Three drinks on a pale marble bar, a pale gold spritz with a lemon wheel, a cloudy almond-white coupe and a tall glass of crushed ice and lime, beside a carafe of clear syrup, sugar, limes and fresh elderflower

Syrups and Cordials for Cocktails: The Complete Guide

September 30, 2026

Behind a sour or an Old Fashioned sits a sweetener nobody thinks about: a jar of sugar syrup in the refrigerator door, a bottle of grenadine, a lime cordial for the gin. The thing that slows a syrup's spoiling is the same thing that works in jam: sugar that ties up water. This guide follows that fact from the old names on the bottles to the ratio of a syrup made at home, and then into the glass. For a single recipe to start with, see the syrup and cordial starter recipe.

What a syrup is, and what a cordial is

A syrup is sugar dissolved in water. Plain syrup stops there. A flavored syrup adds something to the water: an infusion of herbs, spice or tea, a fruit juice, an essential oil, a nut milk. A cordial, in the sense this guide uses, is a syrup built around fruit juice or acid and meant to be stretched, either diluted with water or soda or used in place of fresh juice in a drink.

The word itself has moved around. "Cordial" comes from the Medieval Latin cordialis, "of or for the heart," from the Latin cor. As a noun in the late fourteenth century it meant a medicine, food or drink that stimulated the heart, and by the 1610s it had come to mean a sweet or aromatic liquor. Both meanings still appear on bottles, which is why a label can say "cordial" on a liqueur and on a nonalcoholic elderflower concentrate. The ingredient list and the alcohol figure show which one it is.

Four words that tell the history

Gum. Jerry Thomas's Bar-Tender's Guide, first registered in 1862 and reissued in 1876 and 1887, is widely considered by drink historians the first serious American book of mixed drinks, and syrups run all through it. Its Brandy Cocktail calls for "3 or 4 dashes of gum syrup," two dashes of bitters and a wine-glass of brandy. The Orgeat Punch starts with orgeat syrup and lemon juice, and the Gin Punch takes a tablespoon of raspberry syrup. The index lists gum, plain, lemon and raspberry syrups, with a whole section on making syrups, essences and colorings. Orgeat turns up as an ingredient, in the Orgeat Punch and the Orgeat Lemonade. In the Brandy Cocktail, syrup was measured by the dash, the same way as the bitters beside it, and the history of bitters piece follows that other bottle.

Lime. In 1865 Lauchlan Rose set up L. Rose and Co in Leith, Scotland, to supply ships with provisions, lime juice among them. The Merchant Shipping Act of 1867 made it compulsory for ships to carry lime juice, demand rose, and the company went on to make sweetened lime juice for sale to the public. In 1891 it bought the Bath and Elshall estates in Dominica and turned an old sugar factory into a lime-processing works. Sweetened lime juice fits the definition of a cordial given above: a fruit juice made to keep, sold to be diluted.

Barley. Orgeat, the almond syrup, takes its name from barley. The word entered English in the mid-eighteenth century from French, through the Provençal orjat, built on orge, barley, from the Latin hordeum. The drink was first made from barley and later from almonds, with sugar and an extract of orange flowers.

Pomegranate. Grenadine, as a word for a syrup, is recorded in English from 1896, from the French sirop de grenadine, built on grenade, pomegranate. The name records the fruit it was made from.

The ratio, and what it leaves for microbes

Syrup ratios are written sugar to water. "One to one" is plain or simple syrup, and "two to one" is rich syrup. By weight, 100 grams of sugar in 100 grams of water is 50 percent sugar, and 200 grams in 100 grams of water is two thirds sugar. That percentage matters because of water activity, a measure from 0 to 1.0 of how much of the water in a food is free for microbes to use. Sugar lowers it. The table below takes the University of California, Davis figures for sucrose solutions and sets them beside the growth thresholds published by Clemson University Extension.

Syrup	Sugar per 100 g water	Sugar share by weight	Water activity	What can still grow at that level
Light syrup	60 g	37.5%	0.955	Above 0.95: spoilage bacteria and some yeasts
Plain, one to one	100 g	50.0%	0.927	Above 0.91: the level at which Clemson lists Salmonella and some molds
Seven to five	140 g	58.3%	0.900	Above 0.85: most yeasts
Rich, two to one	200 g	66.7%	0.860	Still above 0.85: most yeasts

Two things follow. First, even a rich syrup sits above the 0.85 line at which Clemson lists most yeasts, so every homemade syrup in this range belongs in the refrigerator. Second, the richer the syrup, the lower its water activity, and the fewer of the organisms on Clemson's list can grow in it. Clemson lists syrup, jams and marmalades among typical foods at 0.80, lower than any line on this table.

