This easy lavender simple syrup is perfect for coffee, cocktails, mocktails, matcha, milk tea, lemonade, even desserts! Use food grade dried lavender buds, water, and sugar to make this crowd-favorite simple lavender syrup that’s floral and aromatic and brings out the best of any drink or dish.

You can easily make this under 10 minutes and bottle it for gifts or to use at home on the daily.

Here’s how to make fragrant lavender syrup at home!

What is Simple Syrup?

Simple syrup is a mixture of sugar and water, reduced down into a thicker syrup that’s perfect for sweetening beverages like coffee, matcha, tea, and cocktails. It’s one of the key elements of every coffee shop and bar because it’s the fastest and easiest way to sweeten drinks. (Imagine trying to dissolve sugar into cold liquid, it takes forever!)

This syrup is also one of the easiest things to make because it’s only 2 ingredients and takes less than 5 minutes. Just boil equal parts sugar and water until the sugar dissolves, then let it cool before bottling and storing in the fridge for easy use.

Yes, it’s that simple!

What is Lavender Simple Syrup?

Like the name suggests, lavender simple syrup is simple syrup flavored or infused with lavender. You can make flavored simple syrup by either adding the flavoring via oils or concentrates, or infusing it with the actual ingredient.

For lavender simple syrup, infusing is the best way to add the flavor! You can use lavender extract or flavoring, but sometimes those impart an offputting or chemical aftertaste. Using the dried or fresh lavender gives you the best flavor!

The syrup itself is not usually purple colored unless food coloring is added, but we associate it with purple because of the flower.

What Does Lavender Simple Syrup Taste Like?

Did you know that lavender is a part of the same herb family as mint, sage, thyme, and rosemary? Compared to the other herbs, lavender is grown for its flowers versus its leaves. It’s known for its distinct lavender taste which is sweet, floral, slightly fruity, and herbaceous.

Lavender simple syrup has a floral, almost rosemary-like flavor. It also has soft fruity and creamy notes, sometimes paired with citrus or thyme notes as well. It adds a great subtle floral aroma and bright flavor!

This syrup pairs nicely with coffee and tea, and sweeteners like honey and agave. Depending on the type of lavender, it can also have slightly different flavors (and even taste like soap haha.)

How to Add Lavender Flavor

There are a couple different ways you can add lavender flavor to your simple syrup: fresh buds, dried buds, or extract.

You can use fresh culinary lavender for syrup, but you’ll need a large amount of fresh flowers to impart the same, strong flavor you get from dried lavender or even extract. So I don’t recommend this method unless you have loads of fresh lavender to use!

Food Science Break: When ingredients dry, all the water evaporates, causing the ingredient to compress and flavor compounds to concentrate in a smaller volume. Water will always dilute flavor, so by removing it, you’re left with the pure flavor compounds that are “packed in” the dried ingredient.

Dried lavender is the industry standard for syrups or infusing ingredients because, as explained, it imparts a better flavor! You want to look for culinary or food grade lavender that is safe to consume. If you find lavender and want to use it but aren’t sure that it’s food safe, don’t use it! Better safe than sorry.

For a hack, you can use lavender extract or bitters for easy syrup. Start with a drop at a time, careful not to add too much or risk having syrup that tastes like soap!

How to Make Lavender Simple Syrup

Here’s what you’ll need to make a delicious lavender simple syrup at home:

• ¼ cup dried lavender buds
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup sugar (use ½ cup for less sweet syrup)

Lavender Syrup Recipe

1. Add Ingredients. Add sugar and water to a small pot and stir to dissolve partially.
2. Boil Simple Syrup. Simmer the syrup on the stove on low or medium heat until all the sugar dissolves and the syrup is translucent. If you want a thicker syrup, simmer the syrup for longer but be careful not to leave the simmering syrup unattended! If all the water evaporates, you’ll cook the sugar until it turns into caramel.
3. Infuse Simple Syrup. Turn the heat off and let the syrup cool slightly before adding your dried lavender into the syrup. You can add the straight lavender buds or pour them into a sachet or tea bag so it’s easy to take out later. Let the lavender infuse into the hot syrup for at least 10-15 minutes, or leave it for a couple hours overnight for the strongest lavender flavor.
4. Store Syrup. Remove the lavender once it steeps, then pour it into an airtight bottle or container. Once completely cooled, store in the fridge for up to 3 weeks.
5. Store and Enjoy!

How to Store Lavender Syrup

As mentioned, you want to store simple syrup in an airtight container so that it preserves for longer. You can use any airtight container, like a mason jar, jam jar, syrup bottle, oil bottle, etc. You could even use tupperware (even though it’s not as cute, it’s functional, haha.)

You’ll want to store your syrup in the fridge, especially if you don’t use it all right away. You can leave it on the counter if you’ll use it all in the same day, but the syrup will not last on the counter for more than 3-4 days. The syrup can grow mold in it if you do!

The only syrup you can leave on the counter has double the sugar to water in it (called rich simple syrup) because that amount of sugar is a natural preservative. Otherwise, keep your lavender syrup in the fridge!

How Long Does Lavender Syrup Last

In the fridge, your syrup should last 2-3 weeks. However, it’s hard to tell sometimes whether a syrup is good or not. So, here are some signs that your syrup’s gone bad and you need to get rid of it:

• If your syrup starts to grow weird fuzzies or strings in it, that’s mold!
• The syrup turns opaque or cloudy.
• The syrup has a weird smell or taste.

On the counter, the syrup will last maybe 3-4 days, max.

How to Use Lavender Syrup

Now that you’ve made this awesome lavender simple syrup, here are some recipes to try:

• Lavender matcha latte (Must Try!)
• Lavender cold foam
• Honey lavender latte
• Honey lavender matcha latte
• Lavender lemonade
• Blueberry lavender syrup
• Blueberry lavender matcha latte

Where to Buy Lavender Syrup

If you want a convenient and easy option for lavender simple syrup, you can always buy it either online or from the grocery store. There are a range of syrups you can buy, from mass produced to artisanal syrups.

Syrup bottles usually come in a medium size (about 250 ml) or a large size (750 ml), and can range from $10-25 each. You’ll usually find the larger bottles from larger brands like Monin and Torani for about $11 each, and the smaller bottles from more artisanal brands for $15+.

I recommend going for a syrup brand that makes their syrups without any artificial flavorings, because it can impart a weird aftertaste (which is why I prefer making my own syrups). The more artisanal brands use real ingredients and only sugar, but are super expensive, so making homemade syrups is my preference!

Tips:

Here are some tips for making the best lavender simple syrup at home:

• Do Not Boil Lavender: There’s a reason why we infuse, and never boil, lavender for syrups; it gets bitter! In the past I’ve made lavender syrup by boiling the lavender for flavor, and it turned out extremely bitter, to the point where it was completely unusable! So, make sure you steep the flowers instead.
• Use Storebought Lavender Syrup: As mentioned, you can always use storebought lavender syrup instead of making your own! You can get it online or in a grocery store near you, but you’ll have more variety online.