Spa Day
a little quiet luxuryCucumber · Mint · Lemon Verbena
Cool, refreshing, quietly sophisticated. Like being at the spa, minus the robe.
❧House PourGin and a large squeeze of lime.Make It a MocktailA little spa-day sparkle, served over ice.
The Shrubberry is the work of Jen Aquino, and it was a long time in the making. Jen was born and raised in Berkeley, California, home of the farm to table movement, in a family where everyone cooked. Her grandmother taught cooking school. Her mother and grandmother both trained at Le Cordon Bleu in France. Dinner was a family art form, and Jen grew up recording her grandparents' recipes to make sure none of them would ever be lost.
Math, science, and food. All three, always.
The career that followed connected all of it: a nutrition degree from Cal Poly, years developing everything from sauces to beverages at Mattson, the Bay Area's legendary food R&D house, a baking and pastry certification from the California Culinary Academy, leading a pastry station at La Farine, a personal chef practice in the East Bay, and eighteen years as an ingredient research scientist at Clif Bar, sourcing, evaluating, and qualifying new ingredients—from dark chocolate to exotic fruits—and exploring flavor development. Culinary craft on one side, real food science on the other, and a shrub is exactly where they meet: a centuries-old preservation technique, balanced by a scientist, flavored by a cook.
As for the name? Shrub + Berry.
The misspelling is on purpose. Jen fell in love with the play on words: the classic name "shrub" combined with fresh "berries," because these shrubs are fruit forward and infused with delicate herbs and spices. And the flavors deserved fun names of their own, to bring inspiration to your tastebuds. Something different, lively, and whimsical.
Every recipe was refined over four years of small batches, shared with friends and family, tasted, adjusted, and tasted again. She hopes you enjoy these shrubs as much as she enjoyed creating them.
