A couple weeks ago I had the pleasure of catching up with Nicole my old friend from Brooklyn who runs Food Culturist and a (now) podcast called Hot Grease (I was one of her guests early on in the show’s life when it was a part of Heritage Radio Network). She came to town to record audio for Soul Summit 2015. Nicole has a book coming out in October that sounds amazing, too!

During her stay she made a peach syrup, which is an enhanced version of simple syrup. I learned from my friend David, a cocktail pro who takes the lexicon seriously, that flavored syrups should not be called simple any longer because simple indicates sugar and water in 1:1 ratio and nothing else.) Nicole gifted me this complicated syrup after making a round of margaritas for us and lots of bevs for the conference after parties earlier in the week.

While I was recipe testing for my Edible Austin column last week I discovered a delicious way to add a probiotic boost to your weekday sips. Start with a tablespoon or two of an infused syrup, add 2-4 tablespoons of whey (depending on how tart you want it) and top off a 16-oz glass with cold sparkling or still water. To get whey, you can strain homemade or store bought plain yogurt through floursack or fine-weave cheesecloth or muslin. Have you seen this interesting read that came out in Smithsonian mag about fermented foods (whey included) helping ease anxiet?

To make the syrup, use this method for flavoring syrups with herbs, or modify it for fruit by chopping up your favorite fruit (even lackluster, forgotten fruit) and simmering it along with the water and sugar and following the same method as linked above for steeping and straining.

Cheers!