welcome friends welcome back to a series I'm calling cocktails 101 and this is
all of the behind the scenes stuff that you need to make before your next
cocktail party today we're making simple syrup and simple syrup should be
something that is super simple to make and it is simple to make but there is a
little bit of confusion around whether it is one-to-one by volume or one-to-one
by weight and I'm here to tell you that it's one-to-one by volume or weight as
long as you're using this white granulated sugar that comes in a bag and
it's at every supermarket in North America and yes one-to-one by weight is
definitely more accurate but in these small amounts if you're using a cup of
water and a cup of sugar with this white granulated sugar it is so close that the
difference is imperceptible we're talking like point zero one of a
difference so you can go ahead and do it by volume because that just makes it
faster for almost everybody concerned so simple syrup one part sugar and one part
water into a pot give it a stir and just bring it up to temperature you're not
trying to bring it to a boil long before it boils the sugar should be dissolved
completely in the water and simple syrup sibling is rich syrup which is two parts
sugar to one part water nine times out of ten you're going to find simple syrup
in the recipe calls for one to one one of the reasons you might want to use the
two to one version or the rich syrup is it adds less water to your drink but I
don't think in practice that's really much of a concern
it's exactly the same process into a pot low heat just sort of bring it up until
it is clear now both of these syrups can be made with brown sugar either this
crystallized sugar in the raw or this Demerara brown sugar and there's a lot
of rum cocktails that will call for Demerara syrup and that is simple syrup
made with Demerara brown sugar or this sugar in the rock and if you're using
either of these two sugars I would definitely do it by weight it's the only
sure way that you're going to get the right level of
sweetness okay so these are almost ready and you don't necessarily need to do
this in a pot I have seen both of these syrups made in a blender that mechanical
action of the blender spinning really quickly breaks down the sugar and
dissolves it completely into the water so if you wanted to go that route it's
perfectly fine the sugar is fully dissolved so now it comes down to
storage I like to store it in these glass bottles because it looks really
cool you know you're making cocktails you poured out of a nice glass bottle
but you know these plastic squeeze bottles perfectly fine I know a lot of
people use these I've used them in the past it's really easy just to give a
squirt of simple syrup definitely a possibility so just go have a funnel
here and I'm gonna pour it in and so that's the one to one and the two to one
will go in this jar you notice the two to one is much more syrupy okay so
there's a little bit of it left in the pot maybe about 1/8 the cup I'll use
that up first storage times you keep these in the fridge and the 1 to 1 is
going to keep for 6 to 8 weeks a lot of people say it'll only keep for a week
and what they seem to forget is that sugar itself is a preservative and as
the concentration of sugar it gets higher fewer and fewer things can live
in it or grow in it and certainly fewer and fewer things that will harm us can
live in it or grow in it now at 68% sugar pretty much nothing will live in
it and neither of these have reached that point yet but this one the one to
one simple syrup six to eight weeks in the refrigerator keep a cap on it
everything's going to be fine but the only thing you'll notice near
the end if you get to that eight weak point is there might be a little bit of
mold growing on the inside of the jar see the mold
toss it the mold won't hurt you but you know who
wants to have mold in their cocktail the two-two-one or the rich simple syrup
will last in your fridge up to six months but again if this is hanging out
three or four months from now in your fridge toss it let's start over
you know why take a chance I know there's nothing in there that's going to
hurt you it might taste a little bit funky but you know why bother why take
the chance and a lot of people put in vodka or this is this is straight grain
alcohol put in a shot of vodka into each of these and that will extend your shelf
life won't affect your flavor too much and even if you're using the simple
syrup to put it in your coffee or your tea that much vodka in that much simple
syrup in the end coffee isn't gonna cause you any harm it's certainly not
going to make you drunk I usually don't put the vodka in I just cap it and put
it in the fridge because really once it's been in your fridge for five six
weeks just toss it I don't really see any use in extending it with the grain
alcohol or the vodka so I usually leave that out but what I do do is mark on the
bottle what it is when I made it just so that you know when you should toss it so
come on back for the cocktail series where we're going to be using these
simple syrups thanks for stopping by see you again soon
you