Summer Syrups

Non-alcoholic drinks and cocktail ideas for summer grilling and more

Last week was unseasonably hot in NYC and an endless stream of cold beverages has been sustaining me throughout conference room meetings and dog walks. To avoid overdoing it on caffeine, I've been brewing herbal iced teas and lemonades flavored with syrups made from farmers’ market hauls. Flavored syrups have long appeared on Alpine tables, going back hundreds of years to when cordials and “shrubs” were used to preserve fresh fruits and create medicinal tinctures. Today blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, genepi, and chestnuts are just some of the local syrups you’ll find throughout the region.

My first experience with homemade herbal syrups goes back 15 years ago to when I was living in Austria and a friend from university invited me to her family’s house in the mountains. With lunch, a bottle of sweetened syrup made with flowers and herbs from the garden was placed on the table alongside a bottle of Austrian seltzer. The flavor tasted so fervently of the landscape around us and I never forgot it.