Cocktails with Rhubarb syrup
Rhubarb syrup is a sweetener of rhubarb juice or a stalk infusion with sugar.
Substitutes for Rhubarb syrup
Syrup cooked from fresh stalks is the direct swap, one for one. Without rhubarb, a light tart-fruit syrup — apple or strawberry — with a squeeze of lemon reaches the same place from a different direction.
Often confused with
Rhubarb leaves
Only the stalks are used. The leaves carry enough oxalic acid to be genuinely toxic and never go into food or drink, which is worth knowing if you are cooking your own syrup.
Rhubarb bitters
Dashed and dry, it carries the vegetal note without the sugar, and useful in a spirit-forward build that syrup would sweeten too far.
Storage
Sealed it lasts months. Homemade keeps a fortnight chilled and clouds as it goes. Rhubarb syrup made at home is often pinker on day one than on day five, since the color leaches out under acid.
