Sugar – Water – Mint – Heat. That’s all you need to make your own infused simple syrup at home.
We planted some herbs last month, and they’re growing great. The peppermint plant is exploding, so we figured it was a good time to make some natural, flavored sweetener for our cold brew. It’s ridiculously easy. Here’s what you need:
- Turbinado Cane Sugar (Sugar In The Raw or a demerera sugar)
- Filtered water
- Fresh mint leaves
To make the syrup, heat equal parts sugar and water in a saucepan heat. Set on medium heat and stir gently until sugar dissolves and the liquid is clear. Remove from heat if it starts to simmer.
Once the syrup is off the burner, add the mint leaves. You can crush or rip them a bit to open up the oils. Cover the syrup so it can steep and wait for it to cool. This can take a while, so go chill. When the syrup has cooled down, strain out the mint leaves.
It’s awesome to have café-style cold brew sweetener at home, and you can experiment with different flavor infusions (think dried coconut flakes or rosemary, for cocktails). If you made a lot, keep your syrup in a sealed jar in the fridge. It will keep for a few weeks, unless you leave the additional ingredient in it – then you should use it up within a week.
Let us know what infusions you play around with and how they turn out!