DIY: Blood Orange Syrup Recipe

For the past two years, we've released a micro batch (100 bottles) of Bitter Blood Orange Syrup inspired by our travels in Italy. We loved it. You loved it.

 This year, we decided not to make it again because we have some other ideas up our sleeves (scroll to the end of this email for more!).

 

But blood orange season is upon us, and if you need this syrup in your life (like I do), I want to make sure you can get it!

 

Here's our recipe (scaled down for home production :))

2 blood oranges

1 cup water

1 cup sugar

1 tablespoon lemon or lime juice

 

Wash your oranges well. Unless you're buying organic, they'll be coated with food grade wax, and it's nice to get as much of that off as you can (even organic produce is sometimes coated). Soak your oranges in very hot water for about 5 minutes, then scrub with a vegetable brush or clean cloth.

Zest the oranges directly into your sugar and stir everything up. The sugar will help pull the oils out of the zest. This is where soooo much flavor comes from. If you like, you can cover and rest this infused sugar on the counter or in the fridge for a day or so, but you can also move directly to the next step.

Juice the oranges, then chop the peels up in to medium sized chunks.

Throw everything (zest infused sugar, water, orange juice, orange peels, and lemon/lime juice) into a small pot and heat over medium heat. You're mostly just looking for the sugar to dissolve - there's not a lot of infusion that needs to happen. When the sugar is dissolved, take the syrup off the heat, let cool, and strain through a fine mesh sieve into an airtight container of your choice. Store syrup in the fridge.

That's it! Sometimes I add a little more lemon/lime juice to bring the citrus notes up a bit - feel free to play around until you get it just how you like it, just make small adjustments, because once you've added something you can't take it out!

 

Simmering the orange peels in with the syrup is what helps get a nice layer of complex bitterness in the syrup. If you don't like bitter (in which case, who are you?), you can leave the peels out. If you like more bitterness, steep the peels in the syrup a little longer.

 

This would also be super yummy with some fresh ginger grated in!

 

This is our favorite cocktail to make with this syrup, but it's also amazing in margaritas or simply with some tonic water and a twist of lime!

 

Cheers!

Kalene

 

p.s. Want to be the first to know what new microbatch flavor we're dropping soon? Join the waitlist here.