When we moved into our house five years ago, the only thing in the garden that seemed to have been purposefully planted by the previous owners, was a large crown of Victoria rhubarb. It was so well established that we didn’t want to risk moving it, so dug the flower bed around it, and it now grows alongside geraniums, forget-me-nots, alliums, and chives.

This arrangement is usually perfectly acceptable, and the plants grow beautifully together, but every Spring there’s a moment when it begins to dominate its surroundings. As it shoots back into life it sends out new growth with remarkable vigour, so that before I know it, our emerging perennials are struggling for light. When I noticed this last week I went out to clear some of the glossy leaves that were shading its neighbours, and picked over 5kg of stems!

As the temperature has finally started to noticeably rise, I decided to use my haul to experiment with recipes for a rhubarb soda. I don’t usually drink fizzy drinks because they’re just too sugary, so wanted to create something a little more complex and refreshing than off-the-shelf versions. The resulting recipe has a lovely balance of tartness and sweetness and gentle warmth from the spices. It’s lovely on its own, but also works beautifully in a variety of cocktails in place of ginger ale – recipes for a Spiced Rhubarb Gin Fizz and a Rhubarb Dark & Stormy will be coming soon.

I used coconut sugar in my own recipe as it’s considered to be healthier than refined cane sugar, but if it’s a step too far (or simply too expensive), you can easily substitute it with golden caster sugar.

If you force your rhubarb (grow it under a cloche to reduce light) the stems will be pinker and milder, and the colour of the syrup will be brighter. More mature stems have a stronger flavour, but are also much greener, so the hue won’t be as rosy. If you really want your syrup to shine a little dab of natural pink food colouring could be added.

Ingredients

1 kg rhubarb

A fat piece of root ginger, approximately 10cm long

Juice of 2 large oranges

1 tsp ground ginger

2 star anise

1 stick of cinnamon

200ml water

100g coconut sugar or golden caster sugar

Soda Water

Method

1. Cut the rhubarb into pieces approximately 1cm thick, peel and roughly slice the root ginger, and place in a large heavy-bottomed saucepan or maslin pan. Add the juice of two large oranges, the spices and 100ml of water. Place on a medium heat and let the mixture gently come to a simmer, for about half an hour.
2. Remove the mixture from the heat and stir in your sugar of choice until completely dissolved. (This mixture will be diluted with sparkling water later, so don’t worry if it tastes too sweet here.)
3. Using either a jelly bag or cheesecloth (a pair of clean tights also works) strain your mixture into a clean jug or bowl. I like to let gravity do the work for me here, and let the syrup gradually drip through. This usually takes a couple of hours, but the resulting syrup is much clearer than if you squeeze the mixture through the cloth.
4. Pour your syrup into a sterilised bottle and store in the fridge for up to a week.
5. To serve, simply add three parts cold sparkling water to one part syrup, and enjoy.