It is so nice when food and drink names hint at their ingredients, preparation, or presentation. Grilled cheese and its myriad derivatives are prime examples. For starters, there’s the breakfast-worthy egg-in-a-hole grilled cheese and the aesthetically pleasing rainbow grilled cheese. Not to mention the perfectly gooey broiler grilled cheese. The recipes are practically right there in the titles. The same is true for many drinks, including iced tea, mint juleps, and whiskey sours. And the ingredient that sweetens that latter trio is similarly self-explanatory: simple syrup. It is so simple to make, in fact, that there are nearly zero reasons to spend the extra money on a store-bought version.
All you need to whip up a simple syrup is one part white granulated sugar, one part water, a saucepan, and a heat source. A 2-pound box of sugar hovers around four bucks, depending on where you shop. We are not going to calculate the infinitesimal sum of your water or energy costs to mix and heat one batch of simple syrup, nor will we guesstimate your cookware’s ultimate cost per use, so consider that handful of Washingtons to be your startup cost here. A 12-ounce bottle of the premade sweetener actually clocks in at about the same amount. But 12 ounces of the sugar from that $4 box is only equivalent to 1 ½ cups, or $3.50. So the markup on simple syrup at the market is about 25%, not to mention that the DIY approach still leaves you with some of the sweet stuff for things like lemon shortbread cookies.
Making simple syrup at home
Another thing about simple syrup is that you probably will not need a whopping 12 whole ounces at a time. Being that it’s typically called for in small amounts, and that it only lasts a month or less in the refrigerator, it’ll outlive its usefulness in such a high volume. We typically make about a ½ cup at a time (in other words, 4 ounces; in other numbers, $1).
To make your own simple syrup at home, start by heating the water. Don’t boil it; once it seems to reach a simmer you should even lower the heat to keep it right below that threshold. This small amount will reach that desired temperature very quickly, so this is not the time for multitasking. Once the water is hot, stir in the sugar and keep stirring until it disappears. Remove from heat and let it cool down before pouring it into a Mason jar or funneling it into a glass bottle. Funnel your savings, too, into the next batch, better booze, or your kitchen’s petty cash. Even little things like this can add up pretty quick.
