Lavender sparkling water, three ways
The unsweetened infusion, the syrup, and the ratio that makes the finished drink.
In season: Fresh buds in June and July. Dried culinary buds year-round, and dried is the better buy because almost every quantity in print assumes it.
Advertisement
Infused, unsweetened
Use
1 teaspoon of dried culinary lavender buds per 1 litre. One teaspoon.
Method
Cold still water, refrigerate, and set an actual timer rather than trusting yourself to remember.
Time
30 minutes, and taste at 20. This is the shortest steep in the section, and an hour is already too far.
Sparkling
Still water for the steep, then strain and top with sparkling. Buds float and clog a pour spout, so strain through a coffee filter or a fine tea strainer before it goes near a glass.
Keeps
3 days refrigerated once strained. It does not get worse in the jar after straining, and it never gets better either, so make it small.
The syrup
Ratio
1 cup sugar : 1 cup water : 2 tablespoons dried culinary lavender buds
Method
Bring the sugar and water to a simmer until clear, take the pan fully off the heat, then add the lavender and cover. Steep 10 minutes and taste at 5. Strain through a fine sieve lined with a coffee filter.
Keeps
3 weeks refrigerated
Note
Fifteen minutes is the hard ceiling and the failure past it is not subtle. If you overshoot, cut the batch with plain simple syrup 1 to 1 instead of starting over.
The finished soda
1 part syrup to 6 parts sparkling water over ice, with lemon
Lavender syrup comes out grey-brown and looks wrong in the bottle. A squeeze of lemon drops the pH and the glass turns pink in front of you, which is anthocyanin doing what anthocyanin does and costs nothing.
The shrub version
Lavender goes in at the end of a shrub someone else started. Add 1 tablespoon of dried buds to a strained blueberry or peach shrub, rest 3 days, then strain again.
What doesn't work: Adding more lavender because the first batch tasted faint. The floral note and the soapy note come out of the same oil at different speeds, so doubling the buds brings the soap forward without doubling the perfume. The other failure is the source: craft store lavender is sold as decoration and may be treated, and ornamental lavandin varieties run high in camphor and taste like a drawer sachet even at the correct dose. Buy buds labelled culinary, and if the label says Lavandula angustifolia you are in the right place.
Goes with: Meyer lemonBlueberryLemonHoneydewPeach