Simple Syrup Five Ways

Every recipe on this site assumes you can make simple syrup, because simple syrup is the load bearing wall of drink making. It sweetens without grit, blends cold, and takes flavour like a sponge. Five versions cover the whole zero proof repertoire, and each one keeps for weeks in a jar in the fridge.

The base recipe: standard simple syrup

Combine 1 cup sugar and 1 cup water in a small pot. Warm over medium heat, stirring, until the sugar dissolves completely and the liquid turns clear. Do not boil it hard; a bare simmer is plenty. Cool, jar, refrigerate. That is it, and it will carry ninety percent of the drinks you ever make.

Variation 1: rich demerara syrup

Use 2 cups demerara sugar to 1 cup water, same method. The result is dark, thick and full of molasses character. This is the old fashioned syrup, the one that does half the whiskey impression in a Zero Proof Old Fashioned, and it keeps for months thanks to the sugar concentration.

Variation 2: honey syrup

Honey straight from the jar will not blend into a cold drink; it seizes into a stubborn ribbon. Thin it: 1 cup honey warmed gently with half a cup of water until it pours like syrup. Never boil honey syrup, or you cook off the aromatics you bought it for. This is the sweetener for whiskey style drinks, hot toddies without the toddy, and anything with lemon.

Variation 3: spiced syrup

Make the base recipe, then drop in 2 cinnamon sticks, 4 cloves, 2 star anise and a strip of orange peel as it cools. Leave it one hour, strain, jar. From October onward this jar earns its fridge rent weekly: it turns a plain apple spritz into a holiday drink and gives a Zero Proof Margarita a winter accent that should not work and absolutely does.

Variation 4: the no sugar option

Granulated allulose or a monk fruit blend dissolves almost exactly like sugar and, unlike most substitutes, does not turn bitter or thin. Use the base method at 1 to 1, and simmer one minute longer, because these sweeteners dissolve a touch slower. The texture is slightly lighter than sugar syrup, so in spirit forward drinks, add one extra teaspoon per serve and the balance comes right back.

Using the jar like a bartender

Label every jar with what it is and the date you made it. Future you, at six in the evening, will be grateful. Freeze leftover syrup in an ice cube tray if a batch outlives its welcome; a cube is roughly an ounce, which is to say, roughly a drink. And when a recipe on this site just says simple syrup, it means the base recipe. Everything else announces itself by name.