How to Make Simple Syrup from Lavender Flowers
Sugar (simple) syrup can easily be enhanced by a variety of herbs or fruit. One of my favourite herb to use for a little floral kick is lavender. For my Lavender simple syrup recipe below, fresh lavender blossoms are steeped with water and sugar on low heat to create a sweet syrup with a light floral aroma perfect for flavouring your favourite cocktails or other sweet sinful delights or with this refreshing Lavender Pineapple Mojito recipe.
When choosing your lavender blossoms for this lavender syrup recipe, use unopened buds that have not flowered completely —opt for the buds that are bright purple but still tightly wrapped. You can also use dried lavender, which can be found at most natural food grocery stores or speciality stores like Neob Lavender. Also, please make sure to use culinary lavender (ask shopkeeper). While all lavender is edible, culinary lavender is light and sweet while other forms of lavender are more bitter due to the higher level of camphor which is treated as a toxin by the body.
What is Simple Syrup?
Simple syrup is basically a liquid that is made by dissolving sugar in hot water, yet many people would go to speciality stores to purchase simple syrup or flavoured simple syrup thinking it’s something they can’t do on their own. Quite the opposite, it’s easy to make simple syrup at home. The beauty of simple syrup is that although it’s easy to make, it can be used in a wide variety of applications; it is common in café, bakeries, and bars.
Coffee shops add flavoured syrup to coffee, teas and lattes. In baking, depending on the thickness, simple syrup is often used to soak sponge cakes and pound cakes to moisten them. My friend’s mother poked holes in a freshly baked cake and drizzled some simple syrup in to make her cake rich, moist and full of surprises! Bakers also use simple syrup to glaze baked goods or to preserve fruits. Alcohol or flavoured extracts can be added to simple syrup to give it an extra flavour kick, and also to act as a preservative. It is also used as a base for making rock candy, a candy made with crystallized sugar. Barkeeps used the classic simple syrup to sweeten and thicken drinks, and flavoured simple syrup to add interesting tastes to their cocktails.
Types of Simple Syrups
The classic simple syrup recipe is a mixture of one part sugar and one part water, or two parts sugar to one part water if you prefer it to be thicker and richer. Water is brought to the boiling point, and the sugar is stirred in until it’s completely dissolved. At which point it should be removed from the heat source, and allowed to cool before it is placed in a clean glass container.
This is for lavender simple syrup recipe, but you can make any flavoured simple syrup you can imagine. Just replace the lavender flower with any herbs, whole spices or any citrus rind you love. In the summer, make fresh simple syrups with the herbs in your garden such as basil, peppermint, rosemary or thyme. If you love snow cones in the summer as much as I do, add a packet of unsweetened kool-aid to simple syrup for snow cone syrup. And for the cold winter months, use whole cloves, cinnamon sticks or vanilla bean to make simple syrups for your hot beverages. Let your imagination run wild! They’re great any time of the year when you want an extra flavour kick in your lemonades, cocktails, hot beverage or dessert.
There are many types of simple syrup, depending on the flavour, richness, and thickness. Do play around with the thickness, or richness of your simple syrup. For a richer, more flavourful amber coloured simple syrup, use brown sugar, demerara, muscovado or coconut palm sugar instead of white sugar. It gives it that almost caramel character to the syrup and works especially well with cocktails that use brown spirits such as bourbon, tequila or rye whisky. I like using honey in simple syrup (except buckwheat honey since it’s a bit too overpowering) because I like how it gives the simple syrup an extra depth of taste. I prefer to use honey in my cocktails over white sugar since it’s healthier (and tastier), however, honey is too thick and doesn’t dissolve well. But by turning it into simple syrup, I can thin it out, and use it in all my favourite cocktail recipes.
Classic simple syrups have a very long shelf life since sugar is a natural preservative. So as long as impurities are not introduced into the syrup, it can be kept at room temperature for months. Before transferring simple syrup to a glass container, I like to be extra clean and place some hot water in the container, close it, and shake it a couple of times before pouring out the water and placing the simple syrup. This gets rid of any impurities.
Simple Syrup Ratio
Simple syrup comes in wide variety of thicknesses or densities, with various different usages for each. Simple syrup is all about the ratio; its thickness is depended on the ratio of water to sugar used. If you want your simple syrup to be more syrupy, use more sugar. Want your simple syrup more watery? Use less sugar and more water. Once you find your perfect ratio for your recipe, the world of homemade simple syrup becomes endless. Here is a general guideline for simple syrup ratio:
Thin Simple Syrup is usually used for glazing cakes and cookies. They are made with a ratio of 3 parts water and 1 part sugar. A simple syrup ratio of 3:1.
Medium Simple Syrup is used to sweeten hot beverages and iced tea. They are made with a ratio of 1 part water to 1 part sugar. A simple syrup ratio of 1:1.
Thick or Rich Simple Syrup is bartender’s favourite and is usually used as the basis for cocktails or cold fruity drinks. They are made with a ratio of 1 part water and 2 part sugar, a ratio of 1:2. This is also my preferred simple syrup ratio as it has two advantages: first, you can use a much smaller amount of simple sugar per drink, which reduces the volume of water per cocktail while giving it the necessary sweetness. And second, rich simple syrup lasts much longer in the refrigerator before spoiling.
How Long is Simple Syrup Good For?
Syrups are one of the easiest and most cost-effective ways to add a personal touch to every cocktail. Depending on the type of simple syrup and its ratio, simple syrup shelf life can be lengthened in two ways: increasing the ratio of sugar to water or adding neutral spirit. Of course, the bottling procedure is also important. It should be stored in an airtight container since bacteria can’t multiply without air. Unopened, it can be stored in your cabinet, however, I do recommend refrigeration after the bottles have been opened to prevent any sneaky microbes from entering. Note, although I do mention how long simple syrup is good for below, simple syrup is best used fresh. It’s simple enough to make!
