Thursday, May 22, 2014

We're Back.

Hello again.

Well, that was an interesting couple of years.

In my time away, I have learned a lot more about making shrub and quite a bit more about myself and what I really wanted out of making shrub. Moreso, I discovered what I didn't want out of making shrub, and that was to be tied down as a commercial producer of one of my favorite beverages.

On the one hand, I have a lot of feelings of trying at something and not succeeding, which quite honestly kind of smarts a little. However, I also realized that I have done more with shrubs since I decided not to pursue it as a business than I have done since that whole endeavor began.

I forgot the real reason I love making shrubs was to experiment and be creative and share my knowledge with people. It's still amazing that shrub is that one beverage that is always just under the surface on every yearly trend list, but never quite becomes the next big thing, and it's equally puzzling that for all of the blogs about liquor, beer, coffee, tea, kombucha, and whatever else, that there are so few resources primarily devoted to shrub.

Which leads me to my unceremonious return to the blogging universe. I would like to take a revised approach to talking about shrub. For several posts, I almost exclusively talked about how I make shrub. While I think this will be a good topic of discussion and a creative springboard for others, I think that this new incarnation of Feel Like Making Shrub should take on shrubs in much the way other beverage blogs talk about their beverages of choice: as a living, breathing scene where people who love it can hear about new commercial shrubs or happenings with other people in the restaurant and bar industry who are just as in love with this magical drink as I am.

I know it's been a while, but hopefully this new version of the blog will take root and get people excited about the prospect of drinking vinegar once again.

If you have anything drinking vinegar related you'd like to see me cover, be it reviews of commercial products, or people involved with shrub who you'd like to see profiled, or even just more of my personal attempts at cranking out bizarre flavor experiments, I am enthusiastically waiting to hear what you, the reader wants to know about.

I left this blog seeking a wider recognition and perhaps a mild windfall, but the truth is that in the end, all of the kind comments and readers leaving inspired is worth a thousand commercial ventures.

Welcome back.

4 comments:

Muse of Doom said...

Woohoo! Welcome back to the blogosphere! You've been missed! I'm keen to know about whatever you're interested in, but recipes and flavor combinations especially.

-Kate

Alexander Kern said...

Thanks! I am looking forward to talking shrub again and sharing some new stuff with everyone.

The world of shrub is slowly growing, and I am also hoping to profile people who are helping to grow the craft.

Thanks again for the warm welcome back, I am excited to be back.

mjmunden said...

just found this, and schrub. I had a cocktail with a schrub base and had to learn more. please post process, recipes. What I am having most trouble with after my first batch with MI strawberries is ratio of spirits to schrub to soda water for coctails!

Alexander Kern said...

@mjmunden: Hi there! I hope you are enjoying the blog so far. It's been a slow restart, but I have put up a few recipes for things in the past couple of weeks, and I am hoping to do even more soon.

As always, let me know if you have any questions or if I can be of any assistance!