Cocktails with Sugar syrup
Sugar syrup is sugar dissolved in water, the standard liquid sweetener in cocktails. Recipes on this site assume the rich 2:1 kind: two parts sugar to one part water by weight.
How it's used
The default sweetener, used instead of sugar because it is already dissolved: crystals never fully go in a cold drink. A measure of 8 ml rounds a drink off and 15 ml sweetens it outright. A long or very sour drink can take up to about 45 ml. Those measures assume 2:1 syrup, about the strength of a bottled bar syrup such as Monin's cane syrup.
Substitutes for Sugar syrup
Make it: stir two parts sugar into one part warm water by weight over gentle heat until it dissolves, with no need to boil. A bottled bar syrup such as Monin's cane syrup is about the same strength and swaps one for one. A 1:1 syrup is weaker, so use about half as much again. Demerara syrup made 2:1 sweetens the same and adds a light molasses note. Honey and agave syrups have their own flavor and sweetness, so add them a little at a time, tasting as you go.
Simple syrup (1:1)
Equal parts sugar and water by weight, the usual strength in American bars.
Gum syrup
Sugar syrup with gum arabic dissolved into it. It pours the same and feels rounder in the mouth, which is the whole reason old recipes call for it.
Storage
Refrigerated in a clean bottle, 2:1 syrup keeps about six months and a 1:1 syrup about a month. The richer one has less water to spoil. A spoon of vodka extends either. Threads, cloudiness or a fizz mean it has gone, and there is no rescuing a syrup.
