Homemade cocktail syrups
View all recipesSyrup is the ingredient that most separates a home cocktail from a bar one, and almost nobody buys a good version of it. The basic one is two things — sugar and water — and the ratio decides the texture: equal parts stays light and easy to integrate; twice the sugar to water sweetens just as much while adding half the liquid, which is what keeps a drink from turning watery.
From there it gets interesting. A cinnamon stick, a few basil leaves or the peel of two limes turn the same syrup into something else entirely, and those are ten-minute infusions. Keep them in a clean jar in the fridge: plain ones last a good month, the ones with fresh fruit or herbs a week or two.
3 recipes
Homemade grenadine
The red bottle from the supermarket almost never contains pomegranate: it is corn syrup, colouring and flavouring. The real thing tastes of fruit and has a tartness that is exactly what a shop-bought Tequila Sunrise is missing.
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Orgeat (almond syrup)
The secret ingredient behind half the tiki canon. A Mai Tai without orgeat is rum with lime; with it, that creamy backbone appears — and you cannot place where it comes from until you taste the syrup on its own.
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Simple syrup
The ingredient that fixes the most cocktails and the easiest one to make. Granulated sugar does not dissolve in a cold liquid: it sits at the bottom of the glass, and that is where half the sweetness you thought you added goes.
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