The ratio also changes the dose. By weight, a two-to-one syrup is 66.7 percent sugar against 50 percent for one to one, so the same weight of rich syrup carries a third more sugar. A recipe written for plain syrup needs less rich syrup, and the other way round.

The families

Plain and rich syrup are the neutral sweeteners: white sugar and water, nothing else. Made with a darker cane sugar, the same syrup brings caramel and molasses notes.

Infused syrups are plain syrup with something steeped in the water, such as ginger, cinnamon, tea, rosemary or citrus peel. The infusion is strained out, and the result is stored like the syrup it is built on.

Fruit syrups use juice for part or all of the water. Grenadine, raspberry and passion fruit belong here, and the fruit brings its own color and acidity along with the flavor.

Nut and flower syrups are the perfumed end of the range. Orgeat carries almond and orange flower. Orange flower water (shop Fee Brothers Orange Flower Water) supplies the orange-flower note of the classic definition, and rose water (shop Fee Brothers Rose Water) is another perfumed addition to a homemade almond syrup.

Cordials are fruit or flower syrups with enough acid to taste bright after dilution. Lime cordial and elderflower cordial are the two this guide follows.

Other sweeteners do the same job with their own flavor. Maple syrup goes straight into a drink. The maple syrup guide covers its grades, and the maple Old Fashioned piece puts it in a glass.

Making the basics at home

Plain syrup: equal weights of white sugar and water, stirred until the sugar has fully dissolved. Gentle heat speeds it up, and the syrup should cool before it is bottled. Rich syrup: the same method at two parts sugar to one part water by weight. Heat helps more here, because there is more sugar to dissolve. Infused syrup: make plain syrup, add the flavoring while it is warm, steep, taste, strain.

Elderflower cordial is the seasonal one. In Britain the flowers are out from around late May to mid-July. The Woodland Trust recommends dry, newly opened heads, which have the best fragrance, picked from late morning on a dry day. It says to make the cordial soon after picking, because the flowers lose their scent within a few hours. Its recipe uses one liter of elderflowers, 350 grams of granulated sugar and two unwaxed lemons, with the juice of half a lemon for every 500 milliliters of liquid. Bottled, the cordial keeps for several weeks in the refrigerator.

Every homemade syrup wants a clean bottle, a lid, a label with the date, and the refrigerator. A syrup that turns cloudy, grows a film or starts to fizz has begun to ferment and should be poured away.

Using syrups in the glass

In a sour, syrup is the counterweight to citrus: spirit for strength, lemon or lime for acid, syrup for sugar, in proportions each bartender adjusts to taste. In a stirred drink such as an Old Fashioned, syrup does the job of a sugar cube, without the grit. The cocktail bitters guide covers the other small bottle in that drink, and the home bar guide lays out the rest of the bar.

Flavored syrups carry a drink on their own. A measure of ginger, elderflower or passion fruit syrup in sparkling water is a finished drink with no spirit in it, and the non-alcoholic drinks guide builds from there. Outside the glass, the same bottles sweeten coffee or soak a sponge cake.

A maker: Bacanha

Bacanha was founded in 2013 to make syrups and drinks, and its syrups are made entirely in France, in the company's workshop near Paris. Aromas and infusions are developed in Grasse, in Provence. The syrups are built from natural extracts, essential oils and fruit juices, with organic ingredients used whenever possible. The maker suggests two to three centiliters, roughly two thirds of an ounce to one ounce, per drink, and names cocktails, sparkling water, flavored coffee and pastry as its uses.

Bacanha's syrups run across fruit, flower, spice and nut: passion fruit (shop Bacanha Passion Fruit Syrup) and strawberry (shop Bacanha Strawberry Syrup), elderflower (shop Bacanha Elderflower Syrup) and rose (shop Bacanha Rose Syrup), ginger (shop Bacanha Ginger Syrup) and pistachio (shop Bacanha Pistachio Syrup). The Bacanha syrup guide takes the flavors one by one.

Three short answers

Is simple syrup the same as plain syrup? Yes, both mean one part sugar to one part water. Should syrup ratios be measured by weight or volume? Weight is exact, and the water activity figures above are by weight. Does a cordial contain alcohol? A nonalcoholic cordial does not, and a liqueur sold as a cordial does. The label says which.

The shop is at 263 Josephine Street in Cherry Creek, Denver. Visitors can ask staff questions in the shop. Products ship nationwide from theambrosianpantry.com.