Sweeten your summertime sips with a homemade Strawberry Simple Syrup. Made with three ingredients (and fresh or frozen strawberries), you can also pour this easy strawberry cocktail syrup onto pancakes or drizzle it over desserts.
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About this Strawberry Simple Syrup recipe
Strawberry-picking in the summertime is one of the best pastimes. I’m curious: What do you do with all those ruby red beauties?
After making chocolate-covered strawberries, baking strawberry shortcake, putting them into smoothies and — of course — snacking on them, and and and… Well, that all sounds like hard work. It’s time to make a cocktail!
Homemade Strawberry Simple Syrup is the easiest way to infuse the rich, sweet flavor of berries right into your favorite
More syrup recipes: Blueberry Syrup • Cherry Syrup • Prickly Pear Syrup • Rosemary Syrup • Cucumber Syrup
Why you’ll love this recipe
This strawberry syrup recipe is simply the best, and here’s why:
- You can make it with fresh or frozen strawberries, which is great for when these berries are out of season.
- With just three ingredients, it comes together in less than 20 minutes.
- Homemade syrups are an inexpensive and healthier alternative to store-bought cocktail syrups.
- And, you can use it in drinks, desserts, on breakfast foods… the options are endless!
The sweet secret behind better drinks
Have you ever tried to stir pure sugar into a cold
Homemade simple syrup is the answer to these problems. It’s a liquid sweetener made by combining sugar and water. You can use simple syrup to sweeten cocktails, mocktails, coffee, tea and other drinks. That’s its primary use, but you can also drizzle it over pancakes or ice cream. Bakers even use it to moisten cakes before decorating.
Once you’ve mastered classic simple syrup, there’s a whole world of flavor to explore. Try infusing herbs like basil or mint or spices like cinnamon or vanilla. You can even make syrups with fruit like blackberries, peaches or pumpkin. And strawberries, of course!
Ingredients
You only need to pick up three basic ingredients at the grocery store to make this fresh strawberry syrup. If you’d like to mix things up, check out the section below titled Variations & Substitutions.
- strawberries: You can use fresh or frozen berries — more on this below!
- water: Filtered water or distilled water will give you the best, purest results, but tap water is totally fine.
- sugar: Granulated sugar and cane sugar are my recommendations for this simple recipe, since it will allow for the best rosy red color.
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Best strawberries for syrup
Bright red, juicy, ripe, sweet strawberries are the best for this simple syrup. In fact, fruit that is a little bruised or is just about to go bad will make a very rich syrup with tons of sweet strawberry flavor.
Fresh strawberries will provide the most succulent, sweet flavor. Strawberry season will vary depending on where you live, but if you can get your hands on berries from a local grower, do it. It’s always nice to support local.
However, you can use frozen strawberries in this recipe, ideally sliced ones. Use them like you would fresh ones. If they are whole berries, let them thaw first then slice them and use them in this recipe.
Prep tip: Make sure you wash your berries before you begin. Then, use a strawberry huller* to remove the green tops of the berries and use a knife to slice the berries.
Substitutions
Use other types of sugar: You can use the same amount of brown sugar or honey instead, though both will alter the color of the syrup slightly. It will be a darker red.
Sugar-free strawberry syrup: Use your favorite sugar substitute instead of sugar to make a sugar-free syrup.
Thicker syrup: A thicker syrup may be ideal if you want to drizzle it over pancakes. For a thicker syrup, use a greater ratio of sugar to water. Typically a syrup recipe calls for an equal, 1:1 amount of sugar and liquid, but for a richer syrup you can use a 1.5:1 or 2:1 ratio instead. In this case, you would normally end up with about ½ cup of strawberry concentrate so you’d add ½ cup sugar, but for a richer syrup, you might do ¾ to 1 cup sugar.
Strawberry syrup vs. sauce: Straining out the berries is what makes strawberry syrup different from strawberry sauce, in which the solids stay mixed in. If you’d like, blend the syrup with the berries and sugar in a food processor or with an immersion blender until you get a smooth texture.
Flavor variations
Have fun mixing up this simple strawberry syrup recipe with new flavor combinations!
- Strawberry Mint Syrup: Add mint sprigs to the syrup while it cools to infuse mint flavor. Use it to make big batches of strawberry mojitos.
