Make your own local Northeastern Arnold Palmers with this tart and tea-like syrup, perfect for mixing into seltzer or cocktails on hot summer days. Harvest upright sumac berry clusters when they are a vibrant crimson, leaving plenty of fruit on each plant for the many birds who use sumac berries as a food source throughout the season.
Ingredients
- Sumac berry clusters
- Fresh rhubarb stalks, cut into 1-inch pieces
- Water
- Sugar
Instructions
Wash sumac berry clusters thoroughly.
Fill a large pot with cool water (approximately . gallon water per 6 clusters). Submerge sumac in water, agitating berries and crushing some with your fingers. Do not boil your infusion, as the sumac tea will become bitter.
Allow submerged berries to sit at room temperature for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Solution should be a lovely pink color. Strain through cheesecloth and set aside.
Place 1 cup chopped rhubarb per 2 cups water in a small pot. You will want 1 part sumac tea to 1 part rhubarb liquid, so gauge rhubarb according to your sumac harvest. Bring rhubarb and water to a boil and lower to a simmer for 15 minutes, crushing rhubarb slightly with a wooden spoon or potato masher as it simmers. Strain rhubarb from liquid using cheesecloth or a wire mesh strainer, preserving the liquid.
Measure your rhubarb liquid and sumac liquid and combine using a oneto- one ratio. Place mixture in a clean pot. Add 1 cup sugar per 1 cup liquid, gently heat mixture, stirring constantly until the sugar is completely dissolved. (Once again, do not boil or simmer the mixture, as the sumac will become bitter.)
Once sugar is completely dissolved, pour hot syrup into clean pint jars. Sumac rhubarb syrup will last in the fridge for several months and is a great addition to mixed alcoholic drinks, homemade soda and as a drizzle on pancakes or waffles.
