Every cocktail, cordial and iced coffee wants sugar syrup, and the shop-bought stuff is sugar and water at a ridiculous markup. This is the version we keep in the fridge — made a little heavier than most recipes so it keeps for a year and doesn’t water down a drink. An old vodka bottle is the perfect home for it.
SUGAR SYRUP
Ingredients
- 880g (4 cups) white sugar
- 435ml (1¾ cups) water
- ½ tsp lemon or lime juice
Method
- Put 880g white sugar, 435ml water and ½ teaspoon of lemon or lime juice into a saucepan. The acid goes in at the start, not the end — it needs heat and time to do its job.
- Heat gently, stirring, until the sugar has completely dissolved and the liquid runs clear. Don’t let it boil and don’t hold it at a simmer — every extra minute evaporates water and pushes the syrup towards crystallising later.
- Brush down the inside of the pan with a wet pastry brush to wash any stray sugar crystals back into the syrup. One crystal left clinging to the side will seed the whole batch as it cools.
- Cool completely, then pour into a clean 1 litre bottle. Makes about 990ml.
- Store in the fridge.
Notes
Why this ratio. At 880g sugar to 435ml water the syrup is about 67% sugar by weight, which is above the point where a syrup preserves itself — nothing will grow in it. It keeps 12 months in the fridge. Thinner syrups (the usual 1:1) keep about a month, and add twice as much water to whatever you’re pouring them into.
The lemon juice. The acid converts some of the sugar into glucose and fructose, and those get in the way of crystals forming. It’s the same trick commercial syrups use. Half a teaspoon per litre is plenty — more will make the syrup taste sweeter and change its character. You won’t taste it at this dose, and lemon or lime works equally well since it’s the acid doing the work.
If it crystallises anyway. Warm it gently until the crystals dissolve, then cool it again. Nothing is lost.
Vanilla syrup. Spent vanilla pods left over from making vanilla extractvanilla extract still have plenty to give. Add them to the syrup while it’s cooling, leave them in for a fortnight, then strain them out and re-bottle. Use it in coffee, cocktails and anything you’d otherwise reach for vanilla vodka for. Don’t leave the pods in indefinitely — once they’ve given up their flavour they’re only a spoilage risk.
Other flavours. The same steeping method works for cinnamon quills, star anise, rosemary, ginger or citrus peel. Steep, strain, re-bottle.