In Michigan, the first produce of the season is rhubarb. Mint is really the VERY first to come into season in my yard, but from the farm, it’s rhubarb.
I struggle to know what to do with rhubarb! I try to eat without wheat or sugar during the weekdays, so making rhubarb muffins or coffee cake or the one thousand other lovely baked goods that use rhubarb is not my first choice.
SO, the way we use rhubarb here at the Bolt kitchen is (SHOCKER!) in a cocktail! Rhubarb is a lovely way to make drinks pink, tart, and complex in taste without using complex or fake ingredients. I’ve been making this cocktail for years now, and it has glimpses of my Grandma Mildred’s rhubarb sauce: simmered on the stove and filled with lots of love and sweet-tart seasonal goodness, eaten as-is in steaming bowls after lunch on the farm. I realize that the cocktail syrup still has sugar, like those lovely rhubarb baked goods, but I guess this is how I will choose to go on a Lark this weekend—drinking my sugar rather than baking it!
What is your favorite way to use rhubarb?
Rhubarb Mojitos
Serves 20 (in 10 ounce rocks glass filled halfway with ice)
4 ½ c rhubarb syrup (recipe below)
3 ½ c white rum
1 c loosely packed mint leaves, plus more for garnish
5 c club soda
1 ½ c lime juice
16 lime wedges for garnish
Combine rhubarb syrup and rum in a gallon container, cover, and shake gently to combine.
Right before serving, add mint leaves, club soda, and lime wedges.
Pour over a glass of ice and sip some spring!
Rhubarb Syrup
Makes approximately 3 cups of syrup
9 cups chopped rhubarb (about 9 large stalks)
The zest and juice of 3 limes (juice reserved for later)
3 cups sugar
4 cups wate
Combine rhubarb, sugar, and water in a saucepan.
Zest the limes over this mixture in the saucepan so that you don’t leave out any of the lime oil while zesting.
Bring this mixture to a big boil, then turn heat down to a simmer, stirring occasionally for 20 minutes until the syrup is a bit thick.
Strain the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve into a large glass measuring container. (This straining will take a bit! Ladle a cup or two of pulp into a sieve and, with a wooden spoon, press on pulp until all liquid is gone. Start the process again, emptying pulp into another container so liquid can get through the mesh. Breathe deeply and take these minutes to CHILL.)
There will be approximately 5 cups of rhubarb syrup and 2 ½ cups of rhubarb pulp.
This recipe is fit for kids, too! Just combine 4 tablespoons rhubarb syrup with a few sprigs of mint, 4 tablespoons club soda, 1 tablespoon lime juice, and a lime wedge to have a DELICIOUS kiddie cocktail over ice!
Purchase Lark Cocktails, which features dozens of recipes just like this one!
