After a humorously inefficient first shipping process (picture 8 months pregnant Venise carrying an armful of boxes into fedex twenty minutes before closing, and the lady behind the counter looking wary at best) the first shipped bottles are in the hands of customers across the USA and that feels really, really good. We are so proud to share a taste of the Pacific Northwest summer through these first edition Simple Goodness Sister Syrup flavors. We also sold a ton of bottles at the Garlic and Goats Festival at Venise's farm last weekend to our local community and couldn't stop smiling at people's reactions to their tastings. "Wow!" was a frequent response. The next most common response was "OK, what do you recommend I make with it?"
And that's where I (Belinda) come in. I've been using these syrups for 3 years in our craft cocktail catering business, Happy Camper Cocktails, and have some delicious ideas too share with you. Each syrup we've sent out into the world has come with a recipe card with a suggested drink. We also plan to continue adding more drink (and food!) ideas here, and even to share here recipes and ideas that you, our tasters and customers, submit by tagging us on social media or emailing us.
It is our very sincere goal to update the blog weekly with new recipes and ideas on how to use our Simple Goodness Syrups. While the most frequent drink choice for us at home is a simple soda (1 ounce of syrup + 12 ounces club soda) or Italian sodas (Venise's favorite, with half & half or whipping cream stirred in), there are a hundred ways or more to use the syrup and we want to help aid your creativity and quench your thirst!
Tons of drink recipes call for a sweet component. In fact, most of the classics besides a few (martini, negroni) have a sweetener in the recipe, and that's where you can plug in our syrups for fun, unique, craft cocktial bar style variations on all of the classics. The basics tenants of cocktail making are balance between flavors, temperature, dilution (this is where specialty ice and shaken vs. stirred have the greatest impacts) and presentation. In the flavor balance category, bartenders are keeping in mind a few characteristics.Â
Remember that Netflix show by Yasmin Nasarat? Salt, Fat, Acid, and Heat are how Chefs balance foods. In cocktails, we work with sweet, sour, bitter, and spirit. Not every cocktail has all 4, but you need to have at least 3 of these in play to make a complete cocktail. The beauty of Simple Goodness Sisters syrups is that the syrups themselves contain 2 of these- sweet and sour. They are naturally preserved by acidity, so they have the sour factor built in. They're 50% sugar, so they obviously have the sweet component as well.Â
One of the biggest reasons why you often cannot get a decent non-alcoholic cocktails from a bartender at a standard bar is limited ingredients, and our syrups pack big flavor in one bottle. At your standard bar, most of the exotic flavors they're putting into their drinks come from the carefully infused spirits and liqueurs (some recipes are hundreds of years old and protected by their countries of origin as national treasures.) Often, the mixers behind the bar are limited to box juice, plain simple syrup, and some citrus.
These syrups solve all of those boring, overly sweet, "tastes like something my kid would order" mocktail problems. We fundamentally believe that good flavor should not be limited to imbibing, and that those who don't drink alcohol, for whatever reason, deserve a better drink experience.Â
Try using them with a little club soda, non-alcoholic wine or champagne, tonic water, or iced tea for an interesting, dynamic, and flavorful mocktail that will make you feel included. You're always invited to the Simple Goodness Sisters syrups party, whether you're adding booze or not!
And really, use the syrups wherever you would use any syrup- fresh lemonade, waffles, pancakes, desserts, oatmeal, Italian soda, coffee drinks, tea drinks, french toast, and more. We can't wait to see what you make next, and we'll keep posting recipes to encourage you along the way!
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It's a great one for a wedding or for a garden party, even an Easter brunch. It's light enough to serve in the morning or during cocktail hour and it helps set a definite vibe- a very classy vibe. The rhubarb on the farm is the first fruit to produce during the start of our season, and so it is a welcome sign of Spring. Hot house rhubarb is also available in our area as early as February, so you can get the rhubarb stalks from the grocery store to make a fancy garnish, if you'd like.
This drink was recently featured on SipNorthwest.com as a feature cocktail. It can be a little complex to make completely from scratch because of the Rhubarb Vanilla Bean Simple Syrup, but our already bottled Rhubarb Vanilla Bean simple syrup makes this fancy cocktail a breeze!
Our friends are as much a part of our success as our family and this fan favorite Happy Camper Cocktail original recipe is in honor of one of our besties, Genevieve. Genevieve was one of the OG Happy Campers who offered her critique on everything from the Happy Camper logo to the cocktail menu and this recipe is one that she insisted we put on our menu at our very first event. The event was a public one, where thousands of vintage and antique shoppers came through and tried the drinks from the cute, converted camper bar.Â
The Genevieve cocktail was so popular at the event that it led to customers asking how they could recreate it at home. Belinda would explain the recipe, especially the fresh rhubarb and vanilla bean simple syrup that made the drink so special, and she'd watch as folks' eyes glazed over. It seemed complicated, and they just wanted to drink. Store owners asked Belinda to stock it if she ever decided to sell it.
All of this hullabaloo gave Venise an idea- bottling the syrups so people could recreate the garden to glass menu of the Happy Camper Cocktail Company would be a great idea for another company. And that's how Simple Goodness Sisters was born. It took a year of research and certifications and such, but the syrups launched about 15 months later at Proof Northwest, Seattle's distilling festival, to great fanfare.
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The Genevieve cocktail
Makes 1 cocktail
Glass: champagne glass or coupe
Ingredients:
2 ounces Batch 206 Counter Gin
1/2 ounce fresh lemon juice
1/2 ounce Simple Goodness Sisters Rhubarb Vanilla Syrup*
1 ounce brut sparkling wine
Garnish: thin slice rhubarb
Combine the gin, lemon juice and syrup in a shaker of ice, shake for 20 seconds or until the outside of the shaker is chilled. Strain into a coupe glass and top with the sparkling wine. Garnish. Sometimes we use a lemon wheel, sometimes a thin slice of rhubarb that's been dipped in our floral sugar.Â
The Genevieve Non-alcoholic cocktail
Makes 1 mocktail
Glass: champagne glass or coupe
Ingredients:
1 dash rhubarb bitters (leave it out if you prefer to abstain from all alcohol)
1Â ounce fresh lemon juice
1 ounce Simple Goodness Sisters Rhubarb Vanilla Syrup*
1 ounce non-alcoholic brut sparkling wine
Garnish: thin slice rhubarb
Combine the lemon juice and syrup in a shaker of ice, shake for 20 seconds or until the outside of the shaker is chilled. Strain into a chilled glass and top with the sparkling NA wine. Garnish.
