Sumac vs barberry
Two sour red materials used to acidify food in regions where citrus arrived late. Both are steeped cold for drinks, and both are graded almost entirely on colour.
botanical
What is being compared
Point by point
| Aspect | Sumac | Barberry |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | The dried and ground fruit of a Mediterranean shrub, deep purple-red. | A tiny whole dried berry, bright red, from Iranian and central European shrubs. |
| Flavour | Sour and mouth-puckering with a fruity depth, closer to cranberry than lemon. | Sharply sour with a bitter edge, and more aggressive than sumac. |
| In cooking | Sprinkled over fattoush, kebabs and onions; a component of za’atar. | Scattered over zereshk polo, and made into syrup. |
| As a drink | Steeped in cold water into a sour lemonade across Iran and Syria. | Steeped or simmered into a sharp red drink, always sweetened. |
| Adulteration | Widely cut with salt, sometimes heavily. Worth tasting a pinch before buying. | Colour is faked less often than it is simply lost to sun drying. |
The short answer
For a cold sour drink both work and sumac is cleaner. For cooking they are not interchangeable — sumac is a powder to scatter and barberry a berry to scatter.
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