Bar Syrups (Honey Syrup, Simple Syrup, and Rich Demerara Syrup)
Drinking French
We've used some of these syrups in the drink recipes from Drinking French already, but we haven't shown how they're made until now. These are all super quick, and an easy way to level up your cocktail game!
Honestly, I was shocked to see that you can buy simple syrup in some grocery stores. It's the easiest thing in the world to make, takes two ingredients most people have on hand already and very little time, and will keep in the refrigerator for quite a while.
Syrups like these are also a great way to sweeten any cold drinks, alcoholic or not. If your iced tea isn't sweet enough, just add a bit and stir, no sugar left in the bottom. (The honey syrup would be great in iced tea!) If your lemonade is just a bit too tart? Simple syrup to the rescue!
Captions
[00:00]: [Music]
[00:04]: hello and welcome to cooking the books
[00:06]: with heather today i'm going to be
[00:08]: working out of drinking french by david
[00:10]: leibovitz
[00:11]: and i'm going to be making some bar
[00:13]: syrups these are we're going to make
[00:14]: three today and these are the simple
[00:16]: ones that are basically just a
[00:18]: sugar source and water and you can add
[00:21]: them to your cocktails to make them a
[00:22]: little bit sweeter
[00:24]: um a little bit less harsh and they'll
[00:26]: each give you a little bit of a
[00:28]: different flavor
[00:29]: so the first one i'm going to make is a
[00:33]: honey syrup now this one
[00:36]: i've never made this before but you
[00:38]: don't even have to put it on the stove
[00:41]: so he says to put it in a jar and shake
[00:44]: it together
[00:45]: so i've got this cute little uh jar that
[00:48]: we got from some to-go cocktails
[00:51]: from a local restaurant and i'm going to
[00:54]: dump my honey in
[00:58]: using this funnel which might take a
[01:01]: little while
[01:03]: i hadn't thought about it not um
[01:07]: wanting to go in very well but i really
[01:10]: do
[01:11]: like this
[01:17]: this plunger style measuring cup for
[01:20]: honey
[01:22]: it it works really well because you can
[01:24]: get most of it out and then just clean
[01:27]: it
[01:28]: so while that happens all right this is
[01:31]: almost through
[01:32]: um and he does say to use a darker honey
[01:35]: in france he says they call it forest or
[01:37]: mountain honey
[01:39]: i just chose a dark honey that i had in
[01:41]: my cabinet i honestly don't even know
[01:42]: what it's called or what kind it is
[01:45]: but he says in the united states usually
[01:47]: wildflower honey is
[01:49]: widely available in a good choice here
[01:52]: um and now i'm gonna add just some hot
[01:55]: but not boiling water
[01:57]: and i'm just gonna put it in through the
[02:01]: funnel get a little bit more of that
[02:02]: honey out
[02:03]: there we go
[02:07]: and put this in my sink
[02:13]: so i boiled this in the microwave and
[02:16]: just um let it cool a little bit while
[02:19]: we
[02:19]: prepared and so now we have hot but not
[02:22]: boiling and so you can see they're
[02:23]: separate and we're just going to
[02:25]: swirl it
[02:30]: and shake it until they are well
[02:32]: combined
[02:33]: so we're just thinning out the honey a
[02:35]: little bit
[02:37]: i think it's basically
[02:40]: two parts honey to one part water
[02:47]: and i just made a single batch as far as
[02:49]: what's in here and that
[02:50]: is done um
[02:54]: he does say to refrigerate this so uh
[02:58]: cool it and then put it in the
[02:59]: refrigerator and i'm going to use some
[03:01]: masking tape
[03:02]: and a sharpie to mark this so i don't
[03:04]: forget exactly what it is
[03:06]: i'm gonna do that with all of my my
[03:07]: syrups today and all the other things
[03:10]: that i make i'm gonna make a few other
[03:11]: things from this
