When I worked at a coffee shop, my favorite drink was Italian cream soda, hands down. I love sugary coffee drinks but they are rather unkind to my stomach (and my nerves). Ever since being able to make the sodas to my specifications, I haven’t quite been satisfied with most shop-bought sodas. Club soda and half and half are easily obtained, but the syrups used in coffee shops are generally rather expensive. Imagine my excitement (seriously, I squealed out loud) when I discovered that you can, in fact, very easily make flavored syrups at home! Even if you don’t want to use them on sodas, they can also be used in teas and alcohol drinks as well, and made in a huge variety of flavors. Here’s the three versions I’ve used:
Basic recipe taken from here and modified.
Raspberry syrup:
- 6 oz (a little over a cup) of raspberries, either fresh or thawed frozen ones will work
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 1/2 cups water
Put sugar and water in pot; heat until sugar is dissolved and the syrup is clear. Add raspberries and turn down to very low heat; let simmer for 30 minutes. Turn off heat, let cool to room temperature, and strain out raspberries – I like to use a straining spoon because I don’t want to lose syrup and I’m not picky about a few berry bits left behind in the syrup. Put in a bottle & keep in the fridge.
Plum syrup:
- 2 plums
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 1/2 cups water
Directions are the same as for the raspberry syrup, but you’ll need to chop up the plums ahead of time. I cut it to try and maximize the surface area; the end result was a bunch of chunks about a half an inch square. I wasn’t 100% for sure this would work when I tried it, but it worked out pretty well, if I do say so myself.
Vanilla syrup:
- 2-3 teaspoons of vanilla
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 1/2 cups water
Add sugar and water, heat until syrup is clear and sugar is dissolved. Turn off heat and stir in vanilla. Let cool, bottle, and refrigerate.
Basic Italian cream soda – for every 8 ounces (1 cup) of club soda, add one shot half and half, and one and a half shots of syrup. I do one shot vanilla and a half a shot raspberry for a sweet but not too sweet cream soda. Obviously, you can adjust the amounts to taste. Or leave out the cream entirely for a plain Italian soda. Add a shot of vanilla vodka if you like! It’s even better topped with whipped cream, but I don’t usually have that on hand.
Alternately, in case there are any Sweet Leaf tea fans in the house, I’ve discovered a fair alternative to their delicious (but not sold in large bottles & too expensive to buy constantly in small bottles) raspberry tea. 2 tea bags of Celestial Seasonings cool brew raspberry black tea and half a shot raspberry syrup for every cup of cold water.
I imagine that using this basic set-up you could probably make flavored syrup with just about anything – for mint, steep mint leaves, other berries would be easy enough, although you might want to chop up strawberries. I haven’t tried different fruits other than the plum, but I’d think the technique would work on most fruits. The sky’s the limit!
Enjoy!
