contain alcohol?

Properly made grenadine is pomegranate juice and sugar, with none at all. Some commercial versions use a small amount as a preservative, so the label is worth a glance if that matters to you — but the ingredient itself has never been an alcoholic one.

Why is mine not bright red?

Because the neon version is dye. Real grenadine takes its color from the juice, so it lands somewhere in the red to deep ruby range depending on the pomegranate — richer and less uniform than the bottled kind, and it will look darker in the bottle than it does in a glass with ice and light behind it.

How long does it keep?

About a month refrigerated in a clean sealed bottle. The sugar does the preserving, so a version reduced further will keep longer. If it ferments it will fizz faintly when you open it — start again at that point.

Is orange flower water necessary?

No, and plenty of good grenadine has never seen any. But it is the note most people are unknowingly expecting, because the classic bar version carries it — add a teaspoon and the syrup tastes more like the thing you had in mind.

What can I use grenadine in?

A Shirley Temple, a berry margarita, a berry grenadine mocktail, or a spoonful over soda and lime.

Can I buy a good grenadine instead?

Yes. Look for one made from pomegranate, such as Giffard's, rather than corn syrup and red dye.

How to serve & pair

Not a drink on its own — it is too intense — but it makes several. Keep it in a small bottle, use it in spoonfuls rather than measures, and expect it to look richer and less even than the bottled kind.

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