Cocktails with Strawberry syrup
Strawberry syrup is a sweet fruit syrup made by cooking or macerating strawberries with sugar and water.
How it's used
Besides sugar and red color, it brings a jammy strawberry note closer to cooked fruit than to fresh berries. That suits punches and lemonades but can flatten a delicate drink. Gin, rum, sparkling wine, basil and balsamic all sit well with it. In place of fresh berries, it gives the flavor but none of the fruit's acidity.
Substitutes for Strawberry syrup
Homemade strawberry syrup
Make your own: dissolve 200 g of sugar in 240 ml of hot water. Pour over about 150 g of quartered strawberries, leave for 6 hours and strain. Use in the same amount.
Bottled strawberry syrup
A bottled syrup is noticeably sweeter than homemade. Use about a third less.
Strawberry purée
A sweetened bar purée goes in one for one. For an unsweetened purée, add 10 ml of 2:1 syrup per 15 ml.
In place of the syrup it adds acid too, so if the cocktail has citrus, use a little less.
