Ready to learn how to make fruit syrup for drinks? In this tutorial, we explain how to make flavored fruit syrup and non-alcoholic homemade cordial with step-by-step instructions.
Homemade cordial and fruit syrups are widely used to flavor non-alcoholic drinks and cocktails, and have been growing in popularity as an alternative to sugary sodas, as more people move towards an alcohol-free or low alcohol lifestyle.
The ingredients for making fruit syrup and alcohol-free cordial are usually easy to source and cheap, and the equipment and techniques for production are simple. There are also endless flavor combinations, which can be easily adapted to any individual’s taste. Non alcoholic cordials and fruit syrups also make wonderful gifts.
In this article, we explain step-by-step how to make fruit syrup for drinks and homemade cordial, for your drinking, mixing and gifting pleasure. We also explain how to adapt the basic fruit syrup (aka non-alcoholic cordial) recipe to create your own unique and personal flavor blends.
What is Homemade Cordial, Fruit Syrup and Flavor Syrup?
Before we get started learning how to make fruit syrup for drinks, first, let’s quickly explain what we mean by non alcoholic homemade cordial and fruit syrup. On this website, the terms non-alcoholic ‘cordial’ and ‘fruit syrup’ are used interchangeably to mean the same thing. Both terms are used because while they are called fruit syrups in the USA, the same thing is called cordial in the UK, Europe and Australia.
Fruit Syrups vs Cordials vs Flavor Syrups
Although the terms flavor syrup, cordial and fruit syrup are often used interchangeably, there are clear distinctions.
- Flavor Syrup is an umbrella term that includes more than 35 products ranging from simple sugar syrup, made from sugar dissolved in water, to more complex products like maple syrup, pancake syrup and glucose syrup, widely used in manufacturing food and drink products.
- Cordials are usually based on sugar syrup and often contain fruit, nuts, herbs, and spices as flavorings. In cordials, all the flavor elements of the fruit are extracted, and the syrup is often thicker than fruit syrup.
- Fruit Syrup is very similar to cordial, but is made just using the juice from the fruit.
Ok, technically there’s a difference between fruit syrup and cordial. The difference between fruit syrups and cordials comes from the sweetness, viscosity, and added flavorings. For example, in lime cordial, the juice and the stronger lime flavors in the zest are extracted. Consequently, cordials usually have a much more intense flavor profile and are more viscous than fruit syrups.
While non alcoholic cordials and fruit syrups are technically a bit different from each other, to keep things simple, on this website we use ‘cordial’ and ‘fruit syrup’ to mean the same thing. You can learn more about this terminology in our introduction to non alcoholic cordials article.
Now that we’ve cleared that up, let’s move onto the fun part, learning how to make fruit syrup for drinks…
How to Make Fruit Syrup for Drinks (Non-Alcoholic Cordial)
The technique for how to make fruit syrup for drinks is actually quite simple (pun not intended). The base of any cordial or fruit syrup is made from a simple syrup, where granulated sugar is dissolved in water, usually by boiling. It’s not unusual to find recipes where the syrup is prepared from equal quantities of sugar and water.
For example, an Elderflower cordial recipe may ask for 2 cups of sugar dissolved in 2 cups of water (1:1 ratio). Initially, this may seem like a lot of sugar, but bear in mind that after dilution, it will be 10 times less strong. The cordial needs to contain enough sugar so that it is syrupy in consistency. When diluted 10 times with water, the sweetness, and flavouring agents still need to come through strongly.
Making your own flavor syrups or cordials at home is surprisingly easy, and the quality of the finished product is often better than commercial alternatives. With practice, recipes are versatile, too, so adapting them to your taste is easy. For example, you might want to lower the sugar content in the syrup for less sweetness or increase the flavor components for more intensity.
Equipment for Making a Homemade Cordial / Fruit Syrup
To start learning how to make fruit syrup for drinks at home, only a few common pieces of equipment are required. Later, you may find it useful to add other equipment to better control and speed up the process (eg food processor, thermometer).
- Large saucepan or stock pot*
- Long-handled spoon for stirring
- Large bowl
- Large colander
- Coffee filter paper, clean tea towel or muslin
- Funnel
- Jug or ladle
- Bottles to store the cordial
- Adhesive labels and a pen
*How much syrup or cordial you can make in one batch will be governed by the size of your largest saucepan. A batch of 2 litres (2 quarts) will make approximately four average-sized bottles of cordial. While boiling, the syrup shouldn’t froth too much, but it’s still important not to overfill the pan. Hot sugar syrups can cause nasty burns, so it’s important to think through each stage of the recipe before you start to minimize the risks.
