Ingredients
Units
Scale
- 1000 ml water (100%)
- 150 – 200 g fresh red or green shiso leaves, rinsed and dried (15 – 20%)
- 150 – 250 g raw cane sugar (15-25%)
- 150 – 250 g lemon juice (15-25%)
Instructions
- Bring water to a boil and add the shiso leaves. Allow it to simmer for 5 minutes.
- Strain the shiso leaves and transfer the liquid back to the pot. Squeeze as much of the liquid you can out of the shiso leaves (don’t throw them out!).
- Place the pot back over the stove and bring to a simmer. Add the cane sugar and whisk until dissolved. If you prefer a straight drink, you can allow this mixture to cool and move onto the next step.
- To make it a syrup, simmer on medium low to low for 15-30 minutes, depending on how concentrated you want your syrup to be. I typically aim for a reduction of half the total amount of liquid.
- Transfer the liquid to a sterile air tight jar. Pour in the lemon juice (and watch the magic happen!), it’ll turn bright reddish purple if using red shiso leaves.
- If making the straight version, you can enjoy as is once its cooled. If making the concentrated version, dilute some of the syrup with more water, club soda, milk or any booze. Enjoy!!
Notes
- In the video for a small batch, I used 250 ml of water, 50 g shiso, 50 g sugar and 50 g of lemon juice and reduced the total liquid by half for a concentrated type.
- For preserving purposes, the higher concentration of sugar and lemon juice, the longer it will last.