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    You are here Home » Recipes » food

    By: Melissa

    Basil Simple Syrup

    Basil Simple syrup is a wonderful addition of flavor to sweeten your iced tea, basil lemonade, cocktails and desserts like watermelon popsicles and basil popsicles.  The fragrant basil adds a wonderful floral note to the simple syrup and makes a normally boring drink amazing! Make this basil syrup now and enjoy it for weeks to come.

    basil simple syrup
    Jump to Recipe
    Total Time: 20 minutes minutes

    Table of contents

    • About This Basil Simple Syrup
    • The ingredients you will need
    • How to make basil simple syrup
    • How To Use Basil Syrup
    • How Long Will Basil Simple Syrup Last?
    • More cocktails that go well with basil syrup

    About This Basil Simple Syrup

    Making a basil simple syrup is very easy. It involves adding equal parts water and sugar in a sauce pan and heating it until the sugar dissolves.

    This makes a beautiful homemade sweetener that you can enjoy anytime.

    The only additional step when making basil simple syrup is adding the basil to the pot and letting it steep until it cools. Minimal effort for really big flavor.

    basil simple syrup
    Basil simple syrup.

    The ingredients you will need

    basil simple syrup ingredients

    There are only three ingredients to make this simple syrup. Here is what you need:

    • Water. Any type of water is fine as long as you would drink it plain 🙂
    • Sugar. Granulated sugar is what you need. I prefer to use less processed sugar or unbleached granulated sugar. This will give a slight yellow hue to the syrup but it will not show through in your drinks.
    • Fresh basil leaves. It is important that you use fresh basil for this recipe. Any variety of fresh basil will work well. Thai basil, Italian basil, purple basil, etc.

    How to make basil simple syrup

    Add your sugar and water to a pot.
    simple syrup
    Bring it to a boil until it is clear.
    basil
    Add fresh basil.
    Let basil steep.
    • Warm sugar and water until the sugar dissolves.
    • Remove from the heat and add your fresh basil leaves and place a lid over top.
    • When cooled, remove basil leaves and pour your syrup into a container and use right away or refrigerate.

    When making this basil simple syrup, you are going to essentially steep your basil in the warm just off of the stove syrup. The longer you let the basil steep, the more basil flavor you are going to have so do not rush it.

    This recipe requires a little planning ahead but as I mentioned, it will last a long time. This is a great excuse to double the recipe and have lots of extra simple syrup on hand for a later uses.

    I use lots of this syrup in my homemade fruit popsicles. The basil flavor goes so well with so many fruits.

    strawberry basil popsicles

    How To Use Basil Syrup

    In our house, we also love using homemade simple syrups for our cocktails and popsicles. Basil simple syrup added to a cocktail is just amazing! Here are some of our favorite recipes using this basil syrup:

    • Italian Mocktail . We love adding a splash to this easy Italian Mocktail to really elevate the flavors.
    • Aperol and Soda. This recipe calls for regular simple syrup but you better believe we use basil simple syrup when we have it.
    • Grapefruit Lemon and Basil Popsicles
    • Strawberry and Basil Popsicles
    • Make a simple and refreshing Basil Lemonade.
    • Cocktails (see some ideas below!)

    It makes for less work in making cocktails too because you can just mix a little gin or vodka with this syrup and top it off with soda water and you have a really quick cocktail that tastes amazing.

    I will often make a few batches of different simple syrups and store them all in the back of the fridge for anytime we need them. In addition to this basil simple syrup I love making cherry simple syrup , rhubarb simple syrup , strawberry simple syrup, pear simple syrup , honey simple syrup and lavender simple syrup.

    They all make wonderful additions to drinks.

    The fruit simple syrups can be made from frozen fruit so I do not have to worry about what is in season. Basil you can find all year round in the grocery store so it is also a great year round simple syrup.

    simple syrup ingredients

    How Long Will Basil Simple Syrup Last?

    Simple syrups will last for a long time in your refrigerator. The little work that you go through in making it will not go to waste and you will thank yourself later on when you need it.

    I can keep my basil simple syrup in the fridge for up to a month before I begin to see sugar crystals forming. The best rule of thumb is just check on it in your fridge and make sure it looks clear and fresh and you will be good to go.

    More cocktails that go well with basil syrup

    All of these cocktails listed below use a simple syrup in the recipe. You can just swap out the plain simple syrup in the recipe for basil simple syrup for an amazing and big on flavor cocktail.

