Sensational Syrups

Flavored syrups stir up summer drinks

By Cora Weisenberger

Photo courtesy of Sonoma Syrup Co.

Summer, that precious, but brief span of three months, makes the year at least passably tolerable. We’ll put up with snow, cold and rain if it means there will at long last be days of sunshine and warmth. School is out, vacation is on and the action doesn’t stop until long past dark.

Coffee shops will be humming with activity as customers stop in for a drink or a quick bite while they migrate from one summer adventure to another. However, these guests, now dressed in shorts and tank tops, won’t be looking for the same drinks they did just a few chilly months ago. They’re looking for something cool and refreshing, and with just a jolt of caffeine to get them through the busy day.

Syrups are an easy and versatile way to add splashes of bright flavor to mainstay iced drinks, hot drinks like lattes and cappuccinos, as well as being the inspiration behind some original offerings.

“Syrups used to be seasonal,” says Daniel Hanson, CEO of Folklore Foods out of Toppenish, Wash. “But that’s not the case any more.”

“Consumers are looking for refreshing drinks,” says Sarah Stroker, marketing and communications specialist at Torani of San Francisco. ‘Hot’ tastes for the hot season are citrus, tropical fruit and chocolate, she says.

Photo courtesy of Stirling Foods

Torani introduced its Blood Orange Syrup recently at the San Francisco Fancy Food Show. Blood oranges have been popping up on the menus of some of the country’s trendiest restaurants. Their taste is an irresistible combination of sweet and tart, and their distinct dark, smoky red color invigorates any dish.

Stroker says Torani has captured that yin and yang of sweet and tart in its Blood Orange Syrup. It’s well suited for cocktails, Italian sodas and iced teas. A simple drink called a refresher is made from half-iced tea, half-lemonade and a splash of syrup.

“I think we’re going to see a lot of the traditional citrus fruits, but Blood Orange will be the breakaway flavor,” Stroker says. Other new tropical-inspired Torani syrups are Guava and Mango as well as the old favorites, Banana and Coconut.

A popular holdover from last season is pomegranate. “It has taken off as this exotic fruit,” says Aisha Kabani, vice president of Calson Industries, Inc./Stasero of Seattle. Versatility is part of its popularity, she says. It pairs well with other fruits and it is easy to work with. It also gets additional points by being high in antioxidants, which some medical research have pointed to as weapons in the battle against cancer and heart disease.

The Stasero Pomegranate Syrup is made from fruit concentrate, Kabani says, so consumers get a taste of the actual fruit and not just the juice.

Another pomegranate concentrate comes from Baristella in Oxnard, Calif. Marketing president, Maral Barsoumian, says their product is not a typical syrup, but is made from real pomegranates and is shelf-stable. She says, “It has a beautiful color and taste.” She also says the concentrate goes particularly well with lemonade and iced teas.

Photo courtesy of Sonoma Syrup Co.

Things are “rosy” over at Routin America, Inc.—and violet, lavender and elderflower. The French-based company has come out with flower-inspired syrups that literally taste of summer.

“Flower flavors are really becoming popular,” says Tina Michaud, president of Allied Resources, the master broker for Routin in the U.S. and Canada. A lot of the flower- and herb-flavored syrups, which sell best in the summer, are being added to champagne, cocktails and specialty martinis. They can even give run-of-the-mill ginger ale a different kick, she adds.

Other new Routin flavors for the season are Lemon Pie, Pear and Pomegranate.

Swimsuit weather makes everyone more conscious of their calorie intake. Hanson of Folklore Foods says the company is continuing to expand its line of sugar-free syrups. “That’s what people seem to be interested in,” he says. Their sugar-free line now has 17 flavors including Caramel, French Vanilla, Vanilla and Almond; the regular line as 64 flavors.

Routin, too, is adding to its sugar-free selections. Michaud says the company has six sugar-free varieties—all top-selling flavors—and are adding two more.

Oranges, mango and guava all call to mind sandy beaches and palm trees. But other seasonal hits this year harkened back to the comfort foods of childhood. Good old PB&J—peanut butter and jelly—inspired a new syrup from Stirling Foods of Renton, Wash.

Photos courtesy of Torani

“Customers were asking for it,” says Jeff Greiner, vice president of Stirling. PB&J works well in hot drinks, but for iced drinks and Italian sodas, he recommends his company’s Watermelon Syrup. The flavor was a little tricky to nail down because the company wanted to find a flavor that didn’t taste like watermelon candy.

“I won’t release anything until I think it’s better than all of our competitors,’” Greiner says.

And who can forget chocolate? This perennial favorite gets a new turn at Monin Gourmet Flavorings, which has just introduced Mayan Chocolate Premium Gourmet Syrup. “(It’s) an intriguing blend of rich, dark chocolate with a spicy finish of cinnamon and chili peppers,” says Michael Alexander, director of marketing for Monin. “(It’s) similar to what the Mayans enjoyed as the first producers of liquid chocolate.”

Da Vinci Gourmet’s director of marketing, Kevin Kreutner, says his company is nutty over its Pistachio Syrup. The flavor was created to fill a gap in their line that customers were missing, he says. In addition, this Waukesha, Wis., company also has syrups in Malibu Rum, Caramel Pecan and a Carrot Cake that Kreutner says is “phenomenal.”

Latin-inspired flavors will also be cooling off the sultry season. Barsoumian says her company has come out with a product called Mojito Libre™ in which mint and lime juice have been concentrated. Soda water and ice are all that need to be added for a refreshing drink.

Torani has a White Chocolate Ancho Chile syrup that balances sweet chocolate with the wallop of hot chiles. It can be used in mochas as well as in iced coffee “if you want a little more flavor,” Stroker says.

“Spanish flavors are really, really hot right now,” she adds.

Flavored syrups are being used for purposes other than giving a lift for hot and cold drinks. They’re also being used for, well, for syrups. Karin Campion, founder and president of Sonoma Syrups in Sonoma, Calif., says a trend her company has noticed is the resurgence of breakfast being served in cafes.

Photo courtesy of Sonoma Syrup Co.

“We saw the trend that breakfast was becoming very important in cafes,” Campion says. “We noticed that several shops were serving crepes and gourmet doughnuts.”

Sonoma’s syrups, which contain from 50 to 100 percent juice, are not as thick as conventional pancake syrups, but they are still pourable, Campion says.

Customers may also be demanding frozen drinks, including frappes and granitas.

Jerry Thomas, operations manager at Cowhill Express Gourmet, says his company isn’t offering any new flavors this season, but is instead concentrating on how to use existing products in new ways. They offer a small line of frozen cappuccinos, smoothies and granitas.

“The frappe market is just booming. Blended drinks are a growth area,” says Kreutner. He says Da Vinci is concentrating on using their existing syrups creatively in frappe bases instead of trying to come up with the next great flavor.

“If you think about the average coffee shop menu, they use the same flavors hot or cold,” Kreutner says. “If you have the base flavors, you pretty much have it covered.”

The Da Vinci frappe bases are all natural and have fewer calories than similar bases, he says. They also allow shops to get creative in their drink mixing and creating.

“You put 1.5 oz. of syrup in a 16-oz. frappe (base), and you have a new drink,” Kreutner says.