Many alcoholic drinks call for the use of simple syrup. All well and fine and as the name suggests it is “simple” so you can make it at home with ease (or buy it).
But since it is just sugar water why bother? Why not just add a bit of sugar (and water if necessary) to the drink when you make it and skip the syrup part?
Seems even more simple that way with a similar result.
Sugar water has been brought to a boil to dissolve the sugar into the water.
Water and sugar can be stirred but the sugar will never fully dissolve without boiling it.
I assume that would make a cocktail with a grainy texture. I rarely drink cocktails and can’t comment for sure.
Suger does not dissolve well in cold liquids. Most cocktails are cold. Using simple syrup mixes in with just a stir or two.
Additionally, according to Alton Brown, when the suger water is simmered for a few moments the suger breaks down into sucrose and fructose and becomes sweeter than the original suger.
GaryM
It’s this. Adding sugar directly to the drink usually leaves it with undissolved crystals unless you agitate it enough for long enough. It’s a pain in the ass to get it all dissolved when something as easy as simple syrup does the trick. Same thing with making lemonade from scratch. I always make a simple syrup.
Sure it will. It just takes longer.
You can just use sugar, but it doesn’t dissolve as well. A traditional old fashioned is made with a sugar cube, but a bit of syrup mixes better.
As everyone has said it’s just easier to use to sweeten cold drinks, they don’t have to be alcoholic - for example it works great with iced tea.
With simple syrup, the sugar has been pre-dissolved.
It wouldn’t be sweeter if the disaccharide were broken down into the two monosaccharides and simmering in water wouldn’t break sucrose down.
Pfui. When I make an Old Fashioned or a Sazerac, I swirl a little sugar and water together until dissolved, then build the drink on top of it. Not one person has ever said “HEY you didn’t make a simple syrup!”
Actually, you just did.
Simple syrup is very convenient to have on hand if you’re going to be using it often. It’s much easier to squirt some syrup from a bottle than it is to scoop sugar from a bag. You don’t have to worry, not even a little bit, about whether your sugar has dissolved properly.
It’s also extremely easy to make infused simple syrups, and this is where the true magic of the stuff comes in. A mojito made with mint-infused syrup is going to be much, much tastier than one where the mint flavor comes only from the muddling process.
I guess the difference is he did not boil it.
I was just repeating what he said on one of his shows.
GaryM
When I make simple syrup I use one cup of water and two cups of sugar. You could stir that for hours and it wouldn’t dissolve.
GaryM
Yeah, it’s probably a bit on the “watered down” side of a simple syrup, which is often 1:1, although, as seen above, can be more concentrated. At 1:1, you don’t need to heat it up at all, but it will take about 10-20 minutes to fully dissolve at room temperature. For 2:1 syrup, it looks like you need about 45 minutes.
I would imagine that if one was a bartender, expecting to make a whole bunch of drinks in a row, having a few jugs of simple syrup would speed things up a bit.
And time is money, right?
Just for fun, since I was a little skeptical of that Serious Eats article and its proclamation that after 45 minutes it would dissolve, I’m empirically testing it. So far, I’m at about an hour an a half, and it’s still got lots of visible sugar particulates in it. I started with 1 cup sugar, 1/2 cup water. I didn’t stir beyond the initial stir until 30 minutes in. At the 30 minute point, there was about a layer of sugar on the bottom of the glass about 1/8 the total volume. I stirred it good, waited another half hour, and we’re at maybe about a tenth. Thirty minutes later, and we still have a cloudy syrup. Tasting it, I’m not getting chunks of sugar granules, but it’s definitely not a clear syrup. I’m guessing it’ll be more like 2-3 hours to completely dissolve. I’ll report back.
It’s also courtesy to people waiting for their drinks.