    • Aperol and soda
    • Aperol Fizz
    • Miami Vice
    • Chartreuse and Gin cocktail
    • Spiced Pear Cocktail

    Remember, any recipe that calls for simple syrup you can swap out for flavored simple syrups to really elevate the drink!

    basil simple syrup
    basil syrup
    Print Recipe
    5 from 12 votes

    Basil Simple Syrup

    A delicious simple syrup with basil that makes desserts, drinks and cocktails amazing.
    Prep Time10 minutes mins
    Cook Time10 minutes mins
    Total Time20 minutes mins
    Servings: 3 cups

    Tried the Recipe? We Would Love To Hear From You In The Comments Below!

    Author: Melissa

    Ingredients

    • 1 ½ cups of water
    • 1 ½ cups of sugar
    • large bunch of fresh basil leaves 15-20
    Follow Keeping It Simple Blog On Pinterest

    Instructions

    • Add water and sugar to a medium pot over medium heat
    • Warm the mixture until the sugar dissolves.
    • Once the sugar dissolves, remove from the heat and add your fresh basil leaves and place a lid over top.
    • Allow to cool with the basil leaves steeping in the simple syrup.
    • When cooled, remove basil leaves and pour your syrup into a container and use right away or refrigerate.

    Nutrition

    Calories: 387kcal | Carbohydrates: 100g | Sodium: 1mg | Potassium: 2mg | Sugar: 100g | Calcium: 1mg | Iron: 1mg

    Nutrition Values are estimates only.

    See full nutrition disclaimer here
    Course :Drinks

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    Reader Interactions

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      Recipe Rating




    1. Matt says

      March 14, 2023 at 11:49 am

      5 stars
      This is so delicious! I’ve used it in cocktails and iced tea and the whole family loves it. It is very easy to make and makes use of leftover basil I buy at the store.

      Reply
      • Melissa says

        March 14, 2023 at 11:54 am

        Love hearing that Matt! Thanks for sharing 🙂

        Reply
    2. Kevin says

      January 31, 2023 at 10:41 pm

      5 stars
      This basil syrup was easy to make and really tasty

      Reply
      • Melissa says

        February 01, 2023 at 12:55 am

        Hi Kevin. Thanks so much for sharing!

        Reply
    3. Frik says

      January 27, 2023 at 2:42 pm

      5 stars
      Absolutely delicious! I’ll be making this basil syrup often

      Reply
      • Melissa says

        January 27, 2023 at 3:08 pm

        So glad you enjoyed!

        Reply
    4. Danny says

      December 27, 2022 at 1:19 pm

      5 stars
      We made this for a party and it was delicious in cocktails!

      Reply
      • Melissa says

        December 27, 2022 at 1:20 pm

        So glad you enjoyed it Danny 🙂

        Reply
    5. Deanne says

      November 11, 2022 at 7:33 pm

      5 stars
      Very easy and so good in lemonade

      Reply
      • Melissa says

        November 11, 2022 at 7:41 pm

        I love it in lemonade too! Glad you enjoyed it!

        Reply
    6. Craig says

      February 16, 2022 at 5:39 pm

      5 stars
      This was amazing. Made a big batch for a gathering and let everyone make their own drinks and this was the most popular thing at the bar!

      Reply
    7. Fran says

      August 14, 2021 at 1:05 pm

      5 stars
      This was the best simple syrup I ever made!

      Reply

    Trackbacks

    1. Aperol and Rhubarb Fizz • Keeping It Simple Blog says:
      July 4, 2021 at 9:40 pm

      […] to make and is very easy. I make a good batch of this as I do many of my simple syrups, like this basil simple syrup, and just store them in the refrigerator until I need them. The flavored simple syrups will last […]

      Reply
    2. Grapefruit Lemon and Basil Popsicles • Keeping It Simple Blog says:
      June 18, 2021 at 4:37 pm

      […] basil simple syrup recipe. I can drink this stuff almost […]

      Reply
    3. Strawberry Top Simple Syrup • Keeping It Simple Blog says:
      May 21, 2021 at 7:04 pm

      […] Basil Simple Syrup […]

      Reply
    4. Aperol and Soda- A Quick Aperol Drink • Keeping It Simple Blog says:
      December 3, 2020 at 9:33 pm

      […] make the simple syrup portion of this drink, I have a recipe that will guide you through making a simple syrup. You can just omit the added flavor and follow the instructions using just the sugar and water […]

      Reply
    5. Italian Basil Mayonnaise • Keeping It Simple Blog says:
      December 3, 2020 at 9:12 pm

      […] Basil simple syrup […]

      Reply
    6. Sweet Cherry Simple Syrup • Keeping It Simple Blog says:
      October 31, 2020 at 1:41 pm

      […] Basil Simple Syrup […]

      Reply

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