- Mixed Berry Syrup: Use a mixture of berries, such as raspberries, blackberries and blackberries, in addition to the strawberries.
- Strawberry Rhubarb Syrup: Reduce the strawberries by half and add as much diced rhubarb. Cook until the rhubarb is soft, then strain out the fruit and add sugar. Then use it in this strawberry rhubarb champagne cocktail.
- Strawberry Maple Syrup: Use maple syrup instead of sugar to create a strawberry-flavored maple syrup.
Instructions
Though you can buy strawberry simple syrup, this recipe is so very easy and inexpensive to make. In my opinion, it is just not worth buying, as it tastes so much better with fresh berries!
First, wash the berries, then hull (remove the stems) and slice, dice or quarter the berries (it doesn’t really matter, you just want smaller pieces). Add them to a saucepan, along with water.
Bartender secret
For regular simple syrup, you typically need as much sugar as you do water, but a recipe with fresh fruit is a little different. First, boil the water and strawberries together to get a reduced strawberry juice. Strain out the solids, then stir in as much sugar as there is strawberry liquid to make the syrup.
In a medium saucepan, bring water and chopped strawberries to a boil. Lower the heat and bring to a simmer for 15 minutes. Remove from heat.
Save the berries! You can save the cooked strawberries to muddle in cocktails like a berry mojito or blend them into a strawberry daiquiri. You could also enjoy them over yogurt or oatmeal for breakfast.
Use a fine mesh sieve * to remove the solids and fruit pulp as you strain the hot liquid into a bowl or jar. While still warm, stir in sugar until dissolved. Let cool to room temperature.
Storing simple syrup
Store your homemade strawberry syrup in an airtight container, such as a mason jar or glass bottle, in the fridge for up to three weeks. If it ever looks cloudy or has an odor, it’s time to toss it and make a new batch! You can also freeze simple syrup to use in the future.
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Tips & tricks
- For a richer, thicker syrup, use 1.5x or 2x as much sugar.
- Super ripe strawberries, even ones that are bruised and ugly, have the best flavor.
- Frozen berries are still a good shortcut though!
Drinks with Strawberry Syrup
The opportunities for this homemade strawberry cocktail syrup recipe are endless! Here are a few of my favorite ways to use it (and here are even more strawberry drinks if this isn’t enough!):
- Strawberr-ify classic drinks: A strawberry daiquiri or strawberry margarita is a great way to enjoy the flavor of strawberries. They are the perfect summer cocktails!
- Go beyond the classics: Try it in a bourbon Kentucky buck or a beer cocktail, like the strawberry French Monaco. Or try a strawberry chiller with coconut milk and whipped cream vodka.
- Use syrup instead of muddling: Some cocktails require smashing fresh berries, but you can simplify it with syrup — and make more drinks, faster. Try it in a strawberry Moscow mule or a strawberry mint julep.
- Sweeten anything: Stir it into lemonade (for strawberry lemonade) or make strawberry iced tea. Mix it into a boozy strawberry rosé sangria to sweeten it.
- Make strawberry mocktails: This sparkling strawberry mocktail is perfect for celebrating. Another fun one is an Italian soda with strawberry syrup and club soda.
Other uses for Strawberry Simple Syrup
Beyond drinks, there are so many ways to use this delectable fruit syrup! Here are a few ideas:
- Pour it over vanilla ice cream or other desserts like angel food cake.
- Drizzle it over pancakes, waffles or French toast.
- Add a splash to a fancy dessert like fraisier cake or strawberry pots de creme.
More strawberry recipes
Strawberry Syrup
ingredients
- 1 cup water
- 1 cup strawberries
- ½ cup sugar
instructions
- Wash the fruit. Hull strawberries to remove stems, then quarter them. (See Notes section below for tips on using frozen strawberries.)
- In a medium saucepan, bring water and strawberries to a boil. Lower the heat and bring to a simmer for 15 minutes. Remove from heat.
- Pour through a fine mesh strainer * to strain the hot liquid into a bowl or jar. Discard solids.
- While still warm, add sugar to the strawberry mixture and stir until sugar dissolves.
- Let cool to room temperature. Store in an airtight container for up to two weeks.
notes
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