My Quest to Make the Best Sumacade
It took four tries to get my Sumacade beverage to the point that it was amazing, so I write this article as a public service announcement in the hopes that you can enjoy this drink the way I do now on your first attempt.
Several years ago, an arborist colleague of mine from Puerto Rico shared a story about how his family made a “lemonade-like” drink with the fruit of sumac trees. I like lemonade, and I like sumac trees, and I’ve thought about this periodically over the years when I’ve crossed paths with sumac in the late summer, but I’ve just never gotten around to playing with the fruit. More recently, on social media, I crossed paths with a forager who shared her affinity for sumac fruit and the tea-like beverage she was making with it. Over that same weekend, I noticed the sumac trees at the edge of our woods and along our driveway in Zaleski, Ohio were full of bright red clusters of ripe fruit. Sumac Lemonade (here on referred to as Sumacade) was about to happen.
It took four tries to get my Sumacade beverage to the point that it was amazing, so I write this article as a public service announcement in the hopes that you can enjoy this drink the way I do now on your first attempt.
But first, I want to talk briefly about the tree. We have four native species of true sumac in Ohio, and you can make Sumacade from all of them. Staghorn sumac (Rhus typhina), smooth sumac (Rhus glabra), shiny sumac (Rhus copallinum), and fragrant sumac (Rhus aromatica) all take up residence in the Buckeye State. Fragrant sumac is a low-growing groundcover shrub that is restricted mostly to the lake counties of Ohio. It’s not incredibly common, and the clusters of fruit are small, so I don’t recommend using this as your source for Sumacade. Staghorn sumac, Smooth sumac, and Shiny sumac are all large shrubs to small-sized trees that produce large cone-sized clusters of red berries. You can find at least one of these three species in all 88 of Ohio’s counties, typically growing in unmanaged fields or at the edge of woods. I also find them quite often along the sides of roads in rural areas, and the nursery industry has introduced several cultivated varieties for the landscape. Sumac trees are dioecious, which means some plants produce male flowers, while other plants produce female flowers, so not every sumac tree is going to be a fruit producer - just the girls. What makes sumac berries taste great in a beverage is the water-soluble sour and tangy coating on their berries, which is primarily malic acid and a little vitamin C. Malic acid is the same organic compound that gives green apples and grapes their characteristic tangy, sour, and fruity flavor. You’ve probably enjoyed sumac fruit and malic acid already if you’re a fan of Middle Eastern or Mediterranean foods, as it’s a common souring agent in many of their popular dishes.
A couple more interesting facts about sumac — they have outstanding red fall color in their foliage, their flowers are relished by bees, butterflies, moths and ants and their fruit is a late summer/fall staple for over 300 species of birds (so don’t be greedy when you’re making sumacade).
Quick side note - we also have Poison sumac (Toxicodendron vernix) in Ohio. This CANNOT be used for sumacade. Poison sumac is NOT a true sumac. Notice its Latin name, Toxicodendron, puts it in a separate genus from true sumacs, Rhus. Poison sumac is in the same genus as poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans), and poison sumac also contains urushiol, which gives folks the same red, itchy rash as poison ivy. The fruit of poison sumac is white and is very different in appearance and color from the red fruit of true sumac. Also, the range of poison sumac is limited to the very Northeastern parts of Ohio, and the plants typically grow in bogs and wet sites, very different from the culture of true sumacs that prefer the edge of woods, dry hillsides, and fields. I want to talk more about the importance of Latin names and the confusion of common names, but I’ll spare you for now and save that for another article.
Back to making sumacade: Someone gave us a beverage dispenser for our wedding, which I’ve never used until this moment, but it's the perfect-sized container for making sumacade. It holds 1.32 gallons or 5 liters if you like the metric system. This is the container I used for all 4 batches of sumacade, and this amount usually lasts my wife and me about a week. What follows are my four experiences learning about and developing this interesting fruit and beverage.
Take 1
My First Batch!
