Basil Simple Syrup

Basil Simple syrup is a wonderful addition of flavor to sweeten your iced tea, lemonade, cocktails and 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.

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Total Time: 1 hour 20 minutes

About 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.

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.

The ingredients in basil simple syrup:

• water
• sugar
• fresh basil leaves

How to make basil simple syrup:

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.

How To Use Basil Simple 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. From this basil simple syrup to my cherry simple syrup or even rhubarb 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.

I hope you give this delicious basil simple syrup a try. It is worth it!

If you are looking for some cocktails that go well with basil simple 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 (this basil simple syrup would be amazing with chartreuse)
• Spice Pear Cocktail

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