This post was originally published July 7, 2024, and updated May 2026 with new photos, expanded use ideas, and tips for using lavender straight from your garden.
Lavender almost became my cash crop.
When Rick and I were deciding what to grow for a little extra income here on our Idaho homestead, it came down to lavender or garlic. Garlic won — mainly because we’d already done the research and had the beds ready. But lavender has never really left. It still grows here every summer, still blooms purple every July, and still ends up in the kitchen every chance it gets.
This syrup is one of the best things I make with it. Three ingredients, twelve minutes, and your kitchen smells like something you’d pay too much for at a boutique hotel.
It’s a pantry staple I keep in the fridge all summer — and it earns its place. Iced tea, lemonade, lavender lemonade, lavender latte, cocktails out at The Grain Shed, our backyard pub we built — this syrup works in all of it.
If you grow lavender, this is the first thing you should make when it blooms. If you don’t, dried culinary lavender buds work just as well and are available year-round. Either way, you’re twelve minutes away from something genuinely useful.
| PANTRY NOTE: This syrup stores up to 2 weeks in the refrigerator, or freeze in ice cube trays for several months. Make a double batch and keep one in the freezer. |
What You Need to Make Lavender Simple Syrup
Three ingredients. That’s the whole list.
- 1 cup granulated sugar — white, organic cane, coconut sugar, or turbinado all work. Plain white lets the floral notes come through cleanest.
- 1 cup water
- ½ cup fresh culinary lavender buds — or 3 tablespoons dried (see comparison below)
- 10–12 blueberries or blackberries — optional, for color only. Skip them if you don’t care about the purple hue.
| OPTIONAL: Double the sugar (2 cups sugar to 1 cup water) for a thicker syrup — better for drizzling over desserts than stirring into drinks. |
Types of Lavender — Which One to Use
This is the question that trips people up most, so let’s settle it before anything else.
Not all lavender is food-safe. The lavender at your local nursery is almost certainly ornamental — meaning it may be treated with pesticides and is not the right variety for cooking.
Ornamental varieties also tend to have a stronger, more medicinal flavor with higher camphor content. That’s not what you want in a syrup.
For cooking and baking, you want culinary lavender — specifically:
| Variety | Flavor Profile | Best For |
| English Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia) | Sweet, floral, delicate — the gold standard for food | Syrups, baked goods, tea, cocktails — all culinary uses |
| Provence Lavender (L. x intermedia ‘Provence’) | Mild and sweet — a hybrid, slightly less intense | Syrups, sachets — good culinary option |
| French Lavender (Lavandula dentata) | Stronger, more medicinal, higher camphor | Not recommended for food — too bitter |
| Ornamental varieties (nursery lavender) | Unpredictable — often treated with pesticides | Do not use in food — ever |
My rule: if you wouldn’t trust it in a shortbread cookie, don’t put it in your syrup. English lavender is the safest and most flavorful choice for culinary use. If you’re buying dried buds, look for food-grade or culinary-grade on the label.
On our homestead, I harvest fresh English lavender in July when the buds are just starting to open — before full bloom, when the essential oils are most concentrated. That timing matters for flavor.
Fresh Lavender vs. Dried — What’s the Difference?
Both work. Here’s how to choose.
| Fresh Lavender Buds (½ cup) | Dried Lavender Buds (3 tablespoons) |
| Milder, softer floral flavor | Stronger — more concentrated |
| Best at peak bloom — July in most zones | Available year-round from your pantry |
| Rinse before using if garden-harvested | Ready to use — no prep needed |
| Pale color — add berries for purple | Same pale color without berries |
| Must be culinary-grade — no pesticides | Buy food-grade dried buds only |
| My choice when the garden is blooming | My choice October through June |
One batch with fresh garden lavender in July. A jar of dried buds in January for a lavender latte on a cold morning. Both are right. That’s why this earns a permanent spot in the pantry rotation.
How to Make Lavender Simple Syrup — Step by Step
Step 1: Dissolve the Sugar
Combine 1 cup sugar and 1 cup water in a small saucepan over medium-low heat. Stir until the sugar is completely dissolved before you do anything else. Undissolved sugar can cause the syrup to crystallize in the jar later — take the extra minute.