I picked a lot of shiny sumac fruit (Rhus copallinum) around the middle of August - it’s the most common sumac on our property, and it's also my favorite species of sumac for its bright, shiny red fall color. Burning bush doesn’t hold a candle to it - if you are looking for a native woody in the 8ft to 15ft size range that has fall color with some serious main character energy, Shiny sumac is your plant. My social media friend instructed me to put a dozen or so berry clusters in my beverage container and to set it in the sun for the afternoon to make a sumac tea. I picked a spot on the south side of our house that would get good afternoon sun and spent the day rubbing my palms together in anticipation. The water turned a nice shade of yellowish-orange, and the beverage was drinkable, but the flavor just wasn’t what I was expecting. It tasted like weak tea without sweetener and was a little astringent. Definitely not something I would look forward to drinking regularly, so it was back to the drawing board. I was really hoping for a more sour flavor.
Take 2
I did some research and asked Google which species of Ohio’s native sumacs had the highest concentration of malic acid coating on their fruit. Turns out staghorn sumac and smooth sumac are the highest, so I decided to try sumacade again with one of these two species. I read online that overheating sumac fruit will cause the berries to release bitter tannins and ruin the clean sour taste. I wondered if this had happened somehow with my first batch. I also have noticed that the birds seem to like the fruit of shiny sumac the least, as most of the plants on our property still have all of their berries while the fruits of smooth and staghorn sumac are quickly disappearing. This probably means something. Like maybe Shiny sumac fruit is “for the birds.” LOL
At our Zaleski forest farm, we have smooth sumac and staghorn sumac growing wild as well. These two plants look very similar, with the primary difference being that staghorn sumac has significant pubescence (fine fuzzy hairs) that covers the young stems, rachis (the leaf stem), and the fruit. These fine hairs, called trichomes, function as a defense mechanism and are an irritant to most folks, so if using staghorn sumac to make sumacade, the beverage needs to be filtered through cheesecloth or a coffee filter before consumption. This extra step helped me to select smooth sumac fruit for my second batch. I placed about a dozen smooth sumac fruit clusters into my beverage dispenser, added water, and set the container in the south side sun for the day. Drum roll…
A step in the right direction but still not what I had hoped for. I could taste more of the sour taste, and the beverage was definitely refreshing on a hot day and worth drinking, but I still knew something could be improved. I decided to go back to social media and confer with more of my foraging friends.
Take 3
While I was composting the used sumac berry clusters from Take 2, I noticed that while the outsides of the fruit had faded from their exposure to water and sun, the undersides were still red and still sour to taste. In other words, there was still malic acid not making its way into the sumacade. I decided I would spend the extra time removing the berries from the panicle, the structure that holds the fruit together, to expose more of each berry’s surface area to the water to attempt to enhance/strengthen the flavor. I was also instructed by a fellow forager to NOT expose the fruits to direct sunlight and to store the sumacade in the refrigerator immediately after making it, and to let the berries soak overnight before drinking. Also, I needed to give the mix an aggressive stirring every few hours during that time. Another drum roll…
This was by far the best batch yet. A very refreshing tart tea. Not sure if it was the chilling or the process of removing the fruit from the panicle (or both) that made it so much better than Take 2, but I’ll take it. I really enjoy having sumacade in the refrigerator when I’m in the mood for something more exciting than water, but it's still too early to drink wine. I also appreciate that it’s foraged off of our land and that I know where it came from and how it was handled. Full disclosure, I’ve shared this with several friends and neighbors, and it’s not for everyone. I decided I would make one more batch to try to make something that would be a real crowd pleaser.
Take 4 - Final recipe
I decided to take a step from lemonade’s playbook and add a sweetener to the sumacade. In an effort to keep things tree-themed, I added one cup of organic, pure maple syrup. I also sliced up a lemon picked from our Meyer lemon tree (an indoor houseplant I’ve had for twenty years) and added it to the mix. This has become my official recipe for mouth-watering sumacade — a beverage that I describe as tasting like a glorified Arnold Palmer (a mix of Iced Tea and Lemonade for you young folks). The volume that had been lasting us a week now disappears in just a couple of days. It’s soooooo good!
For now, I am strictly using the fruit of smooth sumac (Rhus glabra), as the birds and I believe it has the best flavor and it is the least difficult to process…
So here is the recipe:
Remove the sumac berries from the panicles of approximately 12 - 15 Smooth sumac fruit clusters (colloquially called Sumac bobs by those who know). This yields about a cup and a half of berries.
Add the berries to approximately 1.2 gallons of cold water. Make this mixture in a large container (mason jars also work great) and allow the berries to soak overnight in the refrigerator, giving the mixture a good stirring every few hours.
