Simple Syrup herb, spice and floral infusions
Most cocktails use some sort of sweetness to balance the flavors and usually it’s simple syrup since the sugar is already dissolved in water, thus preventing any granular sugar in the bottom of your drink. Simple syrup is easy to make and stores well in the refrigerator. Plain simple syrup (1:1 sugar & water) keeps for a few months while floral infusions can begin to darken in color after a few days.
When adding leaf herbs, spices or flowers to your simple syrup, it’s important to remember that the harder you boil your mixture the stronger the flavor will be. Some mixologists prefer to simply boil water and remove it from the heat to stir in and dissolve the sugar.
This is fine for plain simple syrup but you need a little heat to extract more flavor when adding black peppercorns, juniper, or even delicate flowers like lilac and rose petals. Just be gentle – a brief simmer is enough. If you boil lavender, you’ll have a very perfumed and bitter syrup better suited to making soap than cocktails!
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Ingredients
Ingredients
| 1 cup Water |
| 1 cup sugar |
Simple Syrup herb, spice and floral infusions Directions
*Honey Simple Syrup variation
Substitute honey for the sugar. This is increasingly popular in cocktails like a Bee Sting.
*Lemon Honey Syrup
While not truly a simple syrup, by adding honey to sliced lemons, the honey coaxes out the juices and turns into an incredible lemon-honey syrup you can use in cocktails or dressings.
- 2 lemons sliced
- 2 cups of raw honey
Steps:
- Put the sliced lemons in a lidded jar
- Pour the honey over the slices and close the lid. Leave for a day and store in a cool cupboard to use as needed.
Infused Simple Syrups
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup water
- 1 bunch fresh herbs/flowers (e.g. thyme, basil, mint, rose petals, lilac blossom, dried or fresh lavender)
- or –
- 1 tsp whole peppercorns, juniper berries or spices (sumac, saffron cardamom)
Steps:
- Simmer together the sugar, water and either herbs or spices.
- Strain through a fine mesh sieve (-- a heavy-duty paper towel will do in a pinch. Just pour slow for it to have time to seep through.)
*Veggie Variation:
- 1 cup chopped sugar snap peas, cucumber, or red peppers.
Steps:
- Simmer, as in the base recipe.
- Puree the simple syrup and vegetal solids like snap peas, cucumber and red peppers until smooth and strain through a fine mesh sieve into a mason jar. Cool to room temp and store in fridge.
TIP: You can also pour your infusions into ice cube trays and freeze.
