Sugar syrup or sometimes called gomme syrup is a must for any aspiring amateur home mixologist. Adding sweetness to a cocktail is critical to strike the right balance of sweetness and sour in the final drink.
Getting crystalise sugar to dissolve in a cold cocktail is hard work and takes too long, using a sugar syrup , which is essentially sugar dissolved in water ensures a well crafted cocktail and no undisolved sugar crystals in the finished cocktail.
Sugar syrup is really easy to make and should be included in any mixologist store cupboard. Simply heat up equal parts of water and sugar til dissolved and store in a clean bottle in the fridge. Alternatively, add 2 parts sugar and 1 part water for a richer syrup.
1:1 ratio sugar syrup is more popular in the US, European bartenders prefer a rich syrup with a 2:1 ratio.
2:1 ensures less dilution of the cocktail mix and does involve a bit more heating to dissolve the sugar in the water when making it but it does have a much longer shelf life, for these reason, we prefer to include a richer syrup in our cocktail boxes when the recipe needs it.
To make a simple rich syrup follow our easy step by step video, using this link
let your imagination run free simply add real flavour by steeping the warm syrup with whatever flavour you want, such as fresh mint or other fresh herbs, elderflower or even fresh berries.
