Healthy Herbal Sodas - It's Where It All Began + Blackberry, Grapefruit & Thyme Soda Recipe

Healthy Soda - It's Where It All Began + Recipe: Blackberry, Grapefruit & Thyme Shrub 

My grandfather, we called him Papa, and his two brothers made soda for a living for over 50 years near in Newburgh, New York along the Hudson River. Papa had a “little old Italian man", known for his extraordinary dowsing skills with a Witch Hazel branch, come and find where to put the well. They tapped into and old huge aquifer and never had to buy water for 50 years of business.

Now we all know soda is not a healthy thing in this day and age, but it was birthed from plant and fruit syrups mixed with water. My great grandmother would preserve by canning processes many juices from grapes and others fruits just for this refreshing and healthy drink in off season times. Carbonation was added later.

So with a grandfather in the soda business, all family homes were wove into the delivery system around the valley where we all lived. At any one time in our home, we had 40 cases of free soda from our Papa's company.

Take a guess at what we drank the most back then?

Yes, seltzer. Bubbly water.

Mixed with real fruit juices because they were so delicious and less sweet. The evolution to the far too sweet, chemical laden drinks of now is not a proud or pretty journey with what we have done as humans.

As my Papa aged, he and I spent more time in the garden and he basically kicked my grandmother out of the kitchen because he wanted to recreate the food from his Sicilian mother. My grandmother was a good baker and loved her new and less demanding role.

Papa grew up on a small 1/4 acre or less parcel of land in the city of Newburgh with 9 children, his grandparents and parents and various elderly aunts or uncles living with them too. Every square inch of land grew food for all these people. I loved walking along the tiny goat paths and under the trellised beans and tomatoes to the 2 fig trees we buried and unburied every year. They were family members to my family!

Fast forward to his time of thinking about retirement and trying to figure out things around his company. He moved to the garden and kitchen to learn new things and think more too. While in the gardens with him, he was learning new ways of allowing (or not, as he hacked at things because he wanted them to stay a certain size). I used to smile and say, "Papa they want to grow.". I was in college by then and loved hanging with him and I used to reprimand him for not teaching his children his native Italian language as we went about our business. He would share his deep concern for my future because social security was not organized well for my generation. And yes, he sure had that figured with valid concerns for future generations. 

One day back in the 1980s I said, "Hey Papa, I think you should start making flavored seltzers. The soda is too sweet and not so healthy." He waved his hand at me while we were digging to put in thousands of day lilies along the stream that my grandmother loved and muttered something in Italian that was loving but laced with a firm "no." I persisted with all the reasons why and how easy it would be and that it would "catch on Papa, I swear!"

He refused.

And look watch happened too to the seltzer world.

He also refused to bottle in plastic! He would bark, “Glass only. Plastic ruins the taste!” I was always happy about that. And look what's happened with that too.

He went on to liquidate the business and move into a very comfortable retirement in his 50s, which is somewhat rare nowadays as we have morphed into working for money well into the 70s for many. We have to be rebels in a faltering system to figure it out these days. Thankfully he and my grandmother both lived long and well into their 90s.

I miss him. The last time I saw him he held my youngest son Cyrus the day after he was born and we cried and laughed together on and off for hours holding him as we remembered many things and grieved the death of my grandmother 2 years prior. He was getting ready to go and did shortly after this.

Thank you for sharing this time with these memories for me. I decided to share a healthy soda recipe with you! One of many I've conjured in memory of my Papa.

I mix these syrups and shrubs with seltzer and say, "Here's to what you didn't have time for Papa because you did so much for us all."

I like to make small batches for the weekend treats these days and to change things up sometimes. Always remember that you can keep it so very simple with good fruit juices and seltzer. By favorite is organic grape juice, seltzer, a slice of lime and a splash of apple cider vineger, grapefruit juice or 2 squirts of a good bitters. So good!

Blackberry, Grapefruit & Thyme Syrup (Shrub)

INGREDIENTS Yield: just shy of 1 quart

• 8 -12 oz. blackberries (any berry works here so go ahead and use what you have)
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 grapefruit zested + squeezed juice (add juice at the end) – lemons, limes and oranges all work here too.
• 10 sprig fresh Thyme sprig – or 1 TB dried (mints, rosemary, sage, and all basils are another substitute here too)
• 2-3 thin slices, or more, of fresh ginger (optional but delicious too)
• 1 ½ cup raw honey, sugar, or agave
• 1 ½ cup apple cider vinegar

​

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. In a medium saucepan bring water, berries and grapefruit zest to just below a simmer where steam is rising.
2. Mash with a potato masher, back of a smooth, or muddler to release the blackberry juice.
3. Add sweetener of choice and vinegar and warm just until dissolved stirring constantly.
4. Add Thyme, stir, turn off the heat and put a lid on. Wait until warm to touch to room temp.
5. Add fresh Grapefruit juice, stir well and strain through a fine sieve.
6. Taste to adjust the sweet tangy flavor with more vinegar or sweetener.
7. Bottle in clean jars. Label with the date. Stores well in the refrigerator up to 2-3 months. (It will never last!)

NOTES:

• Enjoy 1-2 tablespoons mixed with seltzer for a refreshing healthy soda treat or warm water for instant tea.
• Straight off the spoon works too with early onset of feeling any viral or bacterial invasions or with sinus and lung congestion.
• Consider taking 1-2 teaspoons every 3-4 hours wand adding other boosting tinctures to drive the healing deeper.
• Boiling is is too hot for this preparation and kills many of the beneficial properties in the vinegar and honey so stay close to monitor while warming.
• Use organic ingredients as much as possible.
• Shrubs are an old preparation of juicy fruits, aromatic medicinal herbs, a sweetener and vinegar. This concentration gives some shelf life. Always refrigerate.
• Freezing summer fruits gives winter options that remind us of the summer time when it’s cold and they make lovely warm drinks for that time. PLUS the added vinegar supports resisting bugs that bite.

​
Enjoy. Much Love, Jen