Cocktails Week

It’s cocktails week here on Vindulge. We’re putting wine aside this week and dedicating an entire week to booze!

I am not a professional mixologist, but I have been on quite the cocktails kick this summer. I blame my kids. No, not that they drive me to drink, but that their favorite activity is going berry picking.  What does berry picking have to do with booze?

Well, we’ve had an influx of berries this year.

It’s getting out of control.

And I’m not really into sweet desserts, and there are really only so many smoothies a gal can drink. So what to do with the extra berries?

Make berry infused simple syrups.

What are simple syrups?

Simple syrups are a mixture of sugar dissolved in water, used to give sweetness to a drink. Sugar does not dissolve well when you add it to alcohol (or other liquids for that matter). So by heating up a combination of water and sugar, the sugar gets dissolved in the water. The result is a clean liquid that will sweeten your drink without any sugar residue settling to the bottom of your glass. I’ve been jazzing up plain simple syrups with whatever berry or fruit I have in excess.

Most recipes will call for equal parts water and sugar, and there’s probably a reason for that. But since I was adding fruit to my simple syrups I didn’t want the result to be overly sweet. They still came out the perfect consistency, just not super sweet. If you prefer your drinks on the sweeter side, then go ahead and add equal parts sugar, water, and fruit. It’s about your preferences.

And since simple syrups are so ridiculously simple to make (really, you can’t screw it up), this is really the simplest way to add some great flavor to an already simple syrup.

Blueberry Simple Syrup

Ingredients:

• 1 cup water
• 1 cup blueberries
• ½ cup sugar

Instructions: 

1. Combine all ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil.
2. Reduce heat and simmer 15-20 minutes until the berries burst and the mixture thickens slightly, and you reach your desired consistency.
3. Remove, and allow it to cool to room temp.
4. Strain into a glass jar through a very fine mesh strainer while gently pressing the fruit to extract as much of that delicious juice as possible. Discard the solids.
5. Store in the refrigerator for several weeks. (I’m told that if you add a tablespoon of vodka to the syrup it will last longer, though I have not yet tried that method.)

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Earlier this summer my neighbor gave me a bucket full of rhubarb. A full on bucket full! I had no idea what to do with all that Rhubarb. After making Rhubarb Coffee Cake, followed by a rhubarb crisp, then rhubarb muffins, I still had some leftover…. So I made some rhubarb simple syrup and used it in several cocktail concoctions.

Rhubarb Simple Syrup

Ingredients: 

• 1 cup water
• 1 cup rhubarb, chopped up into ½ inch pieces
• ½ cup sugar

Instructions:

1. Combine all ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil.
2. Reduce heat and simmer 20-25 minutes until the rhubarb has fallen apart and the mixture has thickened.
3. Remove, and allow it to cool to room temp.
4. Strain into a glass jar through a very fine mesh strainer while gently pressing the fruit to extract as much of that delicious juice as possible. Discard the solids.
5. Store in the refrigerator.
6. I’m told that if you add a tablespoon of vodka to the syrup it will last longer, though I have not yet tried that method.

Both of these syrups have been used throughout the summer to jazz up several delicious cocktails.

Coming up later this week I’ll introduce you to some of my favorite ways to use these simple syrups.

*Spoiler alert, we’ve even got some smoked cocktail recipes in the mix. Smoked cocktails? Heck yeah.

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