How To Make Simple Syrup

Sweetening drinks with simple syrup

Simple syrup is basically a concoction of water and sugar. The mixture is heated until the sugar has melted into the water then cooled and this creates a syrupy texture which is often used as an essential ingredient for sweetening most summer cocktails and mocktails.

Rather than using ground up sugar in cocktails, simple syrup is a much easier to mix in various beverages. So if you want to save money and also have an essential cocktail ingredient right at your fingertips, then you need to make your own simple syrup.

You will need:

• 2 parts sugar
• 1 part water

1. Start by bringing the water to a boil.
2. Dissolve the sugar in the boiling water and keep stirring so the particles don’t settle.
3. Once the sugar has completely melted, take the pan off the heat. Let the syrup cool and thicken, then pour into a bottle.

This is a very basic recipe, but if you want to add something a little more interesting to your syrup, you can also try infusing it with extra flavors such as:

• berries
• lemon zest
• mint
• cinnamon
• eucalyptus
• banana
• ginger
• rosemary
• orange
• toffee
• vanilla
• jalapeno (!)

Also, as an alternative to this recipe you could use brown/Demerara sugar instead of white sugar. This has a distinctive almost cinnamon like taste, however it will make your cocktails darker so if you wanted a bright pink creation, this will make it much darker.

How to infuse simple syrup with other flavors

If you were to infuse simple syrup with ginger for example, you will need to adjust the recipe very slightly. You will need:

• 2 ounces finely sliced fresh ginger
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 ½ cups water
• 1 ½ tsp black peppercorns

1. Mix the sugar, water, ginger and peppercorns together in a medium sized saucepan over mid heat.
2. Simmer until the sugar dissolves and stir.
3. Continue simmering for around 30 minutes or until the syrup is very fragrant.
4. Take off heat and cool completely. Push syrup through a fine sieve, pour into a bottle, and refrigerate.

Why stop there? Add citrus fruits instead of peppercorns and you will have a great tasting simple syrup to mix into your beverages to serve your friends next time you have a cocktail party!

Find more recipes for making your own simple syrup on Recipebridge.