Homemade grenadine

Ingredients

• 250 ml pomegranate juice (2 large pomegranates)
• 250 g white sugar
• The juice of half a lemon
• 1 teaspoon orange blossom water (optional)
• 15 ml vodka, to preserve (optional)

Preparation

1. If you are starting from the fruit, seed the pomegranates and crush the seeds with a pestle or your hands over a sieve. Do not blitz them in a blender: the pips turn bitter and there is no way back from that flavour.
2. Strain the juice and measure it. Whatever you get, match it in sugar: 250 ml of juice, 250 g of sugar.
3. Heat both gently, stirring until the sugar disappears. No boiling, same as with simple syrup: boiling flattens the fresh fruit flavour and leaves a jammy taste behind.
4. Off the heat, add the lemon and, if using, the orange blossom water. The lemon is not decorative: pomegranate on its own is cloying, and the acidity is what makes it drinkable.
5. Let it cool and bottle it. With the splash of vodka it keeps a couple of months in the fridge; without it, about two weeks.