Step 2: Add the Lavender and Simmer
Reduce the heat to a gentle simmer. Add your lavender buds and stir to combine. Keep the heat low — a hard boil drives off the volatile compounds that give lavender its delicate floral notes. What you want is a slow, gentle steeping. Let it simmer for 10 minutes.
Step 3: Add Color (Optional)
Drop in 10–12 blueberries or blackberries if you want the purple color. Their pigment bleeds slowly into the syrup as it simmers. Skip this entirely if color doesn’t matter to you — it has no meaningful effect on flavor.
Step 4: Cool Completely
Remove the pan from the heat and let it cool to room temperature — about 20–30 minutes. Don’t rush this step by straining it hot. The continued steeping as it cools deepens the floral flavor.
Step 5: Strain and Bottle
Strain through a fine mesh strainer into a clean glass jar or bottle. Press the buds lightly to get every drop. Seal and refrigerate.
| My favorite jar for this: Weck jars. They seal well, look beautiful lined up in the fridge, and make a thoughtful gift as-is — no extra packaging needed. |
How to Store Lavender Simple Syrup
Refrigerator — Up to 2 Weeks
Pour cooled syrup into a clean, sealed glass jar. Keeps fresh for up to 2 weeks. Always start with a clean, dry jar — moisture introduced from a wet spoon or dirty jar is what shortens the shelf life.
Freezer — Several Months
Pour into ice cube trays and freeze until solid. Transfer the cubes to a zip-top freezer bag. Pull out one or two cubes as needed — they thaw in minutes. This is how I keep it on hand all winter for lattes and cocktails at The Grain Shed when the garden is long dormant.
If your syrup turns cloudy or smells off before the 2 weeks are up, discard it and make a fresh batch. It takes 12 minutes. It’s not worth second-guessing.
Why This Belongs in Your From-Scratch Pantry
Most people think of simple syrup as a bar ingredient. Something you buy in a bottle at the grocery store, use once for a cocktail, and forget about.
That’s not how we use it here.
A jar of lavender simple syrup in the refrigerator is a building block — the same way homemade vanilla extract, sweetened condensed milk, or a good stock is a building block. It’s the thing that makes the next thing better without adding an hour to your day.
One small batch of syrup becomes lavender lemonade for the grandkids on a hot afternoon, a lavender latte on a slow morning, a glaze on scones that come out of the oven smelling like the garden did in July, and a cocktail ingredient out at The Grain Shed that Rick and I both reach for without thinking about it.
That’s what a pantry staple does. It earns its place by showing up in more than one place.
| Find more pantry staples and from-scratch building blocks on the Pantry Basics & From-Scratch Staples hub — everything from homemade vanilla extract to sweetened condensed milk to simple syrups that do real work in your kitchen. |
From the Pantry to The Grain Shed — Cocktails and Drinks
We built The Grain Shed ourselves — a small backyard pub on our Idaho homestead where Rick and I actually use what we grow and make. It’s nothing fancy. It’s a place to sit at the end of a long day and drink something good.
Lavender simple syrup is one of the ingredients that lives out there year-round.
| THE GRAIN SHED CONNECTION: Every drink below has been made in our backyard pub with this exact syrup. These aren’t suggestions — they’re what we actually pour. |
Lavender Lemonade
Fresh lemon juice, cold water, ice, and a generous pour of lavender syrup. Add a lavender sprig if you’re feeling like it. This is the summer drink on our homestead — the one that disappears fastest when the grandkids are here.
Lavender Latte
Stir a tablespoon of lavender syrup into a shot of espresso, add steamed or cold milk, and you have a lavender latte that costs you about forty cents and tastes better than the one at the coffee shop. This is the winter use — when the garden is buried under Idaho snow, and you want something that smells like July.
If you’re making lattes at home anyway, my Homemade Coffee Creamer is worth having in the fridge alongside this syrup — it takes the same twelve minutes and costs even less.
Lavender Cocktails — What Works
Lavender syrup pairs best with:
- Gin — the botanical notes amplify each other. A lavender gin spritz with a squeeze of lemon is simple and genuinely good.
- Vodka — neutral base lets the floral flavor lead. Good in a lavender lemon drop or a simple lavender soda with vodka and sparkling water.
