where can u buy simple syrup (the cocktail ingredient) in the u.k. ?

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every american coctail
recipe mentions it, and sugar
just aint the same.

― piscesboy, Thursday, 8 May 2003 15:19 (twenty-two years ago)

ha ha you don't buy it -- you make it
rosemary to thread

― Mary (Mary), Thursday, 8 May 2003 15:21 (twenty-two years ago)

the oft mentioned booze shop on Old Compton street, also the one on Poland street off TCR will have it too, try for sirop de Gomme

― chris (chris), Thursday, 8 May 2003 15:22 (twenty-two years ago)

heh heh.

If you can boil water, you can make simple syrup.

― rosemary (rosemary), Thursday, 8 May 2003 15:46 (twenty-two years ago)

2 parts sugar to 1 part water. Boil five minutes. Pour into some container that won't break upon contact with sugar-water mix at 100C, or better yet, let it cool a bit, and then refrigerate.

― Benjamin (benjamin), Thursday, 8 May 2003 16:00 (twenty-two years ago)

eh ? how /why do i add boiling water
to an ice cold cocktail ?
oh you mean boil then cool ?
doesn't make sense, as sugar dissolves on contact with
many an alcoholic drink...

gomme de sirop sounds like what i need.

having fun has ne'er been so difficult.

― piscesboy, Thursday, 8 May 2003 16:21 (twenty-two years ago)

You make the simple syrup in advance and let it cool. Simple syrup is easier to mix into your cocktail than sugar, in part because the point of saturation for your cocktail could well leave an undissolved mass of sugar crystals at the bottom of your drink.

It may not seem easier to make a syrup than to mix in sugar, but you'll be glad you made the effort.

― Benjamin (benjamin), Thursday, 8 May 2003 16:28 (twenty-two years ago)

Gum syrup is fine. You just want a supersaturated sugar solution.

― Benjamin (benjamin), Thursday, 8 May 2003 16:34 (twenty-two years ago)

if you try to make limeade or lemonade by just stirring in sugar it seems like you've never added enuf, you stir and stir and pour and pour but it still tastes bitter because the sugar's not dissolving

a mojito is the only drink i can think of that actually calls for straight-up sugar, but that's even more work: grinding it into mint leaves and lime juice with a pestle!!

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Thursday, 8 May 2003 16:46 (twenty-two years ago)

but yeah it takes < 5 minutes to make a batch that you can keep in the fridge for weeks

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Thursday, 8 May 2003 16:47 (twenty-two years ago)

woah ! tracer ! that's what i was making.
it was still a bit bitter-y but i liked it
even with straight up sugar. dunno about you
but the combo of crush'd mint leaves and zingy fresh limes fair knocked me out when i first had it. the 'aroma' i mean.

― piscesboy, Thursday, 8 May 2003 16:58 (twenty-two years ago)

Rosemary and I thew the symple syrup in the fridge to cool it cause we couldn't wait to start mixing our cocktails. Post New Years I sadly let it sit on my range for about three months until Gareth came to visit and I did a clean up. It holds up surprisingly well.

― Mary (Mary), Thursday, 8 May 2003 16:59 (twenty-two years ago)

and if you really want to, you can use the leftovers to make caramel by boiling it till golden brown. just use a cookie sheet and wax paper and you can go nuts w/design. or peanut brittle! etc.

― M Matos (M Matos), Thursday, 8 May 2003 17:17 (twenty-two years ago)

i don't know
why everyone likes mojito
that drink is indeed
crap

― Mary (Mary), Friday, 9 May 2003 01:53 (twenty-two years ago)

but
i think i've seen ya
with a caipirinha

what about that?

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Friday, 9 May 2003 04:57 (twenty-two years ago)

You get a little vial of simple syrup with your iced tea, in some nice places in Japan. Even cheap places often have simple syrup in little packets for use in iced tea. I wish to God we had that in the US.

― Layna Andersen (Layna Andersen), Friday, 9 May 2003 06:40 (twenty-two years ago)

moi
with a caiprinha?
c'est impossible~!
i don't even know
what that is

(That's what that nice stuff in Japan is? I never knew. Yet is is gooood.)

― Mary (Mary), Friday, 9 May 2003 19:57 (twenty-two years ago)

You see the sugar syrup on the side with iced tea in the U.S. occasionally. I've had it within recent memory at Verbena in NYC and Citizen Cake in SF.

Why the mojito hating, though, Mary? I agree their trendiness is undue and disturbing, but fresh mint? and good rum? Mmmmm.

Caipirinha is a similar idea from Brazil, with cacha¸a and minus mint.

― Paul Eater (eater), Friday, 9 May 2003 20:08 (twenty-two years ago)

I included my cedilla but forgot its c. Meant to say: cachaça.

― Paul Eater (eater), Friday, 9 May 2003 20:10 (twenty-two years ago)

Mojitos are too sweet and ewww.

― Mary (Mary), Friday, 9 May 2003 20:45 (twenty-two years ago)

Whereas gummi-bear martinis are sweet and not ewww?

I know this is the classic fallback argument of disputatio de gustibus, but maybe you just haven't had a good mojito.

