Perfect for coffees, cocktails and milkshakes alike, we look at the various applications for flavoured syrups
Whether your drink of choice is a coffee, a cocktail, a mocktail or a milkshake, you’ve probably enjoyed the tastes of flavoured syrups.
Helping to deliver seasonal flavours for coffees or unique cocktail creations, syrups are a must-have for any drink maker.
They’re extremely versatile – both in who uses them and how. Syrups are used across a range of alcoholic and non-alcoholic, hot and cold, and children’s and adults’ drinks, as well as both at-home and on-trade, and for everything from every day to celebratory drinks occasions. Baristas can reach for coffee syrup flavours for on-the-go serves, while parents might opt for milkshake flavouring syrup as an easy, at-home treat.
Premium brands currently dominate this sub-category, with multiple flavours across a variety of applications. Yet the versatility and broad appeal of flavouring syrup offers opportunities for drink brands, wholesalers, or retailers to launch own-label equivalents to the market leaders.
Applications for flavour syrups
Coffee syrups
Coffee flavouring syrup allows drinkers to enjoy more affordable, healthier, and even entirely new coffee flavours. In the crowded coffee market, flavoured syrups can help baristas to create stand-out drinks – building on the popularity of salted caramel or pumpkin spice coffees with new flavours like pistachio or dessert-inspired tiramisu or biscotti, for example. And for at-home use, coffee syrups with comforting or invigorating flavours, like lavender, nutmeg, or ginger, can enhance the drinks’ typical usage occasions.
Top tip: The perfect pack size
A 1 litre wine-shaped bottle is the popular pack size for a flavoured syrup. With a premium look and feel, these suit the styling and space typically available at the back of a bar, while also fitting in a domestic fridge. They’re also convenient and easy to use.
Syrups for Cocktails
Syrups are routinely used across some of the most popular cocktails, including Espresso Martinis, Daiquiris, and Irish Coffees, as well as Mai Tais. The classic Tequila Sunrise has syrup to thank for its kitsch aesthetic, demonstrating how flavoured cocktail syrups can align with trends for retro and colourful cocktails too.
For consumers, using syrups for cocktails at home can help put a twist on traditional recipes easily and affordably. Syrups using internationally-inspired flavours like yuzu or jasmine can elevate the traditional Tom Collins cocktail, while herbal or savoury-flavoured syrups will make for easy at-home Martinis – emulating some of the bold flavours showcased across London Cocktail Week last year.
For venues, syrups for cocktails offer a quicker, simpler way of serving a wide range of cocktails. Blending syrups with soda and a shot of alcohol then adding attractive garnishes offers the same taste and visual appeal of a traditional recipe, without the expense and storage needed for a range of ingredients behind a bar. Syrups can also be used to create unique cocktails, allowing mixologists to create signature styles and keep refreshing their menus. With exploration and experimentation on the rise amongst cocktail drinkers, updating and adapting menus with exclusive or limited edition serves will suit the ever-discerning drinker. Holding a range of syrup flavours behind the bar can also create opportunities for venues to offer ‘DIY cocktails’, suiting highly experiential offerings.
Syrups for Mocktails
For health-conscious drinkers, flavoured syrups can support the creation of full flavour but low ABV and low sugar mocktails. NoLo is a fast-growing market, suiting consumers slowing their spending or cutting back on their alcohol intake and maybe mindful of their calorie count too. In out-of-home settings, flavour syrups can elevate alcohol-free creations, offering the value-for-money NoLo drinkers seek. The berry and citrus flavours currently trending in cocktails can be translated over to NoLo using syrups. Lime flavours will give the same bold flavours from Margaritas and Mojitos. For at-home use, syrups can help drinkers to enjoy tasty, alcohol-free drinks year-round, to make the moderation trend a year-round pursuit.
Milkshake syrups
As flavoured milk has become increasingly popular thanks to its convenience, affordability and alignment with sustainability, milkshake flavour syrups make these easy to replicate. Flavoured syrups can be used in other soft drinks too, including to enhance simple sodas, elevate lemonades, or create complex iced teas. The same berry and tropical fruit flavours perfect for mocktails will work in other soft drinks applications too, such as berry syrups in sodas, or passionfruit syrups in iced teas.
Top tip: Create sugar-free alternatives
Developing sugar-free syrups is essential, both for consumers concerned with their health and to adhere to HFSS regulations. These needn’t be the poor relations to standard flavoured syrups, though. Sugar-free alternatives can replicate the same mouthfeel thanks to formulations with added gum.
Work with us
Simpson’s Beverages develop, manufacture, and supply all flavours of syrups in a range of pack sizes. Our new 1 litre production line allows us to create the perfect pack size for ranges of flavoured syrups. Chat to our team today to find out more.
