Rhubarb Vanilla Soda

After making the rhubarb jam, I had extra rhubarb leftover. I had the Put 'em Up book checked out from the library and the rhubarb soda recipe caught my eye. I had enough to double the batch, so I chopped and boiled and mixed and ended up with these pretty pink containers of syrup.

After the mixture reduces, the solids are strained out.

A goopy green mess is left behind.

It was easy enough to make and since I am smitten with ginger syrup and love rhubarb, I figured this would be a tasty, refreshing treat. Turns out that I think it is a bit off putting. We tried it mixed with seltzer water and it tasted sour without much else coming through. I tried it by itself to see if I just didn't like the seltzer combo. It baffles me that rhubarb, sugar and vanilla can yield such a questionable flavor. I think the best way to drink this is to just mix it with water and ice, but I am still not sure I like it.

However, I do want to say that Put 'em Up is a fun book. After I checked it out from the library, I paged through it to see what recipes I would be interested in making. By the time I got to the end of the book, I had a ridiculous amount of post-it notes sticking out of the sides. I like that this book is organized by ingredient so if you have extra rhubarb, you can go the rhubarb section for ideas. I plan to add it to my collection someday, I'll just skip over the Rhubarb Soda recipe in the future.