Ingredients for Making a Homemade Cordial / Fruit Syrup
The basic ingredients to make fruit syrups for drinks and non-alcoholic cordials are:
- Water
- Sugar
- Flavoring element
- Citric acid and/or tartaric acid
Water – preferably use filtered water, but ordinary tap water will also work fine. You can also replace all or part of the water with a herbal tea, to make other flavors as explained in our making infused simple syrup article.
Sugar – white granulated or golden caster sugar. The additional flavor from golden caster sugar may be marginal if a stronger flavor element is used. For example, root ginger will overpower it.
Flavoring element – made up of one or more flavoring elements that give the syrup or cordial its base flavor. The high sugar content of cordials is an ideal match for the strength and sharpness of citrus and berry fruits. However, many other fruits and roots, such as ginger, mint, elderflower, vanilla, cinnamon, coffee beans, and chilli, are also popular.
Preservative: Citric acid or Tartaric acid – can be added as a preservative. Both acids occur naturally: citric acid in citrus fruit and tartaric acid in grapes. Citric acid is stronger and very sour on the tongue. For example, naturally occurring citric acid in the limes may be an adequate preservative when making lime cordial. As well as their function as a preservative, both acids can help to sharpen the taste of the cordial or syrup if it is too sweet.
These ingredient quantities are not set in stone and can be varied according to personal taste but also according to the flavoring agents used. Some need more sugar than others. The sour taste of lemon juice will require more sugar to create a balanced flavor cordial, compared to a neutral flavoring agent such as Elderflower.
Basic Homemade Cordial & Fruit Syrup Recipe
This is the recipe I personally use to create a simple and refreshing lemon cordial, that can be easily adapted to other zesty and herbaceous blends and elixirs. This recipe is inspired by the one given by Stephanie Alexander in her must-have book ‘The Cook’s Companion’.
I have used this recipe as a basis for crafting my popular Happy Days Elixir herbal cordial, as well as other citrus cordials depending on what was in season at that time. Even if you are not personally wanting to make a citrus cordial, it gives a good overview of the process so you can adapt it to your own flavors.
I’d suggest making this version at least once, to gain confidence when learning to make fruit syrup and cordial for the first time. For those of you wondering how to make fruit syrup for drinks using your own custom flavor blends, I’ve added notes for adapting the recipe to other fruits and spices.
Fruit Syrup (Cordial) Ingredients
Yield: 1.5 quarts (1.5L)
- 2.2 lbs (2kg) refined white sugar
- 1 quart (1L) filtered water
- 1 oz (30g) citric acid
- 1 oz (30g) tartaric acid
- 1 cup (240mL) fresh lemon juice, lime juice or a blend*
- Very finely grated zest from 2 lemons
*Equivalent to approx. 6 lemons. I find it is much more reliable to measure juice by weight/mass rather than number of lemons, since lemons and other citrus fruits can vary greatly in both size and how much juice they contain.
How to Make Fruit Syrup for Drinks – Method
Step 1: Strain lemon juice and grind zest (or other spices)
Strain the lemon juice through coffee filter paper. You can skip this step, but your cordial will have a cloudy residue if you do, which doesn’t look nice especially if you are gifting a bottle to someone.
Grind the zest (or other spices) until it is as fine as possible, either in a coffee grinder, or mortar and pestle.
Step 2: Dissolve water and sugar in saucepan.
The water and sugar are added to a large saucepan, which is heated and stirred occasionally until all the sugar dissolves. The resulting syrup is then ready for the flavoring agents to be added.
Step 3: Add lemon juice, zest, citric acid and tartaric acid.
The main flavoring ingredients (eg fruits, juices, herbs, spices) are stirred into the syrup, along with citric acid or tartaric acid which is used as a preservative and for tang.
Notes for adapting the recipe: Fruits that are slower to release their flavor, such as soft fruit like blackcurrant or raspberries, as well as quinces and crab apples, can be cooked in a steamer first to intensify their flavor. Alternatively, softer fruit can be gently crushed with a fork to start the release of the juice. Fruits should be cut into small pieces to help with flavor extraction.
Step 4: Cool the syrup slightly, then bottle.
Cool the syrup for a few hours, then pour it into sterilized bottles. Some people feel sterilizing bottles for cordial is not required since it contains sugar and food acids as a preservative, but I have had an instance of mold forming on the surface one time that I didn’t sterilize – so make sure you do it.
