Drink Syrups

Most drink syrups are sugar dissolved in water, either plain or flavored with fruit, herbs, spices, tea or nuts, and used to sweeten cocktails, sodas, coffee and iced tea. The simplest is simple syrup: equal parts sugar and water, warmed until the sugar dissolves.

How to choose Drink Syrups

  • 1:1 or 2:1. Rich syrup doubles the sugar, 2 parts to 1 of water, so it is thicker and you use less. It also keeps longer.
  • Cold or cooked fruit. A fruit syrup made cold, by blending and straining, tastes bright and fresh. Cooking the fruit with sugar gives a richer flavor closer to jam.
  • Steep time. One way to make an herb syrup is to brew the herbs like tea in just-boiled water for 4 to 5 minutes, then strain and add the sugar. Hotter water and longer steeping pull more flavor, but can also pull out unwanted ones, so start low and work up.

About Drink Syrups

Most drink syrups start as sugar dissolved in water or juice, and more sugar makes a syrup both sweeter and longer keeping. By weight, a 1:1 simple syrup is about half sugar and a 2:1 rich syrup about two thirds, much sweeter than the 10 to 50 percent syrups canning guides use to pack fruit.

Flavor goes in by steeping, cooking or soaking. Tea can be cold-steeped for 12 to 24 hours, which draws out fewer tannins and gives a mellower syrup, and fruit can be blended raw or simmered. Acid or spirit added to a syrup stretches its life; above 12 percent alcohol by volume it should keep at least a few months. Either way, keep syrups in the refrigerator in a sealed bottle, since any syrup can start to ferment.

At a glance

Made from
Sugar, water or juice; often fruit, herbs, spices, tea, nuts
Main types
Simple, rich, flavored, grenadine, orgeat, shrubs
Once opened
Refrigerate in a sealed bottle
Serve with
Cocktails, sparkling water, iced tea, coffee

Drink Syrups questions

What is a shrub drink?

A shrub is a fruit syrup preserved with vinegar, also called drinking vinegar. It dates to colonial times, when it was a way to use fruit past its prime. A basic version combines equal volumes of fruit, sugar and vinegar. Stir about a tablespoon into sparkling water, or add a splash to a cocktail; refrigerated, the syrup keeps up to six months.

What are grenadine and orgeat made from?

Both are classic bar syrups with French names. Grenadine was first a pomegranate syrup, from grenade, the French word for the fruit. Orgeat began as a barley drink, from the Provençal orjat and orge, barley, and later became an almond syrup sweetened and scented with an extract of orange flowers.

How long does homemade simple syrup last?

Advice varies. Saveur gives plain simple syrup up to a month in an airtight bottle in the refrigerator, while Punch allows only a few days for 1:1 syrup and about a week for 2:1. Adding acid or alcohol stretches keeping time, and a syrup above 12 percent alcohol should last at least a few months. Write the date on the bottle when you make it.

Sources: Clemson Cooperative Extension; University of Maine Cooperative Extension; Saveur; Punch.

Shop by brand

Guides and recipes

Related categories