― Paul Eater (eater), Friday, 9 May 2003 21:14 (twenty-two years ago)

It's quite possible: I've only had two, and granted not in the most salubrious of settings, one was the drink of choice at last year's Asian Art Fair opening party (cough!) and the other was at some crap excuse for a restaurant across from The Public on Lafayettte Street. Still, it could be that the mojito is just not my thang. I quite like mint julips though.

― Mary (Mary), Friday, 9 May 2003 21:21 (twenty-two years ago)

Gummi bear martinis are the ambrosia of the gods.

― Mary (Mary), Friday, 9 May 2003 21:21 (twenty-two years ago)

Mary, do you hate rum?

I actually haven't had a mojito in a year or more, but I seem to recall there being quite good ones at Kush, the Moroccan-themed bar on Orchard Street (which is now enjoying a new life as a Legal Smoking Bar).

― Paul Eater (eater), Friday, 9 May 2003 22:13 (twenty-two years ago)

The Angel's Share is known for its delicious cocktails but the mojitos there are atrocious, even if you like the general idea, so Paul's fallback might indeed hold for you, Mary.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Friday, 9 May 2003 22:17 (twenty-two years ago)

Angel's Share, yes. Great lychee daiquiris (though they're treacherously low in alcohol). Also scotch.

― Paul Eater (eater), Friday, 9 May 2003 22:25 (twenty-two years ago)

I do like rum though I stay away from Moroccan themed bars as a general principle. And yes yes yes on Angel Share. I guess all those articles predicting rum as the *it* liquor of the summer were right.

― Mary (Mary), Friday, 9 May 2003 23:20 (twenty-two years ago)

haha rum is the "it" drink EVERY summer!

dark rum when it's hot
if the year is odd
even year summer: light rum is god. i mean good.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Friday, 9 May 2003 23:53 (twenty-two years ago)

i wish then
that i had
some rum
right now
what other
drinks are good
that are made
from rum?

― Mary (Mary), Friday, 9 May 2003 23:55 (twenty-two years ago)

Rum's a great addition to any champagne cocktail, especially Bellinis (champagne + peach, preferably frozen). Hell, even just Captain Morgan's + champagne is good.

― Tep (ktepi), Saturday, 10 May 2003 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

i dunno
i'm just not feeling
the rum vibe
maybe i stick to
gummi bear martinis
mint juleps
and the like
i also like
lynchburg lemonade

― Mary (Mary), Saturday, 10 May 2003 00:04 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm still afraid to ask what's in a gummi bear martini besides gummi bears, because it sounds like one of those "anything in a martini glass is a whatchamacallitini and two bucks extra" drinks that I rail and wrath about after drinking three or four of them.

― Tep (ktepi), Saturday, 10 May 2003 00:08 (twenty-two years ago)

but tep they were like $1.50! just flavored martinis with gummi bears at the bottom of them i wish there were more but there were just a couple in the future they should crush down the gummi bears into a pulp add some gin or vodka and voila! gummi bear martini, of course they'd have to include some real ones for garnishes

― Mary (Mary), Saturday, 10 May 2003 00:24 (twenty-two years ago)

Geez, $1.50? The only thing I can get that cheap here is a beer or a shooter (of the jello shot/Schnapps/cherry bomb sort). Maybe it's only New Orleans that's ripping people off (drinking is such a big part of our tourism, that should maybe not surprise me).

I'll bet you could Cuisinart up some gummi bears and let them sit in the gin for a bit to expand. It'd be like an alcoholic version of those pearl teas (or for me, since they don't do pearl tea here, Cici juice drinks, which are like Capri Suns with jello worms in them, only good).

I officially approve of gummi bear martinis.

― Tep (ktepi), Saturday, 10 May 2003 00:30 (twenty-two years ago)

Oh, and as far as the thread topic -- simple sirup is great! for making your own sodas. I keep a cleaned ketchup bottle of it in the fridge and buy those little bottles of club soda. Club soda + a little syrup + vanilla = vanilla soda. A little lemon and lime juice = Sprite. Some sassafras concentrate (which, granted, they don't seem to sell up northaways) = root beer.

It's all the pleasure of a Snoopy Sno-Cone machine, with none of the plastic beagle.

― Tep (ktepi), Saturday, 10 May 2003 00:39 (twenty-two years ago)

My summer favorite rum drink is the Mount Gay Gimlet.

― Paul Eater (eater), Saturday, 10 May 2003 17:24 (twenty-two years ago)

paul eater have you been reading black book?

overhpyed: mojito
underhyped: caipirinha

― Mary (Mary), Friday, 16 May 2003 21:52 (twenty-two years ago)

It is so easy to make its not true. Heat some water, dissolve sugar in the water, allow to cool, bingo, sugar syrup.

― Ed (dali), Saturday, 17 May 2003 07:31 (twenty-two years ago)

Dark brown sugar is way more authentic for a mojito anyway, its great scooping out a few undisolved grains at the end of the drink.

― Ed (dali), Saturday, 17 May 2003 07:31 (twenty-two years ago)

yes, the dark sugar is best for sure. make it in advance and chill in the fridge, then you can rub it over the edge ot the glasses ...mmmmmmmmm

― donna (donna), Saturday, 17 May 2003 07:56 (twenty-two years ago)

i sipped a caipirinha last nite -- my friend ordered one with dinner -- it was sweet & ew! maybe i am just not made for these times

― Mary (Mary), Saturday, 17 May 2003 17:15 (twenty-two years ago)

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