The Recipe Card

Chai Apple Shrub

Apple-picking meets the spice tin.

• chai apple shrub1.5
• sparkling water4
• ice

1. 1.The Spice Simmer. Chopped apples, sugar, cider vinegar, and the whole spice crew — cardamom pods, cinnamon stick, ginger coins, cloves — into the pot cold, then up to the barest bubble for twelve minutes. Lazy is correct.
2. 2.Cool, Strain, Bottle. Off the heat, covered, twenty minutes to finish extracting on the way down — then strain, bottle, and chill. It keeps a month, in theory.
3. 3.Build over a Big Cube. Shrub poured slowly over one large cube — one cube melts slow and keeps the drink honest all evening.
4. 4.Crown with Bubbles. Sparkling water down the side of the glass, a dried apple slice, and the cinnamon stick riding along as the stirrer.

Shrubs · Rocks · A dried apple slice and a cinnamon stick