Homemade Mint and Melissa Syrup
It’s been over ten years that we’ve been making melissa and mint syrup at home. First and foremost, because these two wonderful herbs grow so abundantly in our garden, we often need to make room for other vegetables. Other than letting the herbs dry and using them in the kitchen or to make tea, making syrup is a great way to use a variety of herbs.
We often make syrup from many different herbs. Adding to melissa and mint (which we have the most of) we sometimes use oregano, tarragon, savory, lemongrass and basil. Basically, we use whatever gets a trim at the beginning of the main gardening season because it’s taking up too much of our garden.
Since forever there has been a “no store-bought flavored drinks” policy in my home (curtesy of my mom). So, homemade herb syrup and elderflower cordial have been a great way of adding flavor not only to water but also to sweeten tea or smoothies and adding to homemade ice-creams. Other than that, they can be brushed over cake layers to keep the cake moist. Also, they make a great gift!
Ingredients
Below is the recipe for the simplest version of herb-infused syrup, using only four ingredients. Naturally, there is a lot of room to experiment. Not just with a variety of herbs, but also by adding edible flowers (like rose petals) or berries (such as juniper berries), slices of ginger and lemon or even cardamom pods. Making slight adjustments in the recipe makes it fun!
Here are the basic four ingredients for any herb-infused syrup
herb or herb mix of choice
You can really use whichever herbs you prefer, we use mostly melissa and mint, sometimes adding oregano, tarragon, lemongrass, savory and basil in different quantities. Personalize according to you taste!
water
The less water you use, the more concentrated syrup you’ll end up with. Keep in mind that the volume of the syrup increases significantly with the addition of sugar.
sugar
We use white sugar, adding the same amount of sugar as water.
citric acid
About 33 to 35 grams per liter of water.
Mint and melissa syrup recipe
Pick the mint and melissa leaves. Soaking only the leaves in water enables you to get more flavor in the same quantity of water, resulting in a more concentrated syrup.
Bring the water to a boil. Based on your quantity of herbs, adjust the amount of water. Keep in mind how intense you would like the syrup to be. I use about three big handfuls of leaves per liter of water. Once the water is boiling, turn off the heat and add the leaves. At this point, add also citric acid.
Cover the pot and let the leaves soak for 2 to 3 days (at room temperature). After that, strain the mixture through a cloth. The leaves have given most of their flavor to the water. At this point, you can use them as mulch in the garden! Once strained, measure the amount of your flavored liquid and for every liter add a kilogram of sugar. Mix well to dissolve the sugar. It takes a couple of minutes, but it's actually the part of the recipe I enjoy the most.
When the sugar is dissolved, pour the syrup into glass bottles and close well. The bottles can obviously be reused, but the general rule is to always use new lids. Place the bottles into a high-sided pot and fill it with water almost to the top. Sterilize the syrup by bringing the water to a boil and letting it boil for about 5 minutes. Then, turn off the heat and let the syrup cool down completely in the pot. Label the bottles and stock the pantry! Try using the syrup in different ways. It will easily keep until next season!