How To Make Honey Simple Syrup

Golden, fragrant, and endlessly versatile, Honey Simple Syrup is one of those small kitchen upgrades that makes a big difference.  By blending honey with water, you get a quick and easy, pourable sweetener that mixes effortlessly into drinks and recipes.  Honey Syrup adds a rich flavour and smooth sweetness that plain sugar can’t match, making it a favourite for everything from cocktails to iced coffee to lemonade to desserts.  Whether you’re looking to elevate your home bar or just want a more natural way to sweeten your day, Honey Simple Syrup delivers rich and smooth results.

Classic Simple Syrup– just sugar and water – is a bar cart essential, adding sweetness without getting in the way of other flavours. But sometimes you want more from your sweetener than just staying out of the spotlight.  Honey is a natural choice, bringing its own depth and character – but try mixing it into a cold drink, and you’ll quickly run into trouble.  It clumps, seizes, and refuses to blend smoothly.  That’s where Honey Simple Syrup comes in.  By dissolving honey into a pourable form, you get all the nuanced flavour without the hassle.  The result is a sweetener with subtle richness and a hint of caramel-like flavour that plain simple syrup just can’t match.  Whether you’re making cocktails, mocktails, tea, or even baked goods, Honey Simple Syrup adds a smooth, rounded complexity that elevates every sip or bite.

What goes in Honey Simple Syrup?

The ingredient list for this easy syrup is delightfully short – just honey and water.

• Honey: The type of honey you use will have a noticeable impact on the final flavour of your Honey Simple Syrup.  Light varieties like clover or alfalfa produce a mild, delicate sweetness, while darker honeys such as buckwheat or wildflower bring deeper, more robust notes.  If you’re making light beverages such as lemonade or refreshing cocktails or lighter, vanilla-flavoured baked goods, I’d recommend using a lighter honey.  Darker honeys lend themselves well to marinades, dark-spirited cocktails and baked-goods with caramel notes.
• Water: Nothing fancy here, just plain filtered water.

SERVING SUGGESTIONS

Honey Simple Syrup is a versatile ingredient for kitchen and bar use.  It’s a “building block” ingredient you could say, on which flavour-nuanced baking and great cocktails are built.  The prohibition-era cocktail The Bee’s Knees features this honey syrup, along with gin and lemon juice for a drink that is bright, citrusy and a little floral.  A Gold Rush cocktail is the darker, richer cousin to The Bee’s Knees, swapping the gin for bourbon for a smooth, balanced drink.  A Honey Deuce cocktail uses vodka, lemonade and honey syrup for a light and breezy drink.  Cocktails aside, Honey Simple Syrup adds a smooth, dissolvable sweetness to ginger tea, iced tea, cold brew coffee, matcha, or homemade lemonade, giving these drinks a more balanced sweetness than granulated sugar.  Brushing honey syrup over cakes can keep them moist while adding a glossy finish.  It’s also great for adding a gentle sweetness to sauces and dips.