Transform Your Lilac Bush Into Springtime Cocktails With This Simple Syrup

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Unique simple syrups are easy to make, and having them on hand means you can instantly update just about anything in a snap. In particular, floral simple syrups are our favorite cocktail upgrade. Delicate yet distinctive, sweet with a hint of bitterness, and evocative of nature, it's no wonder floral flavors have become increasingly popular in baked goods and drinks from lattes to cocktails. Elderflower, rose, and lavender are just a few options for adding a bit of garden enchantment to any beverage. Or, for a fresh twist, look to another one of many edible flowers with multiple uses: lilac. 

Lilac will bring a light honey aroma to cocktails, with a lovely balance of bitterness and sweetness. A syrup will also prolong the spring-to-summer magic of its brief season. Lilacs only grow from about mid-April to mid-June at best, and a syrup captures their flavor to enjoy for weeks to come. Creating a lilac syrup is refreshingly easy. You'll make it just like any other flavored syrup you've crafted yourself — and it's an approachable process even if it's your first time. 

Importantly, make sure you're using a lilac variety from the more common Syringa genus. These are the kinds of lilac you're more likely to find anyway, but you do want to avoid anything under the Melia azedarach species, as these are not true lilacs and are actually toxic. These off-limits plants could be called Cape lilac, bead-tree, or white cedar. Safe and ideal Syringa varieties include 'Primrose,' 'Betsy Ross,' 'Superba,' 'Miss Canada,' and 'Sensation.'

Making this type of syrup is pretty similar to the process outlined in this simple lavender syrup recipe. First, snip flowers from your own lilac bush, ask a friend, or buy them. Then, separate them from their stems, as green stems will impart too much bitterness. It's not a bad idea to give the flowers a rinse, too, if they came right from outside. Place the flowers into a heat-safe jar with slices of lemon, and then make your simple syrup. 

Just add equal parts sugar and water (about a cup of each is a good amount) to a saucepan and let it cook over heat until the sugar is totally dissolved. You can use less sugar if you prefer less sweetness, and you can also try different sugars, such as brown, for warmer, deeper sweetness — though white sugar is likely best for lilac's lighter profile. You can even make simple syrup without heat by adding the sugar and water to a bottle and periodically shaking it over the course of an hour. 

Pour the hot syrup into the jar with the lilac and lemon and give it a stir and a quick muddle for extra flavor. Let it cool on your countertop, then refrigerate it overnight and strain it the next day. An alternative method is to dry your lilac, then add it right into the sugar and water when you're cooking it. Let it steep covered up to an hour, then strain it. In a clean, airtight container, your lilac syrup will last in your fridge for up to a month; once you open the jar or bottle, use it within about two weeks.

You can experiment with the lilac syrup itself: Add some frozen blueberries to the syrup when it's boiling for a more vibrant purple hue, or keep them in the jar for blueberry flavor, too. While you don't want to overwhelm the lilac with any flavors that are too bold, you could also add other blooms, such as rose, herbs like mint, or fruits like blackberry. Once you have your lilac syrup, the options get really limitless. 

It's a great iced tea upgrade for summer, brings nice sweetness to a lemonade, and is perfect with a simple sparkling water. For cocktails, lilac simple syrup is the perfect floral ingredient to upgrade your gin martini, mingling with the gin's own botanicals. Following that logic, lilac syrup shines in a classic gin and tonic, and really in any summer gin cocktails – the floral sweetness, for example, makes a lovely partner to cucumber's crisp greenness in a cucumber gimlet. Basically a gin sour with blackberries, the bramble is a simple, iconic drink from the 1980s that would also benefit from lilac's floral notes. 

Similarly, vodka cocktails are an easy win for lilac syrup, because the vodka lets the lilac express itself. Vodka-spiked pink lemonade is perfect; on that note, lilac would sing in a lemon drop martini or a basil Meyer lemon vodka Collins. For the same reason that lemon is a good inclusion to the syrup itself, the combo of bright acidity and floral sweetness works wonders in these drinks. If you're eager to try this, you can buy a potted Syringa vulgaris shrub from Grower's Solution on Amazon to plant in your garden.