Homemade syrup

I am a lover of a fun little beverage; as I type this right now, I have a coffee sitting next to me. It's not unusual for me at home to have several drinks to choose from at any given time. And part of a fun little drink is often the fun little syrup you add to said drink. While you can buy pre-made syrups, making a simple syrup at home is extremely easy. It's just a 1:1 ratio of sugar to water that's then boiled.

To make a basic simple syrup, take one cup of sugar, one cup of water, mix together, and boil for one minute.

Adding flavor is extremely easy: replace the water for tea or juice, steep cardamom or vanilla pods in the water before adding, or play around with what sugar you use.

Some of my favorites:

Blackberry vanilla: take two cups frozen blackberries and let thaw. Once thawed, squish as much juice as possible out, straining out the pulp. Use the juice as the liquid in the simple syrup (topping off with water as needed to get an equal amount of water to sugar). Add a little vanilla paste. I mix this in with sparkling water.

Lemon lavender: Add a teaspoon of dried french lavender to 1/2 cup boiling water, and steep for five minutes. Strain out the lavender, and add enough lemon juice to make one cup of liquid. This is the syrup for one of my friend's favorite cocktails (this syrup, sparkling water, vodka, and a cherry).

Vanilla earl grey: Steep one tablespoon of loose leaf earl grey in 1 cup of boiling water for three minutes. Strain out the tea leaves and use the steeped tea to make a syrup, adding a little vanilla paste at the end. Add this syrup to steamed milk to make a London fog. Add lavender to the earl grey tea to make a Lady Grey London fog.