Why Siren Shrub Wants You to Drink Your Vinegar

Siren Shrub founders Mindy McCord and Layne Cozzolino

Friends and former co-workers Mindy McCord and Layne Cozzolino were deeply steeped in the local food movement - making pickles and ferments in their kitchens to sell at local farmers markets - when Layne became pregnant with her first child in 2016. Looking for an alternative to alcohol, Cozzolino came across an old recipe for a shrub. She and McCord were intrigued but also incredulous that they had never even heard of shrubs. They quickly realized that shrubs - with their bright colors, complex flavors and vinegary tang - could be both a sophisticated mixer and a satisfying alternative for those abstaining from alcohol. That realization inspired them to launch their company Siren Shrub.

If you think of a shrub as a small, woody plant, you are missing out on a refreshing, and highly pedigreed drink that holds appeal for drinkers and non-drinkers alike and is experiencing a resurgence thanks to makers like McCord and Cozzolino. For those in the know, a shrub is not just the bush in front of your house, but rather a traditional beverage that dates to colonial times. Its formula combines vinegar, fresh produce - like a fruit, herb or vegetable - and a sweetener because, well, vinegar. As for the somewhat confusing name, it comes from the Arabic word sharāb, which means “to drink.” They are also known as drinking vinegars. As well as a preservative, vinegar has also had a long history as a health tonic.

Sweetening up to Siren Shrub

Siren Shrub

Based in Stevens Point, a college town in central Wisconsin, Siren Shrub makes both ready-to drink shrubs in cans and bottled shrub concentrates for home mixologists to use, a splash at a time, in their cocktails and mocktails. The shrubs contain the simplest of ingredients: organic apple cider vinegar, cane sugar or maple syrup, and fresh fruits, roots and herbs that are sourced from nearby Wisconsin family farms. With flavors like Door County Tart Cherry, Basil, Lemongrass and the brand-new Jalapeño Lime, as well as limited release, seasonal collaborations like Currant and Blueberry Mint, Siren Shrub has a drinking vinegar to fit every season and mood.

But it can be hard to convince people that drinking vinegar is something they want to do especially when most people still do not know what a shrub is. “When we are out in the world sampling, the first question we ask is ‘have you ever heard of a shrub?’ The answer is typically ‘no,’” says McCord. “It’s an education-heavy product,” concurs Cozzolino. “When we first introduce people to the concept, they’re intrigued but also maybe question whether they want to drink vinegar.”

Siren Shrub cans

Of course, acidity in cocktails is nothing new. While people may be more comfortable getting that sour flavor from citrus juice than from vinegar, once they sample one of Siren Shrub’s concoctions, they begin to understand the appeal. “What people quickly discover is that [the vinegar] brings this adult flavor forward. It doesn’t taste like a soda or a sugary beverage. You have that tang and complexity from the vinegar and that is a new experience,” says Cozzolino. “The simplest way to think about [a shrub] is like a tangy simple syrup,” adds McCord.

Still, some people remain skeptical. “We acknowledge that vinegar is a feeling word,” says McCord. “And we try to help people through that.” Vinegar, of course, contains a spectrum of flavors, from sharper to sweeter. With naturally sweet apple cider vinegar as the base, Siren Shrub’s products don’t taste “like you’re drinking pickle juice,” chuckles Cozzolino. But for some customers, “shrubs will always be a salad dressing,” acknowledges McCord. “And that’s okay. If vinegar is just savory in your mind, or not something you want to put in your beverages, shrub is still for you, just in a different way.”

Using Shrubs for Cooking and Baking

To that end, Siren Shrubs has a space on its website dedicated to cooking with shrubs including recipes for salads, marinades, condiments, and baked goods. “The sweetness and the sour, acidic nature [of the product] really does fantastic things to brighten up dishes,” points out Cozzolino. McCord and Cozzolino have even launched a new education component to their business called “At the Table with Siren Shrub Co.” During these hour-long virtual workshops, which take place on Tuesday nights, the partners demonstrate how to use shrubs in a variety of recipes in order to “get people to pull that bottle of shrub out of the fridge and use it,” says Cozzolino. (Can’t make it on Tuesday nights? The workshops are all recorded and participants can access the recording at any time.)

While shrubs have a long and storied history, the current moment seems to be tailor-made for these beverages, which appeal both to cocktail enthusiasts and to those in the growing N/A drinking movement. In the past, shrubs were a way to preserve seasonal produce. “When fruit was going to spoil, they would add a little bit of sugar and vinegar to it and then would strain out the solids to create a syrup,” explains Cozzolino. Shrubs were “used to make drinks in the public houses taste better - because the alcohol was still [low quality] - and then they also used it for hydration when working in the fields.” This last point is important because in an era when water was not always safe to drink, people knew that a beverage based on vinegar would not make them ill.

Shrubs fell out of favor with the advent of refrigeration, but these traditional beverages are trendy once again “with the resurgence of the craft cocktail and mindful drinking movements,” says McCord. Bridging the gap between those who drink and those who abstain - for whatever reason - is a large part of Siren Shrub’s mission. “Our mission is to create space at the table for everyone regardless of their drinking preference,” says McCord. “And we really feel strongly about advocating for inclusive drinking spaces without judgment.”

A Sophisticated Non Alcoholic Option

Siren Shrub drinks

The launch of Siren Shrub in 2016 coincided with the explosion of the current N/A movement and that fortuitous timing has been a large part of its success. “Shrubs do really well in the nonalcoholic section next to the N/A beers and mixers,” says McCord. For the partners, being a part of the spirit-free movement has been especially meaningful. “When we first launched shrubs we were thinking of it more in a cocktail sense - and some of that is just the Wisconsin drinking culture that we live in,” explains McCord. “Then we started to educate ourselves about the sober and sober-curious community and we dove into that. It impacted our brand but also our personal relationships with alcohol.”

Providing an appealing alternative to alcohol, that isn’t just soda, fills an important and much-needed niche in the market. “If you have a beautiful glass with a garnish and when you taste it, the cocktail experience comes through, whether or not there’s alcohol in [the drink,] you still have that same feeling and that’s what we are attracted to,” argues Cozzolino. “That is what real non-alcoholic cocktails are doing: changing the narrative that a drink has to have alcohol in it to be intriguing.” Vinegar-based drinks, like shrubs, provide the intrigue and complexity that sweet sodas and kiddie cocktails lack.

If you are convinced that you need the unique tang of a Siren Shrub in your life - whether as a mixer, an alternative to alcohol or even as a ingredient in your next recipe - the company’s products are available directly from their website or at one of the many stockists around the country.