A strawberry rhubarb spritzer starts out with a simple recipe for strawberry rhubarb syrup. To be honest, it’s a syrup you could use for more than just making spritzer. I can imagine it being wonderful over vanilla ice cream, pancakes and especially in a glass of prosecco wine, or champagne, if you prefer!
I found this recipe in a wonderful German cookbook we got last year as a wedding gift. Yes, I really did request cookbooks when folks asked. Anyway, I was perusing my cookbooks trying to figure out what to do with the annual bounty of fresh rhubarb I get from my In-Laws. The recipe I found was for rhubarb syrup, with a suggestion to use it for spritzers, or Schorlen. I decided to alter the recipe a little by adding strawberries to naturally sweeten up the taste. It’s my experience that North Americans have a sweeter tooth than most Germans. If you’re like me and love tart flavours, you can omit the strawberries all together, if you want. Either way, a strawberry rhubarb spritzer makes for a delicious springtime drink!
Rhubarb Spritzer (Rhabarberschorle) is more of a thing in Northern Germany than it is in Southern Germany. I just didn’t realize it until I started researching it as I’d never had one until now. It’s a drink that can sometimes be found on the menus of little cafes or restaurants or you can buy it already bottled, like from this company, the Lütauer Mosterei. Mosterei is the German word for a company that makes and sells pressed juices.
From now on I’m going to keep an eye out for Rhubarb Spritzer (Rhabarberschorle) next time I’m in Germany during the warmer months. I hope you’ll forgive me for deviating again from my goal of focusing on Franconian and Bavarian foods, but I really wanted to share this recipe with you. It’s just so tasty!
Strawberry Rhubarb Spritzer
(Erdbeer-Rharbarberschorle)
Ingredients:
Syrup:
- 6 oz of Chopped Strawberries
- 5.5 oz of Sliced Rhubarb
- 1/2 cup of Water
- 1 cup and 1tbsp of Sugar
- 3 + 1/4 teaspoons of Vanilla Extract (or 1.5 tablespoons of Vanilla Sugar)
- 1/8 cup of Lemon Juice
This makes approximately 1 + 1/4 cups of syrup. The recipe can easily be doubled if you need more.
Spritzer:
- 1/4 cup of Strawberry Rhubarb Syrup
- 12 oz of Mineral Water
Metric conversion from grams to ounces is sometimes a little tricky. If you want to be exact, you need 11.5 oz of fruit & veggies (rhubarb is a vegetable). I’ve weighed it more in favour of the strawberries due to their sweeter taste, but you can decide what works best for your taste buds. Also, if you round up to an even 12 oz, that’s okay too. When the syrup is in it’s final cooking stage, you can taste it to decide if you need it sweeter or not.
This syrup does not have a long shelf life. Keep it refrigerated and plan to use it up within a week or two.
You can use any carbonated water for this, but mineral water is the best! Look for San Pellegrino or Perrier in the States.
Let’s get started with our syrup!
Slice up your rhubarb. Doesn’t need to be even or anything fancy. It softens up very quickly.
Chop up the strawberries smaller than the rhubarb. They take longer to soften up.
Place everything in a medium sauce pan with the 1/2 cup of water.
Bring to a boil and then reduce the heat to medium. Let it cook for 10 minutes. Stir occasionally to help break it down.
After 10 minutes, it should look something like this. If it doesn’t, you likely just need to stir a little more. It should be super soft at this point.
Place a fine mesh strainer over a medium or large bowl and pour the strawberry rhubarb mush in it.
With a the backside of a ladle, press out as much liquid as you can. Don’t worry about getting every last drop, though, or you’ll end up with a lot of foam.
It should look something like this when you’re done. Perfect for the composting!
As you can see, I got a little overzealous with the ladle, so that’s why there’s a lot of foam. It doesn’t really hurt anything, though.
Pour the liquid back into the medium sauce pan. You can do it through the strainer or just straight into the pot.
Add the sugar, vanilla extract and lemon juice.
Cook on medium low for another 5 minutes to dissolve the sugar. Stir often!
After a couple of minutes, taste it to see if it’s sweet enough for you. If not, just add more sugar.
I pour the syrup straight into a canning jar with a reusable lid and let it cool on the counter.
Look at the gorgeous, ruby red colour! I don’t know about you but I’m trying this syrup over pancakes at least once.
Making the strawberry rhubarb spritzer is really easy. You just add enough syrup to the mineral water until you like it!
If you want a guideline, I added 1/4 of a cup of syrup to these glasses and there was about 12 oz of mineral water in each.
Here’s one last suggestion – If you add a finger or three or vodka, it makes for an excellent, easy-going evening cocktail.
Hope you enjoy your springtime strawberry rhubarb spritzer, my friends.
Bottoms up!
As always,
und Alles Liebe,
Diony
Strawberry Rhubarb Spritzer
Ingredients
Syrup
- 6 oz of Chopped Strawberries
- 5.5 oz of Sliced Rhubarb
- 1/2 cup of Water
- 1 cup and 1tbsp of Sugar
- 3 + 1/4 teaspoons of Vanilla Extract or 1.5 tablespoons of Vanilla Sugar
- 1/8 cup of Lemon Juice
Spritzer
- 1/4 cup of Strawberry Rhubarb Syrup
- 12 oz of Mineral Water
Instructions
-
Wash, clean and slice up the rhubarb. Wash, dehull and chop up the strawberries into small pieces. Place both into a medium sauce pan with 1/2 cup of water. Bring to a boil and than reduce the heat to medium. Cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until everything becomes very soft.
-
Place a fine mesh sieve onto a medium bowl. Pour the strawberry rhubarb mush into it. With the back of a ladle, press the liquid out of the fruit & vegetable mush. Discard leftover solids.
-
Pour the liquid back into the medium sauce pan. Add sugar, vanilla extract and lemon juice. Cook on medium low for 5 minutes, stirring often, until sugar is dissolved. Taste as it cooks to see if it's sweet enough for you. Enjoy!
Recipe Notes
This makes approximately 1 + 1/4 cups of syrup. The recipe can easily be doubled if you need more.
The syrup does not have a long shelf life. Keep it cool in the fridge and plan to use it up within a week or two.
Adapted from Homemade! Das Goldene von GU
Rhabarberschorle is one of my very favourite summer drinks! 🙂 There are plenty of them round here, so I guess it’s not just in the north any more – though in the Rheingau we’re hardly southern 😉 I ask for recipe books too, so you’re not alone; am going to check out the one this recipe comes from, thanks for the recommendation!
Oh yay! It’s great to know more about where to find Rharbarberschorle in Germany. I could more accurately say that just because I’ve never seen it while there doesn’t mean it can’t be found in Franconia. I highly recommend that recipe book. It’s just a treasure trove of homemade recipes from jams and syrups to broths and bread. Thanks for popping by with a comment!