Happy Digestion Mandarin Berry Shrub

September 3, 2024

Recipes

What in the world is a Shrub?

Well, it is a fruit and herb infused vinegar, also known as a drinking vinegar, that can also include a sweetener. It can be added to water for a refreshing drink, added to sparkling water for a fancy sort of mocktail, or sipped from a shot glass straight up.

Different forms of vinegar drinks and “shrubs” can be found all throughout history in many parts of the globe. There are examples of British and American sailors drinking what were then known as “switchels” at sea to prevent and treat scurvy and various other sicknesses. In the Nineteenth century, they were a common drink among field workers, in taverns, and in universities where college students got to mixing them with alcohol. One benefit of a vinegar containing drink on a ship or in times and places where clean water wasn’t always readily available are its antimicrobial and antiseptic properties.

This digestive shrub contains a refreshing mix of raspberries, blueberries and blackberries, mandarin oranges, cinnamon sticks, fresh ginger, licorice and slippery elm bark in apple cider vinegar to promote a healthy digestive tract. Sipping on some twenty minutes before you eat can get your body ready to digest and process the lovely meal that you worked so hard to prepare (or worked hard to bring home from somewhere else as the case may be). I am always surprised by what my kids will drink around here if I call it “juice” so try intensely diluting and sweetening with some extra raw honey for picky kiddos or skeptical grown folk.