Alcademics

For the month of December I'll be looking at the pomegranate and its use in cocktails, including in grenadine and in PAMA pomegranate liqueur, the sponsor of the project. Check out the information developed just for bartenders at PamaPros.com.

How to Remove Pomegranate Seeds

 It seems there are a few ways to remove the seeds from a pomegranate, a process that can leave one covered in clothing-staining red juice from head to toe.

The hard way seems to be manually as below. From what other people have said, using the bowl of water saves a lot of the mess.  The below advice comes from Chow.com.

1. Cut off the crown.
2. Gently scoop out some of the center white core with a spoon.
3. Score just through the outer rind, marking the fruit into quarters.
4. Place your thumb in the center of the core and gently pull apart the sections.
5. Peel away the white pith and discard.
6. Turn the skin inside out and pop out the seeds.
7. To separate the seeds from any remaining white pith, place sections of pomegranate in a bowl of cold water and gently swish around. The white pieces should float to the top while the seeds sink.

Another way that seems easier is shown in this video, also from Chow.com. You split the pomegranate in half then wack it with a stick. 

How to Make Grenadine

Making grenadine at home used to be a real pain the butt, until bottled pomegranate juice became a thing. Now it's shamefully easy.

The super short version is this: add equal parts pomegranate juice and sugar; shake until the sugar dissolves. Done. 

Should you want to complicate that, make your own pomegranate juice from actual pomegranates. 

Writer Paul Clarke compared a cold version as above with a stovetop heated version, and found their differences in cocktails not so dramatic.