This sweet, fruity, tangy, floral Lavender Peach Shrub Syrup is simple to make and is a great way to use up bruised, overripe peaches. Mix with ice cold water for a refreshing, non-alcoholic summer drink, or with some vodka or tequila for a delicious cocktail, or with some champagne for a wonderful mimosa!
(PIN IT FOR LATER)
And just like that, summer is about to tap out. I’d like to say it was good while it lasted, but I won’t. This summer was extra hot and humid. But the prospect of summer fruits soon going on sale is something I’m very much looking forward to. 🙂 I love making cocktails with summer fruits whenever I get a chance, but to make sure those fruit last much longer, I like to preserve the flavors of summer with beautiful shrub syrups.
Shrubs (AKA drinking vinegar) have been my new obsession this summer. Recently, I shared this simple vanilla strawberry shrub syrup recipe that’s a great way to use up overripe strawberries and even used, empty vanilla pods. Today, I’m sharing the recipe for my Lavender Peach Shrub Syrup! It’s a beautiful medley of sweet, fruity, tangy, floral flavors and is just the most perfect drink to beat the summer heat!
What I really love about this recipe is that it has great staying power! I made an extra batch of this lavender peach shrub and it lasted for over a month in the fridge! It would’ve finished sooner, had my fridge not been stocked with half a dozen different shrub syrups (so expect a few more of those recipes in the future)!
Here are a couple of tips to make this lavender peach shrub syrup.
When you go to the grocery store, don’t avoid those peaches that are overripe. Give those mushy, bruised fruits a chance. Those extra sweet, overripe fruits work best for a shrub recipe.
Alternatively, if you have peaches in your pantry that have passed their firm, ripe stage – those are perfect for this lavender peach shrub syrup too!
And instead of peaches, you can use your favorite stone fruit too. Mr K would have voted for nectarines, and I wouldn’t have minded plums in place of those peaches. But you can just as easily make this shrub with apricots, white peaches, yellow nectarines, pluots or even cherries.
This lavender peach shrub syrup is truly exceptional. It’s great for the whole family too. Just mix it with ice cold water, or soda water for a healthier soda drink for your kids. Or for the adults, you can mix it with some vodka or tequila for a delicious cocktail (which is of course what I do), or better yet, mix it with some champagne for a wonderful mimosa!
It takes a little bit of time for this peach shrub syrup because it’s a cold shrub instead of a hot one, so it preserves those fresh fruit flavors much better (read my vanilla strawberry shrub post for more info on drinking vinegar and the cold vs hot method), but once mixed with apple cider vinegar (use unfiltered cider for a healthier option), it just gets better with age. Just make sure to store the shrub syrup in sterilized jars/bottles.
Shrub syrups are a great way to reduce food waste at home too!
Food waste is a really important topic for me. Every year, about one third of food produced worldwide (that’s 1.3 billion tonnes of food worth about US$ 1 trillion) gets lost or wasted! Those numbers are incomprehensible when you consider how much of the world suffers from acute malnutrition and hunger.
We have all been guilty food wastage at some point, and I have been making a conscious effort to eliminate it from our lives. This includes planning meals ahead and finding ways to preserve the food we do have. Plus, we are using more seasonal produce too.
That’s also why I believe in the cause of Action Against Hunger – a charity that helps raise funds for countless families in developing countries to provide critically needed nutrition to malnourished children. So this month, I am getting together with some of my awesome food blogging friends to raise funds for this cause.
We are blogging For Food, Against Hunger. We hope that we inspire you to plan ahead whenever you can, buy and eat in a way that minimizes food wastage. So don’t throw out those overripe fruits, there’s always a way to make use of them. Teach your kids how fortunate we are compared to many millions of kids around the world. And if you can, please do visit out fundraising page to donate whatever you can to help these children. Every penny makes a difference in the lives of these kids.
Here are some great ideas to preserve those summer fruits and reduce food wastage at home!
Jane from LittleSugarSnaps who is part of #ForFoodAgainstHunger made this amazing ROASTED STRAWBERRY SAUCE.
Tracy from Served from Scratch shared this fabulous guide to make Almond Milk AND WHAT WE CAN DO WITH THE PULP!
There are even more great ideas to use up and preserve overripe peaches, like this freezer peach jam, or even these peach and ginger popsicles.
- 1.5 lbs overripe, pitted peaches, cut into chunks
- 1.25 cups of granulated white sugar
- 3 tbsp dried culinary lavender
- 1.25 cups of good quality apple cider vinegar
- Chop the peaches into rough cubes and place them in a large glass dish (with a lid). Sprinkle the sugar and lavender on top and mix well with the peaches.
- Seal with the lid and refrigerate for about 2 days - allowing the fruit juices to be extracted by the sugar.
- Next, strain the fruit juices from the fruit chunks. There'll be undissolved sugar at the bottom of the dish (you will need this as well). To strain, transfer the fruit pieces on to a clean cheesecake cloth, and squeeze gently to release any extra juice stored in the fruits (do not squeeze out pulp). Add this juice back into the peach and sugar syrup in the dish and the settled sugar.
- Add the apple cider vinegar to the peach syrup. Mix well until the sugar dissolves.
- Strain through a very fine sieve into a sterilized glass bottle.
- You could use it immediately, but the vinegar taste will be more pronounced then. Leave the shrub for a few days (about 3 days) to let the vinegar flavor slowly mellow down - it will continue to mellow down the longer you keep it, until it reaches a nice balance between sweet and sour (usually about 5 days). Give the bottle a shake everyday, to ensure the shrub is mixing well with the vinegar.
- Mix the syrup with ice cold water or soda water or alcohol in a 1:2 ratio for a refreshing drink. Adjust to your preference. Enjoy!
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I’ll be sharing my recipe over at –
FoodieFriDIY | Friday Favorites | Fiesta Fridays | Saucy Saturdays
It’s SUPER hot and humid right now so this shrub syrup looks like the perfect gateway to a necessary summer cool-off!
Dini, I just love drinking vinegar. I had it for the first time at Pok Pok in Portland, and it is sooo refreshing! Love the flavors here of peach and lavender, you totally captured summer!