- Mojitos — Lavender Mojitos are one of the six variations we enjoy in the pub.
- Prosecco or sparkling wine — a splash of lavender syrup in a glass of prosecco with a lemon twist is our Grain Shed house drink in summer.
- Bourbon — unexpected, but a small amount of lavender syrup softens a bourbon and adds a floral note that works better than it sounds.
See The Grain Shed for the full cocktail lineup — including the Lavender Limoncello Spritz, which uses this syrup as the base.
Lavender Martini
Equal parts gin and dry vermouth, a splash of lavender syrup, shaken over ice and strained into a chilled glass. It sounds fancier than it is. Takes three minutes.
More Ways to Use Lavender Simple Syrup
Beyond drinks, this syrup has a long list of kitchen jobs:
- Baked goods glaze: Mix with powdered sugar and drizzle over scones, pound cake, or shortbread. Lavender is best friends with lemon, vanilla, and honey.
- Yogurt and whipped cream: A small drizzle over plain yogurt or fresh whipped cream is quietly extraordinary. Takes 10 seconds.
- Ice cream base: Stir a few tablespoons into your vanilla ice cream base before churning. Lavender Frozen Custard Ice Cream
- Iced tea sweetener: Replaces plain simple syrup in any iced tea — adds floral notes that work especially well with Earl Grey.
- Fruit salad: A light drizzle over fresh berries or stone fruit before serving. Subtle but noticeable.
Why This Works — The Simple Science
Simple syrup works because sugar dissolves completely into water at heat and stays dissolved when it cools — creating a liquid sweetener that blends into cold drinks effortlessly. Granulated sugar doesn’t dissolve in cold liquid. Syrup does. That’s the whole point.
The lavender releases its essential oils — the compounds responsible for the floral notes — during the simmer. Low, gentle heat is critical. Too high and the volatile aromatics cook off and you get a flat, faintly lavender-flavored sugar water instead of something that smells like a garden. Keep it at a simmer, not a boil.
The berries are purely pigment — their anthocyanins bleed into the syrup and shift the color. Zero flavor impact worth noting. Leave them out if you’re making this for baking or cooking where the visual doesn’t matter.
Troubleshooting — What to Expect
My syrup is clear, not purple
Normal. Lavender buds don’t color the syrup on their own. Add blueberries or blackberries during simmering for the purple hue. Without berries, the syrup is pale and clear — perfectly fine, just not purple.
The flavor is too mild
Use more lavender next time — up to ¾ cup fresh or 4 tablespoons dried. You can also let the syrup steep a few extra minutes after removing from heat before straining.
The flavor is soapy or medicinal
You used the wrong variety. Ornamental lavender — especially French lavender — has higher camphor content and tastes medicinal. Use culinary English lavender only. If you grew it yourself and aren’t sure of the variety, that’s likely the problem.
The syrup crystallized in the jar
The sugar wasn’t fully dissolved before you added the lavender. Reheat gently, stir until smooth, strain, and refrigerate. Next time, make sure the sugar is completely dissolved first.
It went cloudy before 2 weeks
The jar wasn’t clean enough, or a wet spoon introduced moisture. Discard and start fresh. Always use a clean, dry jar and a clean spoon every time you pour from it.
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What I use when making lavender simple syrup:
- Fine mesh strainer — essential for a smooth, clean syrup
- Weck glass jars — my favorite for storage and gifting
- Culinary dried English lavender buds — for year-round batches
- Simple syrup bottle with pour spout — makes it easy to pour into drinks
- Ice cube trays with lids — for freezer storage
More From the Homestead Kitchen
- Lavender Frozen Custard Ice Cream — summer in a bowl
- Lavender Limoncello Spritz Cocktail — the Grain Shed house drink
- Homemade Vanilla Extract — another pantry staple worth making
- Homemade Sweetened Condensed Milk — the pantry list keeps growing
One Last Thing
Every July, when the lavender blooms, I cut a big bunch and hang it in the kitchen to dry. Some of it goes in sachets. Some of it goes into shortbread. And some of it ends up in a small saucepan with sugar and water, and twelve minutes later, there’s a jar of something useful in the fridge.
The real test is summer drinks with my sisters at The Grain Shed. If the glasses stay full and the conversation keeps going, I know it worked.
