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.
4 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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Honey syrup
Honey let down with hot water so it can be measured and will mix when cold. It is what sweetens the Bee’s Knees, the Gold Rush and the Penicillin, and each of them asks for a different ratio.
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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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