Simple syrup is just that – simple! It’s the magic in everything from lemonade to your favorite sweet cocktail. It takes less than two minutes to make and will keep in the fridge for weeks. Make some today and be ready to offer the best summer drinks in town!
Whenever I serve lemonade it takes me back to the summer of 1977. Christie and I had been unable to find summer jobs so we decided to open our own business. Her grandfather and my dad built us a sweet push cart which we used as a movable lemonade stand. We wore matching uniforms of red and white gingham skirts, white t-shirts, bobby socks with lace and jelly shoes. Trust me, we were quite fetching! We made a deal with a sandwich shop in the Saint John City Market where we would sell his sandwiches, with a ten cent profit per sandwich to us, and in turn we were able to park our cart outside his shop and set up there every morning – as long as we were out of the way by 8 am! In retrospect, not the best deal for us but at the time we thought it was marvelous!
We rolled our loaded cart out of the City Market across the street and into King’s Square to sell bags of shelled peanuts, popcorn, slices of watermelon, sandwiches and lemonade. We sold the lemonade for a dollar a glass and couldn’t keep up with the sales. I know that you’re thinking it was lovely freshly squeezed tart lemonade but alas I have to fess up. It was a mix. A nasty completely chemically altered drink mix. This was the beginning of my marketing training. We used over-sized, brightly colored, plastic cups loaded with ice cubes garnished with a slice of lemon. It’s all about the presentation! We didn’t advertise “fresh lemonade” nor did we ever verbally promote it as such but all summer long we had a line up of thirsty customers waiting for “the best lemonade in town”!
Now that I’m decades older and a tiny bit wiser I can say with great certainty that the taste is every bit as important as the presentation. When I serve lemonade now I use ice cold water, ice cubes, fresh lemon juice and simple syrup to taste. Not only does it look delicious but tastes delicious as well! Play around with the amount of lemon juice and syrup until you find you’re own secret recipe. You never know, you might want to have a lemonade stand some day…
Simple Syrup
1 cup sugar
2 cups water
Mix together in a medium sized pot
Place over medium high and simmer until sugar is completely dissolved – stir often.
Cool then refrigerate.
Will keep for weeks.
THE LOVE: Make sure that you stir the syrup while it’s dissolving.
one year ago: raspberry lemon verbena sorbet
two years ago: portobello mushroom caps stuffed with sweet potato, cheese and lemon thyme
Thanks for reading
