The market · Acids and agents

Simple syrup

Sugar dissolved in an equal weight of water — the bar's standard sweetener, because sugar won't dissolve in cold alcohol.

sweet · clean

What to do with it

Classics built on it
The cocktail barClarified milk punchA punch poured into milk, left to curdle and strained clear: silky, glass-bright, and stable for weeks.2 versions hereThe cocktail barDaiquiriWhite rum, lime and sugar, shaken hard: the benchmark sour, and the drink a bartender is most often judged by.No one here has made it yet

Goes with

lime juicelemon juicemintlondon dry gin

Cooked with, here

lime juicemezcalpineapple juicewhole milkgreen teahojicha

How much, here

10–10% of the dish by weight — a place to start.

Clarified milk punch, mezcal and pineapple100ml simple syrupRosa Ibarra · 10% of the dishMilk punch, with hojicha100ml simple syrupKenji Hara · 10% of the dish

What cooks here have learned

“Syrup down to 100ml”Rosa Ibarra · Clarified milk punch, mezcal and pineapple v5

Knowing it

Where to buy
Make it; there's no reason to buy it.
Worth knowing
Weigh, don't measure by volume: 1:1 by weight is 50% sugar. Shake it in a jar or blend until clear — heat only speeds it up. It keeps a few weeks in the fridge.

Kitchens that keep it in

New York, Mexico City, London, BarcelonaThe cocktail barSpirit, acid and sugar balanced to the gram — and lately a lab's worth of technique: clarifying, fat-washing, infusing, carbonating, until a drink can taste of a whole dish.9 classics · 4 cooked here

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