Lilac has been one of my favorite flowers for a very long time. When I was a kid, I even had a pet rabbit I named Lilac. So when the lilacs came into bloom around here, I knew I had to try one of the recipes for lilac syrup I had seen recently. And of course, if you have a lilac syrup sitting around, cocktails are the logical use for it.

Despite the color of the flowers, the lilac syrup itself is actually more of a bright pink. Diluted in carbonated water, to make a lilac soda, it’s a lovely light pink shade.

With the addition of Creme de Violette, it takes on the light purple color you’d expect from lilacs.

Read on for the recipes.

Lilac Simple Syrup

Adapted from here and here.
1 1/4 cups water
1 cup sugar
2 cups lilac blossoms
1/2 tsp citric acid (optional)
2 blueberries (optional, for color)
Remove lilac blossoms from the plant. Heat water and sugar in a sauce pan over high heat until sugar is dissolved. Add the lilac blossoms (and blueberries, if using) and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from heat, allow to cool slightly, and strain out the lilac. Stir in the citric acid as a preservative. Store in a sealed glass jar in the refrigerator.

To make a lilac soda, mix a few teaspoonfuls with carbonated water and ice. Read on for the cocktail version.

Spring Flowers Cocktail

1 oz light rum
1/2 oz Creme de Violette
1/2 oz lilac simple syrup
1/2 lime
1/2 cup soda water
Mix the rum, Creme de Violette, lilac simple syrup, and lime in a glass. Add the ice and soda water (1/2 cup, or to taste), and stir to mix.

I just got a really fun (and surprisingly inexpensive!) little wide angle camera lens, which you can flip around and also use for macro photos. I’ll probably talk about it more in a future post, but I couldn’t resist trying it out on the lilac blossoms. It’s this one, if you’re interested.