I have an abundance of sage. My husband bought me a huge herb planter this summer and it is about 50% sage, so I needed a recipe that would use a decent portion of it. I thought a sage simple syrup would be an interesting addition to summer cocktails. I have made plain simple syrup before and figured adding sage to the mix would make an infused syrup, perfect for creating unique cocktails. 

To start the sage simple syrup, I picked a bunch of my fresh sage and washed it under cold water. I am using 50 sage leaves for the recipe, which sounds like a lot, but I really like the flavour of sage and wanted a stronger herbal tasting syrup. 

Sage Simple Syrup

Next, the sage needs to be chopped up. This is done easily by layering 8-10 sage leaves on top of each other…..

…..and then chopping them all at once. 

The chopped sage went into a saucepan with 1 cup sugar and 1 cup water.

I brought it to a boil, stirred it occasionally and then dropped the heat down and let it simmer for about 5-7 minutes. All of the sugar has dissolved at this point. If it hasn’t for some reason, keep simmering. 

I took it off the burner and let it cool completely. Once cooled, I strained it into a glass container. The syrup should keep in the fridge for a couple weeks. 

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Sage Simple Syrup

Ingredients

• 50 sage leaves chopped
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup water

Instructions

1. Put chopped sage leaves, sugar and water into a sauce pan and bring to a boil.
2. Let simmer for 5-7 minutes, stirring occasionally.
3. Remove from heat and let cool completely.
4. Once cool, strain into a glass bottle and refrigerate until needed for a tasty cocktail, such as the next recipe!

Sage and Elderflower Gin and Tonic

Next I needed to figure out what to do with this syrup. The flavour is sweet and herbal tasting; it tastes like it would be perfect to pair with gin! I have a bottle of Ungava Gin from my recent Gin Taste Test and I recently picked up a bottle of St. Germaine Elderflower Liqueur and decided to experiment with all these flavours… and I am glad I did! What a tasty, sweet, herbal, refreshing cocktail! 

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Sage and Elderflower Gin and Tonic

Ingredients

• 1/4 lemon juice squeezed into a glass of ice
• 1 ounce gin I used my Ungava
• 1/2 ounce St. Germain Elderflower Liqueur
• 1/2 ounce Sage Simple Syrup
• Tonic

Instructions

1. Fill a glass with ice.
2. Squeeze lemon over the ice and put lemon in glass with ice.
3. Add gin, liqueur and sage simple syrup to ice and stir well.
4. Top it up with tonic and enjoy!!