Notes for adapting the recipe: If you have added whole fruits or spices to the syrup, allow it to cool overnight to allow the ingredients to transfer their flavor into the syrup. The cold syrup is finally sieved through a fine sieve or coffee filter paper (or a tea towel lining a colander). This removes any fine ingredients particles, making for a better quality cordial when bottled.
How to Use Fruit Syrups and Cordial in Drinks
Cordials and syrups are used in a variety of food and drink products to achieve different objectives. Some examples of how to use fruit syrup in drinks include:
Long drinks. Syrup or cordial diluted 1:10 with water (still or carbonated) and served with ice. Syrups and cordials are convenient. One bottle can often make more than 5 L of diluted drink. One bottle can be transported easily and then diluted at the destination.
Mixed drinks with up to 2 ingredients. Syrup or cordial is easy to measure accurately for adding to mixed drinks. For example, a Gimlet is made from equal quantities of lime cordial and gin.
Cocktails and mocktails with three or more ingredients. The popularity of cocktails has spread far and wide in recent years. Once a preserve of bars and clubs, they are also widely available in pubs and restaurants. Syrups and cordials are a vital part of many recipes, where they add sweetness, punchy flavor, and an enjoyable mouth feel from the richness of the syrup.
Consistency is a vital component of preparing any mixed drink or cocktail. Customers want to experience the same flavors and textures each time, so accurately measuring syrup or cordial components is essential. A drinks measure or jigger is convenient and quick to use, providing an accurate measure of ingredients. Mixed drink and cocktail ingredients are expensive in a commercial setting, so they must be measured accurately to maintain profitability. Syrups and cordials are ready-made, which is a real advantage for mixologists under pressure in the bar. It would take too long and be inconsistent to juggle the component ingredients to achieve the same flavor as syrup or cordial, so for the short time it takes to learn how to make fruit syrup for drinks, much time is saved at the bar.
Storage and Shelf Life
Flavor syrups and cordials generally store well and have a longer shelf life. Before bottling, the syrup will most likely have been recently boiled, which should kill most pathogens. So long as the bottles have been correctly sterilised, there should be little chance of contamination.
Sugar syrups are a natural defence against many pathogens. Bacteria have evolved to thrive in solutions with the same salt concentrations inside their cells. So, when a sugar syrup contains active bacteria, the liquid cell content will transfer into the syrup by osmosis, stopping the bacteria from growing.
Creating a more acidic environment using preservatives such as citric or tartaric acid will also help inhibit bacterial growth.
Syrup shelf life varies considerably depending on how it is made and stored, the ingredients used and whether it contains preservatives. Without preservatives, cordial should last for three weeks in the fridge or three months in the refrigerator with preservatives. Cordial can be frozen in ice cube trays and transferred to a polythene bag for storage in the freezer. This is convenient for taking out small quantities at a time. Alternatively, a batch can be split and frozen in plastic tubs for up to 3 months. Always keep to the storage recommendations in the recipe.
How to Make Fruit Syrup for Drinks – Final Tips
This brings us to the end of our instructional on how to make fruit syrup for drinks at home. As mentioned earlier, non-alcoholic homemade cordial and fruit syrup are the same sweet syrup base used for a huge range of alcohol-free drinks and cocktails. The basic technique for making these syrups is easy, and below are a few final tips to help you get started.
How to Make Fruit Syrups for Drinks – Final Tips:
- It is just simple syrup. A fruit syrup or cordial is just a simple syrup (sugar and water), with flavors (eg fruits, spices) and preservatives (citric acid, tartaric acid). Remember this if you start feeling it is too hard; it is just a few basic ingredients. You can do this!
- Start with an easy recipe. For your first attempt, start by following a simple recipe with no customization, like our basic cordial recipe in this article. This will help you learn the technique and ratios, for when you do start making your own blends.
- Filter the liquid. Filter out any residue from the liquid, for a clear quality. You can do this by either filtering the juice beforehand, or by straining the cordial prior to bottling.
Learning to how to make fruit syrup for drinks at home and non-alcoholic cordial is a beautiful activity, with a long history. The word ‘cordial’ originates from the medieval Latin word ‘cordialis’, which means ‘of the heart’ or ‘heartfelt’. When welcoming friends, offering your guest a small glass of cordial as a greeting was a friendly gesture. Or better yet, share a bottle of homemade cordial (fruit syrup) to show your love and care.
When you are ready to start making your own blends, check out how to make infused simple syrups for drinks in this article, where we explain how to infuse your cordial or fruit syrup with your own choice of herbs, spices and fruits.