Simple syrup with a ratio of 1 part water to 1 part sugar will last about a month, 1:1 ratio.
Simple syrup with a ratio of 1 part water to 1 part sugar plus one tablespoon of vodka/rum lasts about three months.
Simple syrup with a ratio of 1 part water to 2 part sugar will last about six months before becoming cloudy.
Simple syrup with a ratio of 1 part water to 2 part sugar plus one tablespoon of vodka/rum will stay good for a whole year.
Flavoured simple syrup with no preservative added will only last 3 – 14 days depending on the ‘flavour’ used.
How to Make Simple Syrup with Coconut Sugar
Lately, I regularly use coconut sugar or palm sugar in my recipes in place of white sugar. Specifically for simple syrup, I have come to replace white sugar completely with coconut sugar. There are many reasons why I prefer coconut sugar. But the main reason is: Its real food and not just empty calories.
Coconut sugar is a natural sugar derived from the flowers cocos nucifera (coconut trees). It is not highly processed, in fact, the only processing that occurs is when the coconut sap is heated to evaporate its water content. Ergo, there are no additives, bleaching, or any chemicals needed to make it. Surprisingly, even though it’s made from coconut trees, there is no coconut flavour, or even a hint or it. It tastes more similar to brown sugar with a hint of butterscotch or caramel.
Although I would love to sprinkle coconut sugar on everything, unfortunately, it doesn’t dissolve very well in cold drinks or in my milk with cereal. So naturally, I started making my simple syrup with coconut sugar. What a simple solution. No pun intended. I now have a healthy and natural sweetener that can easily be used to sweeten my foods and drinks.
The honey lavender simple syrup below tastes amazing in my pineapple lavender mojito recipe, however, for other recipes, the honey or maple flavour may be too overpowering. Then again, sometimes I prefer a little variety, in which case, I use lavender coconut simple syrup in my mojito instead.
Healthier Alternative: Lavender Simple Syrup Recipe with Coconut Sugar
INGREDIENTS
- 2 cups coconut sugar
- 1 cup water
- 4 tablespoon of fresh or dried lavender flower buds
DIRECTIONS
1. Add cold water to a saucepan and bring to boil over high heat.
2. Once boiled, turn heat down to medium and add coconut sugar. Stir frequently for 3-5 minutes or until the coconut sugar melts.
3. Remove from heat and let cool completely. Transfer to a clean mason jar.
NOTES
Coconut sugar simple syrup is very dark so when used in a darker drink such as iced tea, it’s not very noticeable, but when placed in lemonade or mojitos, it will darken the drink. It may not be as pretty, but it sure is more healthy and delicious!
Lavender Flavoured Simple Syrup Recipe
For this lavender syrup recipe below, fresh lavender blossoms are steeped with water and sugar on low heat to create a sweet syrup with a light floral aroma perfect for flavouring your favourite hot or cold beverages. When choosing your lavender blossoms for this recipe, use unopened buds that have not flowered completely. As I've mentioned above, look for the buds that are bright purple but still tightly wrapped. You can also use dried lavender.
- 1 cup water
- 4 tablespoon fresh or dried lavender flowers
- 1 1/3 cup sugar
- 2 tablespoon honey
Bring water and lavender to a boil. Once it starts boiling, stir in the sugar and keep stirring until fully dissolved.
Reduce the heat to the lowest setting and simmer for about 5 minutes. Add in honey and stir.
Remove the pot from the heat and allow it to steep for at least an hour.
Strain out the lavender and pour the mixture into a clean airtight glass container. Store it in the refrigerator. It will be good for at least a week.
The recipe makes a very sweet and thick syrup. It will yield just over 1 cup. If you would like to make more, simply double the ingredients. The lavender notes are light, but if you prefer a stronger floral note, you can always add more lavender flowers. Make it to your preference!
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I had no idea you could make syrup from lavender this is awesome!
Sucha great idea! A must try for sure!
Thank you for the recipe!
I love a lavender matcha. Is it possible to only use honey and lavender to make a simple syrup. Is sugar required?
i didn't think of syrup as something to use for cakes and drinks. thanks for educating me! and your photos are fabulous.
Joy at <a href=“http://www.thejoyousliving.com”>The Joyous Living</a>
If adding the vodka, I assume this step is done once mixture is cooled?!?
Yes, preferably once the mixture is a bit cooler or warm, but not boiling hot.
Making this now and super excited to make a lavender latte at home! When do you add the honey?
Thank you for this comment! I had to reread my recipe and realized I forgot that important step 🙂 Fixed!
Oh wow I would never have thought to make it with lavender. I would be very interested to see what this tastes like!
– Jackie (Organised Mum Life)
The web can be flooded with worthless posts however that's certainly not the case here. This is one of the decent ones. It's actually supplied me several ideas for my new website
I didn’t know you can make a syrup out of the lavenders. Now that I knew about it, I’ll be making one! I love lavender they have a very relaxing smell.
My garden is covered with lavender and I never thought of making a syrup. Now I do. Thanks for the idea and recipes. I’ll definitely give it a go
I love lavender and I really like the idea of making this with coconut sugar instead of regular white sugar. I am definitely going to have to try this recipe.
This is a beautiful post and a great recipe, I can almost smell those flowers through my screen! Can’t wait to try it!
I’m not a great chef but with this easy recipe I think I can do it!