Add one cup of pure maple syrup and the juice of half a lemon.
Cut the other half of the lemon into thin slices and add directly to the mix.
Give the beverage a final stir and enjoy
If you do not have a beverage dispenser, pour the sumacade through a strainer to keep the sumac berries/seeds out of your drink. You can put the sumac berries back into the container to continue soaking or throw them into the compost.
I like to garnish with a sprig of mint or basil leaves
Keep the excess sumacade refrigerated until you are ready for more
[click to download and print]
I hope you enjoy sumacade as much as I do. Sumac trees are native, beautiful in the landscape, beneficial for wildlife, and easy to grow. Being able to use the fruit is a bonus, but if it's not your cup of tea (pun intended) you’ll still appreciate its red fall color.
Until next time, TJ
Retaining Trees to Support Wildlife
Time will inevitably take its course in degrading the wood, but there are also methods to expedite the process. Replicating years of natural decay can be accomplished easily through various methods of cutting and drilling, processes already familiar to an experienced arborist, while utilizing the same daily tools.
By Nick Ryan
Arborist, Russell Tree Experts
October 1, 2026
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The role of an arborist may vary significantly depending on who you ask. Whether it be the mitigation of tree-related hazards, clearing essential utilities and structures, aesthetic improvements, or providing direct care to improve the health and longevity of individual trees, it is clear that an arborist provides many services. At the core, arboriculture could be described as the active maintenance of the relationship between trees, people, and everything in between. In the pursuit of achieving a variety of objectives, over 60,000 certified arborists across the world make dozens of small decisions throughout their day. Many of these decisions will directly impact the health, density, and composition of the local canopy. All of this is to say that arboriculture has the opportunity to play a major role in the health of the urban canopy. A strong population of trees in urban areas provides an enormous amount of utilitarian value on its own, with a significant portion of this value coming from their role in supporting a healthy local ecosystem. There are a wide variety of choices an arborist can make to support this relationship of trees and habitat. Many of these choices can be easily implemented, with little impact on daily operations, to emphasize the retention of preexisting habitat. To complement the initial retention of habitat, there are also more proactive options available that can create habitat and actively expand the services of an arborist.
Retaining preexisting habitat can most simply be achieved by taking the least amount of action to achieve the objectives agreed upon by the arborist and their client. Often, less is more. A very common example arises in the form of hazard mitigation related to standing dead trees. It is very reasonable to identify a dead or structurally compromised tree close to any residence or utilities as a hazard that must be dealt with; the importance is how and to what degree it is managed. In this case, it is a common practice to remove the tree in its entirety, but by the time the tree is reduced to a single trunk, it is highly likely that any previously existing risk has been totally eliminated; thus, leaving the tree trunk standing is a perfect opportunity for habitat retention. As the trunk of the tree remains standing over many years, weather and wildlife are allowed to take their course and make great use of the wood. Exposure to the elements will perpetuate the slow decomposition; various species of fungi, birds, and beneficial insects are allowed to carve their way into a sturdy home, eventually forming larger hollows suitable for an immense variety of life. It is likely that trees provide just as much to their ecology in death as they do in life, with a single tree trunk very capable of hosting hundreds of species over many years.
A similar approach towards retention can very easily be taken in the case of a still living and structurally compromised tree. Again, a common response is the total removal of the tree, but considering the quickly advancing practice of tree support systems, there are a wide variety of tools available to an arborist to prolong the life and mitigate the risk of old trees. The installation of high-tension cables (fig. 3, sometimes in combination with brace rods, can often be considered when facing the possible removal of old trees.
For those interested in a more proactive approach, there are quite a few options available to enhance tree-based habitat. Consider the same standing tree trunk mentioned previously. Time will inevitably take its course in degrading the wood, but there are also methods to expedite the process. Replicating years of natural decay can be accomplished easily through various methods of cutting and drilling, processes already familiar to an experienced arborist, while utilizing the same daily tools. Coronet cuts (fig. 3,4) replicating a natural breakout maximize surface area and retain pockets of moisture, creating an ideal entry point for wood-decaying fungi and insects. Slat cuts made by plunging the bar of the saw can create narrow shelters of various depths, ideal for roosting bats.