[03:12]: section and i just don't want to forget
[03:13]: what's what so
[03:15]: because that can get a little iffy
[03:18]: all right honey syrup done so now i'm
[03:21]: going to make
[03:22]: just simple syrup i usually keep some in
[03:24]: the refrigerator but
[03:25]: we don't have any right now so i'm
[03:27]: making a double batch based on what is
[03:29]: in his book
[03:31]: and that is it's basically just equal
[03:33]: parts
[03:34]: sugar and water and i'm gonna have to
[03:36]: measure this separately
[03:39]: so just equal parts sugar and water
[03:42]: and i'm just gonna i heated up enough
[03:44]: water to make all of these recipes it
[03:46]: doesn't have to be hot
[03:48]: for this recipe but you're gonna heat it
[03:51]: up anyway
[03:54]: all right i'm gonna put this on the
[03:56]: stove and we're just gonna heat it until
[03:57]: the sugar is completely dissolved you
[03:59]: don't have to boil
[04:00]: it um just heat it until it's dissolved
[04:03]: so i'll show you what that looks like
[04:05]: all right so this is what it looks like
[04:07]: it just kind of looks like a little bit
[04:09]: thicker water um and
[04:12]: usually by the time the water starts to
[04:15]: boil the sugar
[04:16]: is all dissolved in this recipe anyway
[04:18]: so
[04:19]: i'm going to let this cool to room
[04:21]: temperature and then i'm going to pour
[04:22]: it in my
[04:23]: i'm going to pour it into my plastic uh
[04:25]: containers we keep these in the
[04:27]: refrigerator
[04:29]: he does say that
[04:32]: these will keep for at least two weeks
[04:35]: generally the ones that are just sugar
[04:38]: and water tend to keep a little bit
[04:39]: longer than if you add
[04:40]: flavorings we'll do a few of those in a
[04:43]: later video
[04:44]: um but you know just if it's not growing
[04:48]: anything it's usually pretty good
[04:49]: usually fine in my opinion um
[04:53]: if it has other stuff in it he says
[04:56]: taste it
[04:57]: to see if the flavor has faded so
[05:00]: simple syrup made next we're going to be
[05:02]: making rich demerara syrup
[05:04]: very very similarly to this
[05:17]: so i have another small saucepan
[05:20]: and i have this is actually not
[05:23]: demerara sugar it is turbinado sugar
[05:26]: because that's what i can find around
[05:28]: here
[05:29]: relatively easily i can't find demerara
[05:32]: sugar but this is a fine substitute
[05:34]: so um it's a sort of a raw
[05:37]: sugar and so i'm going to just put this
[05:40]: i'm going to make a batch
[05:40]: just like he does in the book and it's
[05:43]: the rich part basically means it's two
[05:45]: parts
[05:46]: sugar to one part water
[05:49]: so there we go and
[05:52]: again we're just going to heat it on the
[05:53]: stove until all of this sugar dissolves
[05:56]: because there's less water it
[05:60]: uh might take a little bit longer to
[06:03]: dissolve
[06:04]: i don't know but it still won't be long
[06:08]: and uh we'll show you what it looks like
[06:10]: when it's all done right
[06:12]: and there we have our rich demerara
[06:13]: syrup it did take a little bit longer
[06:16]: it had to boil for a little bit before
[06:18]: all of the sugar was dissolved
[06:20]: but now it's all dissolved and we're
[06:23]: again going to let it cool
[06:24]: and put it in our container and then
[06:26]: refrigerate it and we'll be ready for
[06:28]: some drinks i have made drinks before
[06:31]: on this channel that called for at least
[06:34]: the simple syrup
[06:35]: maybe one that called for the rich
[06:37]: demerara syrup but i haven't made these
[06:39]: for you guys yet
[06:40]: so i thought i'd go ahead and make them
[06:42]: so
[06:44]: if you enjoyed watching me make this
[06:46]: please give me a thumbs up hit the
[06:48]: subscribe button
[06:49]: and come back and watch me make
[06:51]: something else next week