Did you know this a thing you can do? You can make it yourself! I thought it was just a nebulous thing that exists in the universe on its own and is impossible to make at home, like ranch dressing or televisions. Now you can get out from under the tyranny of the Rose’s Corporation, finally!

First, you want to get yourself some pomegranates. Since this was an experiment in the name of science, (i.e. a very slow night at work), we only bought one, to see what the world of home grenadine production is like. We obtained about 7.5 ounces of juice from our one pomegranate, so use that as a baseline to determine how much of the rich red stuff you need.

Wash off the outside and cut that fucker in two!

You can use a hand juicer, but we opted for a more efficient muddling method, using a fine mesh strainer to filter out the seeds and pulp and such. Some good muddling and straining later, we had our nearly half a pint of fresh pomegranate juice.

Note that this will make your kitchen look like a crime scene. I would recommend against wearing white.

Now you’ve got all this juice. What to do, what to do? Why, take an equal amount of sugar and mix it in! Use superfine sugar, but not powdered or confectioner’s sugar. Regular sugar’s granules are too large and won’t dissolve properly into the mix, and powdered sugar has cornstarch which makes the grenadine a bit wonky. I recommend the old fashion Boston shaker method of mixing, but I’m old school. You can probably just use a blender or a food processor or whatever.

Once it’s nicely mixed, you’ve got your own grenadine! Pour it into an appropriate vessel (I like to keep old, washed small wine bottles at home, for just this purpose), and get ready to serve it up.

This concoction should last in the fridge about a week. If you’ve made a larger batch, or don’t guzzle down Shirley Temples like an eight year old at a wedding with an open bar, you can add in a half ounce of vodka per 8 ounces of grenadine, to act as a preservative. (Note that this makes it less kid-friendly). And now you’re ready to go! Find yourself some drinks that use grenadine and mix away!

How does it taste? Well, it’s sweet. Obviously. It’s a little more syrupy than store bought grenadine, but the fresh flavor does give it a bit of a better taste. We squoze in a bit of fresh orange to give it a nice citrusy tang too. Tasting it side by side with the Rose’s grenadine, it made me realize that there is a fair bit of pomegranate flavor in the store-bought that I didn’t recognize before. While it may cost a bit more than grenadine off the shelf, having freshly made stuff is tastier and gives your cocktails a bit of cachet value when mixing for friends. Mmmm good.