Cocktails with Lavender syrup
Lavender syrup is a flavored sweetener infused with culinary lavender in a sugar-water solution.
Substitutes for Lavender syrup
Dried culinary lavender steeped briefly in warm syrup and strained rebuilds it — briefly is the operative word, since over-steeping is what turns lavender medicinal. Elderflower or chamomile syrup keeps the floral register without the perfume edge.
Often confused with
Lavender bitters
Alcoholic, dashed, and dry. It carries the flower into a drink without the sugar, which suits a spirit-forward build that syrup would sweeten too far.
Ornamental lavender
Not the same plant as the culinary kind, and grown with no regard for flavor. There is a reason culinary lavender is sold separately: the ornamental sort turns a syrup soapy and camphorous.
Storage
Months sealed, a fortnight in the fridge once opened. The aroma is the first thing to go, and a faded lavender syrup is simply sugar.
