How to: Make lavender syrup

Happy Friday everyone!  This is a How To post on making your own lavender simple syrup.  I have loved this stuff for years, and use it to make lavender lemonade, lavender iced tea, and most recently a cocktail called a Lavender Collins.  I used to buy the Monin brand, but when I decided to adapt the Lavender Collins recipe, I wanted to try my hand at making my own syrup as well.

I first purchased lavender at Williams-Sonoma.  It was a .3 oz jar of French lavender for $7.95.  Wow!  My BFF suggested that I check out the bulk section at the natural grocery store.  I am a big fan of bulk for spices, but I was skeptical that they would have something like lavender in the stores here.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that they did have it!  So I ended up getting about an ounce for .87 cents.  Now, the Williams-Sonoma brand does have a deeper color and is more fragrant, so it probably is a higher quality product.  But I got more than twice as much lavender for about 10 percent of what I paid at WS.  So, yeah, I'm going to be buying this from bulk spices from now on.

Bulk spice on the left: .87 cents.  WS on the right:  $7.95

All you need for your syrup is lavender, sugar, and water.  Simple, right?

Lavender Syrup (Recipe from Food and Wine)
1/4 cup organic dried lavender
1/2 plus 3 tablespoons water
1/2 cup sugar

Combine your lavender and 1/2 cup of water in a saucepan.  Bring to a boil and then allow to simmer for 3 minutes.  Remove from heat and let it sit for 20 minutes.  Strain the liquid into a separate container.  You will be left with a beautiful, deep purple liquid.

Now combine 1/2 cup of sugar with the 3 tablespoons of water.  Bring it to a boil, and give it a few stirs.  Continue to boil until it reaches 280 degrees ( about 4 minutes).  Leaving it on the heat, slowly pour in your lavender liquid, stirring until it is nicely combined into a smooth syrup.  Take off the heat and allow to cool.  Now you can transfer it to the container of your choice.  It can be refrigerated for 3 days.  I tried to freeze mine in ice cube trays and it didn't work out so well.  The sugar in the syrup prevents it from freezing.  So I have these gooey, non-frozen ice cubes in my freezer.  But I've still been using them to make drinks, so I guess it sort of works?

Aside from making delicious beverages, you can also drizzle this over cake, pour it over ice cream, toss some fruit in it - basically you can add it to anything you want to give a fresh and unique flavor to.  Try it in a Lavender Collins!