An Easy Rhubarb Cocktail Syrup Upgrades the Gimlet and More

In case you haven’t heard, it’s rhubarb season. The vegetable’s pink stalks are among the most recognizable harbingers of spring, with its bountiful produce, and a magnet for drink creators everywhere. If your Instagram feed is anything like ours, it’s difficult to escape the blush-hued cocktails popping up on seasonal menus the world over. 

There’s the force-carbonated rhubarb Margarita from Lab 22 in Cardiff, Wales; the Champagne Rhubarb Gimlet made with fermented rhubarb wine from Little Mercies in London; Sauced, a clarified rhubarb-infused rum cocktail created by Nico de Soto for a pop-up in Toronto; and the Serpenti, from Humain in Athens, Greece, which calls on both a rotovap and a centrifuge in the making of the clarified drink with gin, rhubarb and goat cheese, to name a few.

But you might’ve also come across a video from Jeffrey Morgenthaler, in which the Portland, Oregon, bar owner, educator and author offers his own technique for bringing rhubarb’s bright, tart, subtly vegetal flavor to cocktails at home. In its simplicity—no cooking, no high-tech equipment, ready in less than five minutes—the recipe offers an unbeatable approach to on-demand rhubarb flavor and doubles as an antidote to the dominant trend of prep-heavy cocktails. 

“I was inspired to make that video after seeing so much high-concept stuff out there from my peers and colleagues,” explains Morgenthaler, whose approach to drink-making has always favored simplicity, though never at the expense of quality. 

Putting his recipe to the test, the Punch staff made a batch of his syrup. True to his claim, it was ready in less than five minutes with its signature pink hue, which doesn’t fade as it sits in the fridge. We threw it into a Gimlet in lieu of simple, where it brought not only an appetizing pop of color, but also a subtle fruit flavor and a lingering, pleasantly bitter finish. But its applications are far wider-reaching than just the gin sour. As Morgenthaler explains, “The syrup is great in anything that calls for a solid glug of simple syrup.” While it might not fare too well in an Old-Fashioned, where its delicate flavor would be overpowered by the spirit-forward build, many classic constructions are fair game. “A Tom Collins? Whiskey Sour? French 75?” says Morgenthaler. “Anything like that is super awesome with that rhubarb syrup.”