Honey Syrup: The Ratio
Three parts honey to one part water, by weight, warm not hot. That is the whole technique. The variable that decides the drink is which honey.
The ratio
3:1 — three parts honey, one part water, by weight. Standard for stirred and shaken drinks. Thick, carries flavour, will not dilute the glass.
2:1 — easier to pour cold, slightly thinner. Good for high-volume work and for long drinks.
1:1 — thin. Mixes fast into cold liquid but the honey character is halved. Use when the honey is background, not subject.
Method
- Weigh the honey. Volume measurement is unreliable with honey; it clings to the vessel.
- Heat the water to roughly 50 C — warm to the finger, not steaming.
- Pour the water over the honey and stir until uniform. Do not boil.
- Cool before bottling. Refrigerate.
Heat above roughly 40 C begins to degrade the enzymes and volatile aromatics that make raw honey worth using. Boiling the syrup removes the exact thing you paid for.
Shelf life
Refrigerated, three to four weeks at 3:1. Thinner ratios hold less time because there is less sugar to protect them.
Why the honey decides it
Most supermarket honey is filtered and pasteurised. It will dissolve into water and it will sweeten a drink, and it will taste of almost nothing, because the aromatics were cooked out before it reached the jar. Some of it separates in the glass, leaving a cloudy layer at the bottom of the shaker.
Raw monofloral honey behaves differently. It carries the character of a single bloom straight into the drink — which is the reason to use honey instead of sugar in the first place.
Fantina's Enredadera is mesquite: pale, almost the colour of white wine, caramel first, then something green underneath. At 3:1 it holds its own against gin, tequila and bourbon without being buried.