Use this simple syrup recipe to sweeten up your favorite cocktails or baked goods. With just two ingredients and a few minutes of prep time, you can have a versatile and flavorful mixture for all your culinary needs.
Recipe Science
- Dissolving sugar in water creates a uniform solution, ensuring consistent sweetness in beverages without undissolved sugar crystals.
- Heating the mixture accelerates the dissolution process by increasing the kinetic energy of the molecules, allowing the sugar to dissolve more quickly and completely.
- The resulting syrup has a stable concentration, which makes it easy to mix evenly into both hot and cold drinks, enhancing their flavor without altering their texture.
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Why It Works
Every kitchen should be stocked with a bottle of simple syrup! It’s a versatile ingredient for a cocktail sweetener for tea and coffee drinks and dessert applications. As the name implies, a basic simple syrup recipe is equal parts of sugar and water.
I’ll show you how to make traditional and rich simple syrup. It only takes a few minutes to prepare! The solution is briefly heated to dissolve the sugar granules. The liquid sugar mixture makes it seamless to add to your culinary needs. Make a batch, and it will last for weeks when chilled. Customize it to make flavored simple syrup for cocktail recipes, beverages, and sweet treats. There are types of simple syrup:
- Traditional Simple Syrup: Make with a ratio of one part sugar to one part water. It will have a thin consistency like a pumpable Torani syrup.
- Rich Simple Syrup: Made with a ratio of two parts sugar to one part water. This will give a consistency similar to honey or maple syrup. This adds double the sweetness without diluting the recipe it’s added to.
Ingredients You’ll Need
- Sugar: Use granulated white sugar for a clean taste. It will have a slight golden hue when heated.
- Water: Water helps dissolve the sugar to create a pourable solution.
See the recipe card below for all ingredients and measurements (US and metric).
Flavor Variations
A basic recipe for simple syrup adds a clean sweetness to various beverages or desserts. However, infusing more exciting flavors and aromas into the syrup is easy. Steeping ingredients in the hot liquid as it cools down gently extracts the most flavor. Strain the syrup before adding it to the storage container.
- Spices: Whole cinnamon stick, cardamom pods, star anise, whole red chilis, or flakes for heat.
- Vanilla: Split vanilla beans in the middle to expose the seeds. Scrape the pods to add specs to the syrup.
- Citrus: Cut a large zest from an orange, lime, lemon, or grapefruit. The essential oils will infuse into the liquid.
- Herbs and Flowers: Add fresh sprigs of rosemary, mint, basil, or thyme. Dried rose petals or lavender.
- Fruit: Fresh or dried strawberries, raspberries, pineapple, passionfruit, banana, peaches, blackberries, blueberries, and mangoes.
- Coffee: Add instant coffee or espresso powder so as not to dilute the syrup.
- Liquors: Grand Marnier, amaretto, or coffee liquor like Kahlua.
- Extracts: Pure vanilla extract, almond, anise, banana, licorice, or peppermint.
How to Make Simple Syrup
Step 1: Dissolve the Sugar
I use a hot method to make simple syrup. Add one cup of water to a medium saucepan and heat it over medium-low heat. Once it gets to a low simmer, with gentle bubbling in the pot, around 185ºF (85ºC), add one cup of sugar.
Stir until the sugar dissolves, simmering for about 2 minutes. Do not let the mixture boil. Reduce the heat as needed to prevent a dark color change. Otherwise, you’ll create a caramel sauce.
Heating the sugar mixture helps to extend the shelf life. The heat helps to destroy spoilage organisms. Let the syrup cool completely before transferring it to a storage container.
Step 2: Cool, then Store
Once it reaches room temperature, pour it into a jar with a lid. A capped bottle works too. Store in the refrigerator for up to 1 month.
Ways to Use Simple Syrup
- Cocktails: Cadillac margarita, mojito, or Irish coffee
- Coffees and Teas: Pumpkin spice latte, iced green tea, or tea latte.
- Lemonade and Iced Teas: They dissolve quickly into the drink.
- Cakes: Brush on cakes and cupcakes for extra flavor and moistness.
- Frozen Desserts: Add to fruit popsicles, no-churn ice cream, and sorbets as a sweetener that prevents ice crystal formation.
- Topping: Drizzle over fruit in homemade crepes, pancakes, waffles, and French toast. Enhance the taste of a fruit salad.
- Glaze and Marinade: Add to a savory sauce to balance the flavor.
Frequently Asked Questions
Both terms describe sugar dissolved in water, creating a thickened solution that is much easier to mix into beverages, drizzle, or brush onto foods.
The base is one part sugar to one part water (by volume) for a thinner traditional simple syrup. For the thicker, richer syrup, use two parts sugar to one part water.
About 4 teaspoons of simple syrup or ¾ ounces equals about 1 tablespoon of sugar. For rich simple syrup, about 2 teaspoons or ⅓ ounce.
Traditional simple syrup can be stored in an airtight glass container for up to a month in the refrigerator. Rich simple syrup has double the amount of sugar. The higher concentration of sweetener lowers the water activity, making it harder for spoilage organisms to survive because the sugar draws moisture from anything in the surrounding environment. Proper storage extends the shelf life to about six months.
Granulated sugar is typically used to make simple syrup. It’s extracted from sugar beets or sugar cane. It’s affordable, widely available, and dissolves easily in water. Other types of sugar can be used to sweeten the syrup. Depending on what you plan to use it for, you can try other sweeteners with different flavor profiles.
Try packed brown sugar or muscovado for a molasses taste. Palm sugar adds a cotton candy-like flavor. Turbinado or demerara is larger in crystal size, so it will need more time to dissolve. Coconut sugar will add a more complex taste.
Simple Syrup
Ingredients
- 1 cup water
- 1 cup granulated sugar
Instructions
- Dissolve the Sugar – Heat the water in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat. Add the sugar once bubbles just break the surface and the water barely comes to a simmer, do not exceed 185ºF (85ºC). Stir until the sugar dissolves, simmering for about 2 minutes. Reduce the heat if needed, do not boil the syrup.
- Cool and Store – Remove the pan from the heat. Cool the syrup to room temperature. Use immediately or cool to room temperature and store in a glass jar or bottle.
Recipe Video
Notes
- Recipe Yield: About 1 ½ cups
- Serving Size: 1 tablespoon (0.5 ounces). About 8.25 grams of sugar per 1 tablespoon of syrup.
- Storing: Cool to room temperature and store in a glass container for up to 1 month.
- To Make Rich Simple Syrup: For a sweeter and thicker syrup (similar to pure maple syrup), dissolve 2 cups of sugar in 1 cup of water. Simmer until the granules dissolve, about 3 minutes. Yields 2 cups. Refrigerate for up to 6 months.
Nutrition Facts
Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000-calorie diet. All nutritional information is based on estimated third-party calculations. Each recipe and nutritional value will vary depending on the brands you use, measuring methods, and portion sizes per household.
Danielle says
Hi, I wanted to make strawberry syrup to make strawberry milk. Could you please tell how much fruit you would use?
Jessica Gavin says
I would add 8 ounces of strawberries. Slice them up and let them simmer in the simple syrup, about 20 minutes. The strain and press to extract the flavor and color. Let me know how it goes!