More obviously, simply drilling out a large hollow is a highly effective way to create an inviting home for a woodpecker or flying squirrel (fig. 5). In combination, these handful of methods offer a lot of room for creativity and create opportunities to cater to specific species. When considering the course of action for habitat enhancement, the best results come with intention. Consider local wildlife and how to best utilize the material available; different species will be more inclined towards hollows of different shapes and sizes. When approached with proper intentions and research, one standing tree or tree trunk can be molded into a proper habitat for countless species in the course of a day. A proactive enhancement of life.
Fig 5-8 - Making tree hollows for cavity-dwelling species
It should be noted that this article is an extremely brief introduction to the potential of habitat services within arboriculture. If you find the concept to be of interest, always feel inclined to have a discussion with your consulting arborist. Oftentimes, the option for habitat is overlooked under the assumption of a lack of interest on the part of the client. Open conversations between the consultant and the client make for great opportunities to expand these services.
Why Do Leaves Change Color?
For the tree to survivethe coming months of less water absorption from frozen soil, no rain, and reduced sunlight, the tree must dramatically reduce its energy needs. The cooler weather and shorter days trigger the trees to stop producing and start reclaiming the existing chlorophyll nutrients.
How and what does a tree eat? Why do leaves change colors in the fall? Why do trees drop their leaves?
Trees, just like humans, need nutrients, oxygen, water, and the sun to thrive. Also, adaptations for surviving our climates have occurred in both trees and humans, but ours are less showy in the fall.
Let's start with the first question: how and what does a tree eat?
When we eat carbohydrates, our bodies produce glucose, aka sugar, which we either use instantly or store for later. Similarly, trees also utilize carbohydrates in their growth, but instead of eating a sandwich, they use water from their leaves and roots, carbon dioxide (CO2) from the environment, and energy from their leaves through a process called photosynthesis. Photosynthesis uses the leaves’ stored chlorophyll, which produces? … You guessed it, carbohydrates! Science note: Chlorophyll is also why leaves appear green… more on that shortly!
So, how does this tie into the next question: Why do leaves change colors in the fall?
Well, simply put, the sun is to blame for the fall colors we get to enjoy. Because the sun is getting further away from our hemisphere, the days become shorter, and the temperatures start to drop. This causes the tree’s adaptation to enter the chat. Remember the tree needs water, sunlight, and CO2 to make its food (glucose), and what is beginning to decrease? … That's right, the amount of sunlight the stored chlorophyll can use to make energy with.
For the tree to survive the coming months of less water absorption from frozen soil, no rain, and reduced sunlight, the tree must dramatically reduce its energy needs. The cooler weather and shorter days trigger the trees to stop producing and start reclaiming the existing chlorophyll nutrients.
Remember the science note from earlier? This reduction and reclaiming of the existing chlorophyll cause the leaves to change colors. Chlorophyll absorbs red and blue light, causing most of us to see leaves as green. As the level of chlorophyll continues to decrease, we get to see the other colors in the spectrum. Remember ROY-G-BIV? Once green gets out of there, the fall show can really start.
My friend Kim Frye is an environmental scientist, and while I was chatting with her about this article, she shared a fun detail about leaf pigments: "[trees produce] xanthophyll (yellow orange) and anthocyanins (red purple blue), and they also help all year long when the light changes in the mornings and at nightfall. Those wavelengths become more predominant as we head into fall and maximize photosynthesis beyond the wavelengths chlorophyll uses."
Now onto the last question: Why do trees drop their leaves?
©Russell Tree Experts
Ginkgo tree leaves (Ginkgo biloba)
Once the tree has reclaimed all the available chlorophyll stored in its leaves, an important step in the tree’s survival happens: it drops its leaves. It does this for a few reasons, but the main one is to reduce energy needs and conserve as much water and stored energy as it can. This increases its survival during the winter months when it can't produce energy from the sun and absorb water through the frozen ground. This also ensures the tree has enough energy come springtime to grow and produce new leaves to begin the photosynthesis cycle again. I bet that it is a re-leaf to trees each spring!
Think of the complex and inspiring work all of the colors mean as the leaves put on their show, the next time you are enjoying leaves. Whether that is in the spring when everything is green and energetic, or in the fall with the beautiful multi-colored show ushering in a restful period for plants.
Please note that this article was revised and republished on 9/24/26 from its original republish date of 9/25/25.
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