That’s the thing about keeping a real from-scratch pantry. The difference is there. It doesn’t need to announce itself.
Simple Living ❤️ Country Style — one jar of summer at a time.
Tell Me How You Use It
Do you grow lavender, or do you buy the dried buds? And what ends up being your go-to use for this syrup — drinks, baking, or something I haven’t thought of? Leave a comment below. I read every one.
Lavender Simple Syrup
Ingredients
- 1 Cup Sugar White sugar, organic cane sugar, coconut sugar, turbinado sugar, or brown sugar
- 1 Cup Water
- ½ Cup Lavender Flower Buds 3 Tablespoons if using dried
- 10 – 12 Blueberries (or Blackberries) optional for color
Instructions
- Combine the equal parts of sugar and water in a small saucepan at medium-low heat. Stir until the sugar dissolves completely.
- Turn stove heat to simmer.
- Add lavender buds and stir to combine. You can change the amount of lavender blossoms as desired. Add more if you like a strong lavender flavor or less for a subtle flavor.
- Add blueberries or blackberries for optional color.
- Let the mixture simmer for 10 minutes.
- Remove from heat and allow to cool to room temperature.
- Using a fine mesh strainer, strain the syrup into an airtight container such as a glass bottle or jar.
Notes
- Double the sugar for a thicker syrup — good for pancakes, waffles, or drizzling over desserts.
- Refrigerate for up to 2 weeks.
- Freeze in ice cube trays for several months.
- Adjust lavender amount for stronger or milder flavor.
- Add blueberries or blackberries for color — optional but pretty.
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Frequently Asked Questions — Lavender Simple Syrup
What kind of lavender should I use?
Culinary English lavender — Lavandula angustifolia. It’s sweeter and less medicinal than ornamental varieties. Food-grade or culinary-grade on the label is what you’re looking for if buying dried buds. If you’re harvesting from your garden, know your variety. Ornamental lavender from a nursery is often treated with pesticides and is not the right flavor profile for food.
Can I use dried lavender instead of fresh?
Yes. Use 3 tablespoons of dried buds in place of ½ cup fresh. Dried is more concentrated, so start at the lower end and taste before adding more. I make this with dried buds from October through June — it works perfectly and means I’m not limited to summer.
How long does lavender simple syrup last?
Up to 2 weeks in the refrigerator in a clean, sealed glass jar. Freeze in ice cube trays for several months if you want a longer supply.
Can I make it thicker?
Yes — use 2 cups sugar to 1 cup water. That gives you a rich, heavy syrup better suited to drizzling over desserts than stirring into drinks.
Why did my syrup turn out clear instead of purple?
Normal — lavender doesn’t color the syrup. Add blueberries or blackberries during simmering for the purple color. Without berries, the syrup is pale and clear regardless of how much lavender you use.
What does lavender simple syrup taste good with?
It pairs well with lemon, honey, vanilla, and berries in food — and with gin, vodka, prosecco, and bourbon in cocktails. It works in iced tea, lavender lemonade, lavender lattes, drizzled over yogurt, or as a glaze on baked goods. It’s one of the more versatile things I keep in the refrigerator.
Can I make it with honey instead of sugar?
You can. Use an equal amount of honey by volume and heat very gently — honey burns more easily than sugar. The flavor will be different: honey adds its own floral notes that can complement or compete with the lavender depending on the variety. If you want the lavender to be the star, plain white sugar is the cleaner choice.
Is lavender safe to eat?
Culinary lavender is safe and widely used in cooking and baking. The key is using food-grade lavender that hasn’t been treated with pesticides — English lavender specifically. Ornamental varieties sold at nurseries are not food-safe and may be chemically treated. If you’re growing it yourself for cooking, English lavender is the correct choice.
Can I water bath can this syrup for longer shelf storage?
No. This syrup is not approved for home canning. The pH and sugar concentration aren’t reliable enough for shelf-stable preservation. Refrigerate for up to 2 weeks, or freeze it. Those are your two options.
Hi, I’m Yvonne — the voice behind Our Country Life. I share from-scratch recipes, garden know-how, and simple living inspiration rooted in real farmhouse life. Thanks for being here ❤️
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