Raspberry Currant Syrup

This is an old-fashioned fruit cordial, the kind people made before store-bought soda existed. Fresh raspberries and currants simmered in sugar syrup, strained, and bottled. A few tablespoons in a glass of cold or sparkling water and you’ve got a drink that puts any commercial soda to shame.

The currants bring a tartness that keeps the syrup from being cloyingly sweet, balancing the softer, rounder flavor of the raspberries. Skimming the sugar syrup before adding the fruit removes impurities and gives you a cleaner, clearer final product.

Twenty minutes of gentle boiling is enough to extract the color and flavor without cooking the fruit into mush. You want a bright, jewel-toned syrup, not a cloudy jam.

Chef Tips

• Skim the sugar syrup thoroughly before adding the berries. Those white foam patches are proteins and impurities that make the finished syrup cloudy.
• Boil gently, not at a rolling boil. High heat breaks down the fruit too much and can give the syrup a cooked, jammy taste instead of a fresh berry flavor.
• Strain through a fine-mesh sieve but don’t press the fruit. Pressing pushes pulp through and clouds the syrup. Let gravity do the work.
• Store in sterilized glass bottles in the refrigerator. This keeps for several weeks, or longer if you process it in a water bath.

Variations

• Use blackberries in place of currants for a darker, sweeter syrup.
• Add a vanilla bean or a few strips of lemon zest to the sugar syrup for an aromatic twist.
• Splash the finished syrup into prosecco or champagne for a quick berry bellini.