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Bloody Mary, Daquiri & Martini with Homemade Tomato Shrub Syrup

Bloody Mary, Daquiri & Martini with Homemade Tomato Shrub Syrup
Home » Tomato Recipes » Bloody Mary, Daquiri & Martini with Homemade Tomato Shrub Syrup

Last year I smoked much of September’s heirloom tomato harvest, then froze them in freezer bags and used them in stews, sauces, and soups throughout the winter and spring.  This year I’m smoking the tomatoes again, but instead of freezing, I’m preserving them as “Shrub Syrups”. Here is a stellar Bloody Mary made with a tomato shrub syrup, with a bonus of two other cocktails using the tomato shrub.

Bloody Mary with ingredients laid out on window table.
Bloody Mary with tomato shrub syrup

Jump to: RECIPE | More Tomato Shrub Recipes

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Basics of a Shrub Syrup:

A shrub syrup is a concentrated syrup made of fruit, sugar and vinegar.  

There are various methods of extracting the juice from the fruit (i.e., cold shrubbing vs. hot shrubbing), but the easiest way to think of them is equal parts of the juiced fruit, the sugar and the vinegar, brought to a boil and strained.

If you want to get further into the details of making shrub syrups, check out these guidelines on ratios and methods of homemade shrub syrups.

Popular Uses of “Fruity” Shrub Syrups

Recently there has been a revival of shrub-based drinks, especially in the cocktail world.  Shrub syrups can take cocktails to new levels, adding depth and complexity to a drink, especially when bitters are added in.

For non-alcoholic drinks, the popularity of the SodaStream as a replacement for sweet carbonated beverages (i.e., soda pop) is the perfect foil for shrub syrups.  

No sodasteam?  Just add a few tablespoons of shrub syrups to any kind of fizzy water (club soda, sparkling water, tonic water, etc.) and you have a really nice way to get that much-needed water into your dehydrated body.  

Make it as sweet as you want and control the calorie count yourself  instead of the soda companies controlling it for you.

More Ways to Use Tomato Shrub Syrup

The Tomato shrub syrup doesn’t lend itself to Italian Sodas and Spritzers like the fruity shrub syrups. It is more commonly used as a salad dressing, a marinade or an addition to sauces.

There are however, some specific cocktails that are enhanced and made special with the Tomato shrub syrup. Here are 3 of my favorites:

The Tomato Martini

In a shaker of ice, combine:

  • 2 oz gin
  • 1/2 oz tomato shrub syrup
  • 1/2 oz. dry vermouth
  • 2 dashes bitters

Shake ingredients and strain into martini glass.  Garnish with cherry tomatoes and mozzarella balls.

Ingredients to make a tomato martini and a martini in a glass.
Ingredients for tomato martini

Don’t have time to make a homemade tomato shrub syrup? Try this tomato martini made with tomato water from your leftover harvest. It’s lighter and easier.

The Tomato Daquiri

Tomato & Smoked Cherry Shrub Daiquiri
Tomato & Cherry Shrub Daiquiri
  • 1 oz. Citron vodka
  • 1/2 oz. Effen Black Cherry Vodka
  • 1/2 oz. Smoked Cherry Shrub Syrup
  • 1 oz  Tomato Shrub Syrup
  • 2 dashes cherry bitters
  • 1/2 oz. fresh squeezed lime juice

In a shaker of ice add all of the above ingredients, shake and strain into glass.  Garnish with a lime wheel.

The Tomato Bloody Mary

See the recipe card below for the Signature Bloody Mary made with a tomato shrub syrup. Here are the ingredients laid out on a table:

Bloody Mary with ingredients laid out on window table.
Bloody Mary with tomato shrub syrup

Video of “how-to” make the Bloody Mary (plus a “behind the scene at our farm)

**Note:  The beginning of this video is a behind the scenes look at HeathGlen’s Farm.  If you want to go straight to the “how-to” on the Bloody Mary, skip to 1:00.

Smoked Tomato Shrub Martini
Watch this video on YouTube.
Watch the Step by Step Video for More Details

Tomato Bloody Mary

Bloody Mary with ingredients laid out on window table.
Use a tomato shrub syrup to add complexity to a tomato-based bloody mary
5 from 1 vote
Prep Time 10 minutes
Servings 1
Calories 238

Equipment

Ingredients

  • 3:1 ratio of sea salt to celery salt for rimming salt
  • Sprig of dill
  • 2-3 cherry tomatoes
  • 1 jalapenos Sliced crosswise
  • 3 Tbsp lime juice
  • 1 ½ oz. gin
  • 1 oz cucumber liqueur
  • 3 oz tomato shrub syrup
  • 2 dashes bitters

Instructions
 

  • Grind sea salt and celery salt together in a coffee grinder and place on a flat plate
    3:1 ratio of sea salt to celery salt
  • Rim a tall glass with a lime wedge and press it into the celery salt on the plate to form a salted rim
  • In a cocktail shaker muddle together the dill, cherry tomatoes, jalapenos and lime juice
    2-3 cherry tomatoes, 1 jalapenos, 3 Tbsp lime juice, Sprig of dill
  • Add to the shaker some ice, the gin, cucumber liqueur, smoked tomato syrup, and bitters
    1 1/2 oz. gin, 1 oz cucumber liqueur, 3 oz tomato shrub syrup, 2 dashes bitters
  • Add ice to rimmed glass. Shake the ingredients in the shaker for about 10 seconds and strain into the rimmed bloody mary glass.

Notes

To  make your own tomato shrub syrup, check out these guidelines for homemade shrub syrups
 

Nutrition

Calories: 238kcalCarbohydrates: 21gProtein: 1gFat: 0.2gSaturated Fat: 0.03gPolyunsaturated Fat: 0.1gMonounsaturated Fat: 0.02gSodium: 14mgPotassium: 357mgFiber: 1gSugar: 16gVitamin A: 722IUVitamin C: 53mgCalcium: 20mgIron: 1mg
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  1. […] See this post for more on how to use the Smoked Tomato Shrub Syrup in cocktails. […]

  2. An outstanding share! I have just forwarded this onto a friend who has been doing a little research on this.
    And he in fact ordered me dinner because I discovered it for
    him… lol. So let me reword this…. Thank YOU for the meal!!

    But yeah, thanks for spending the time to discuss this
    subject here on your blog.

  3. Cherry Jeffs says:

    A question! How do smoked tomatoes differ from sun-dried tomatoes, Dorothy?

    • Hi Cherry, The flavor is actually quite different between the two. Sun-dried tomatoes are preserved by drying the tomatoes (usually in a dehydrator) and they concentrate the fresh tomato sugars. Smoked tomatoes also dry the tomatoes, but only “after” they have been smoked over some sort of wood in a contained smoker. The flavor will have a smoky BBQ-type of flavor which is more complex and quite different than the taste of sun-dried tomatoes.

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