Trash Soda Syrups

Sometimes, you just want a soda. Sometimes you’d also like a soda but don’t want to spend $2 on a 20oz bottle. Most of what I’m going to show you below is methods and ideas, rather than telling you what to do, since I don’t know your life or what kinds of fruits/herbs you prefer.

I call these trash sodas because they are made out of what we normally consider to be compost or garbage: apple peels and cores, strawberry tops, bits of banana peel, herb stems, citrus peels (I actually candy these and use the remaining syrup this way), pear cores, cucumber peels, pumpkin peels (ditto other hard squashes; summer squashes aren’t sweet enough for me to do this), shrivelled grapes, all manner of stuff. We can generate a tremendous amount of waste food when we’re prepping for the food’s intended use, and other times we just don’t get to a food before it’s really time to use it or lose it. This is one way to help prevent food waste and to repurpose the old into the new!

I mix a tablespoon or two of syrup into a glass club soda for a soda (tonic is fine, too, if that’s your jam), add it to tea or coffee as a sweetener and flavor, sometimes use these syrups to brush over cakes and other sundries, you could use to glaze meat if you’re into that sort of thing, I sometimes boil them down into hard candy (citrus ones are particularly nice when you’ve got a cold or wicked allergies, and this is definitely how I make horehound lozenges), and sometimes will put these in other recipes so I can double down on flavors! Sometimes I also will mix a bit into plain water if I would like some sort of flavoring in my water that day. I like that a lot in the summer, because Houston summers aren’t pretty. There’re probably other uses for these syrups, too: let us know what you like to use yours for in the comments, or other ideas you’ve got!

Here’s what you’ll need

1 cup water

1 cup sugar

1/2-1 cup fruit or herb waste

You start by making a simple syrup base with 1:1 sugar:water, brought to a boil and allowed to boil for another minute. Then you can do your syrups in one of two ways, once the simple syrup is made. One is to simmer the additive in the syrup for a while, such as with orange peels or lemon peels (to make candied peel at the same time, thereby further reducing waste). The other is just to remove the syrup from heat, stir in the additive and let it infuse for a while (I go 30 minutes to 4 hours). Then I strain it into a jar and keep it in the fridge. In most cases, it only costs you the sugar, really, since you're generally just using the bits of fruits and herbs you'd normally throw away anyway. These, as a standard, will keep about 2 weeks. If you happen to cook them down into a particularly thick syrup or decide to add a dollop of corn syrup to the mix, they’ll keep quite a lot longer.

Some examples:

Apple syrup: I use just the cores and peels and infuse for an hour.

Ginger syrup: Peel the ginger with a spoon (reduces lost flesh), then slice thinly. Simmer the ginger in the syrup for 30-60 minutes, then remove from heat and let infuse for 4 hours. I mainly use this syrup for when we're sick. Don't throw the ginger away! Roll it in sugar and put it on a baking sheet. Bake on the very lowest heat your oven can do until it's completely dried (like dehydrating anything in your oven, really). Voila, crystallised ginger, AND syrup!

Lemon-Lime (similar to 7-up, though not exactly the same) syrup: equal parts lime and lemon peel, simmer in syrup for 15 minutes then allow to infuse for an hour. If you removed the pith first, roll the peel in sugar and dry for candied peel!

Orange soda: Same as the lemon-lime, but just orange. Again, a great opportunity for candied peel!

Kumquat soda: Cut the kumquats in half, simmer as above w/ the other citrus, but you can do this for even longer if you'd like. Then let it infuse as above. This results in glacée kumquats, which I've discovered a disturbing fondness for.

Honeydew: After I cut the melon, I always find there's a decent amount of flesh remaining on the peel. So I cut the peel into pieces and make the syrup. Except I do actually throw the peel away (I suppose you could eat it?).

Mint: Just do infusion; this is one of my favorites. It's such a refreshing treat! Basil is also a really nice option, and ditto rosemary! Thyme is not so delicious, but this is a preferred method for me when using thyme medicinally and out of tincture.

Strawberry: I just use the tops when I cut them off, and I don't actually bother to take the leaves off. Just infuse on this one. Seriously, don’t take the leaves off. They’re actually good for you.

Pineapple: Use the core; slice, simmer then infuse. Sometimes I use peels instead of cores. Mostly because I prefer the core over the regular flesh for eating. Yep, that’s weird, but I love its bamboo-ish texture coupled with that sweet, acidic pineapple flavor!

Kiwi: Using the peels that have bits of flesh remaining on them.

Other herbs: I’ve heard a couple of people say they like parsley syrup before, and since I haven’t tried it I don’t want to speak ill of it. That said, I personally like horsetail and nettle syrups (separately; haven’t tried them in combo), so I have very little room to talk about the weirder types. Turmeric is another great option, especially if you toss some ginger or black pepper in there.

This is beer. I am using this picture because it showed up in a search for “soda” and the truth of that made me laugh too hard not to use this pic. Keenan Barber/Getty.