Fall in Southern California is subtle. We don’t see a dramatic color change; heck, if you think you do, it’s probably just dead leaves thanks to our drought. And here is definitely no first frost.
What I notice instead is that my thyme is taking over my herb garden, the sage is finally done being sad and straggly now that the heat has let up, and I am suddenly craving bourbon at 5 p.m. instead of gin (it’s my “cold weather” liquor).
That is when I know it’s time to start making fall simple syrups.
A homemade syrup takes about ten minutes and opens up a whole season of cocktail recipes. The syrups below cover the full range of autumn flavors: orchard fruit, warm spices, garden herbs, and the nuts that are perfect this time of year (think roasting chestnuts, pistachio cocktails, etc.)
Most also work in coffee, tea, and anything you want to drizzle over breakfast. Store them in 4 oz glass jars in the fridge, or freeze extras in silicone ice cube trays for longer storage.
Fruit Syrups
Apple Butter
Apple butter is thicker and darker than apple cider syrup, cooked down long enough that the sugars caramelize and the spices really come through. It shakes into a cocktail cleanly despite its thickness, and it brings more baked-apple flavor than syrup alone.
I use it anywhere I want a drink to taste like it came straight from the orchard and bakery rather than off a bar cart. It pairs well with bourbon, rye, and spiced rum.
Try it in the Autumn Harvest Whiskey Sour or the Apple Cider Bourbon Smash.
Get the full Apple Butter recipe.
Apple Cider Syrup
Simmering apple cider down with sugar concentrates the tartness, apple flavor, and that quintessential fall taste. The result is a step above plain simple syrup in any bourbon cocktail, hot toddy, or sparkling mocktail.
It is also good drizzled over pancakes, which might be why my kids are always begging me to load up on cider now that I think of it.
Caramel Apple Syrup
Caramel apple syrup takes the apple cider base and adds a brown-sugar caramel depth that tastes like dessert. It’s the syrup I use for spiked apple cider cocktails, whiskey drinks with a sweet edge, and anything you want to taste like an October afternoon that has nothing to do with pumpkin spice.
Pear Syrup
Pear has a softer, more floral quality than apple, making the syrup more versatile with gin and prosecco, adding sweetness without completely washing out the flavors.
Use it in a Pear French 75 or stir it into sparkling water with a squeeze of lemon. Use it in my Pear Moscow Mule if you have pear vodka in your cupboard.
Fig Syrup
Rich and fruity with a natural jammy texture, fig syrup works in bourbon, rum, and gin cocktails. I grow figs at home, though the neighborhood squirrels like to take more than their fair share, much to my annoyance. Even a small batch is worth making if you can only get your hands on a few.
Get the full Fig Simple Syrup recipe.
Maple Fig Syrup
Combine maple syrup (not the imitation stuff) and fresh figs, then simmer them down into something jammy with a caramel undertone that pairs well with bourbon and whiskey. Drizzle it into an Old Fashioned, stir it into black tea, or pour it over roasted fruit. It even works in yogurt if you need something new for breakfast.
Get the full Maple Fig Simple Syrup recipe.
Roasted Fig Syrup
Roasting figs before simmering them caramelizes their natural sugars and deepens the flavor. It becomes jammy and slightly smoky, with a richness plain fig syrup lacks. It goes well with bourbon, brandy, and rum.
Persimmon Syrup
I had no idea what a persimmon was until we moved to Southern California and discovered our house came with four persimmon trees. That first year, I was an idiot and gave them all away to neighbors. Now I make syrup, freeze puree, and dehydrate slices for garnish from October through January.
The syrup is mellow and honeyed with faint notes of spice. It adds warmth to bourbon, brandy, and sparkling cocktails, and it pairs well with cinnamon, ginger, vanilla, and rosemary.
Get the full Persimmon Simple Syrup recipe and try it in the Persimmon Sparkler or the Persimmon Bee’s Knees.
Blackberry Syrup
Blackberry syrup is darker and more assertive than blueberry, with a tartness my husband and I love in spirit-forward cocktails with gin, bourbon, or rum. The deep color makes it one of the more striking syrups to use in a coupe glass.
Get my blackberry simple syrup recipe and start making your own.
Blackberry Balsamic Reduction
This one is a lot less syrupy and has a more concentrated flavor. Balsamic vinegar simmered with blackberries and a little sugar creates a complex, slightly acidic flavor that adds a layer to cocktails you won’t get from plain syrup. It pairs especially well in cocktails with gin, whiskey, and prosecco.
Plum Syrup
Plum syrup is easy to make from late summer into early fall, when most plums hit the grocery stores and farmers’ markets. It has a jammy, slightly tart flavor that works in bourbon, rum, and gin cocktails.
Roasted Plum Syrup
Roasting plums with brown sugar before simmering them into syrup caramelizes their natural sugars and deepens the flavor, making it perfect for bourbon, brandy, and rum cocktails.
Get the full Roasted Plum Simple Syrup recipe.
Pomegranate Syrup
Pomegranate is a peak fall fruit (if you can stop the squirrels from biting into them). The flavor is tart, with a beautiful, deep red, almost purple color, and festive enough to carry into the holidays cocktails and mocktails. It works in gin spritzes, prosecco cocktails, bourbon sours, and sparkling mocktails.
Pumpkin Simple Syrup
Made with an actual pumpkin (sugar or pie pumpkins) rather than extract, this syrup tastes like a real pumpkin, not a candle. Use it in a pumpkin spice martini, stir it into your morning coffee, or try my Pumpkin Patch Whiskey Fizz for a full cocktail recipe. I make a mocktail version for my kids and they ask for it on repeat from October through Thanksgiving. My neighbors loved it at our Halloween gathering too.
Get the full Pumpkin Simple Syrup recipe.
Pumpkin Butter
Not technically a syrup, but it functions as one in cocktails, with a rich, spiced flavor and a thickness that shakes cleanly into a drink with ice. The Pumpkin Patch Whiskey Fizz, based on a trip to Shenandoah National Park, uses it as the base ingredient and is one of the best fall cocktails I’ve ever made.
Get the full Pumpkin Butter recipe.
Spiced Pumpkin Syrup
The spiced version of my pumpkin syrup adds cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove to the pumpkin base, which makes it more cocktail-specific than plain pumpkin syrup. Use it anywhere you want pumpkin spice flavor without using a pre-made mix.
Beet Syrup
Beet syrup is earthy, slightly sweet, and produces a deep magenta color that rivals hibiscus in a glass. It pairs surprisingly well with gin, vodka, and citrus, and that vibrant red color makes perfect for anyone (like me) who needs to pretend the fall colors are changing around them (and not just my succulents making new baby plants).
Orange Rosemary Syrup
Combining orange and rosemary in a single syrup bridges fall and winter syrups. The citrus keeps your syrup from feeling too heavy, and the rosemary adds an herbal, piney note that feels seasonal. It pairs well with gin, bourbon, and prosecco.
Spice Syrups
Cinnamon Syrup
Cinnamon syrup is a pretty reliable fallback autumn syrup when you aren’t sure what else to use. It makes everything taste more autumnal without being aggressively seasonal, which is why it works in everything from spiced lattes to hot toddies to a whiskey sour.
My Earl Grey Cinnamon Sour uses cinnamon syrup alongside gin and Earl Grey tea, and it’s one of my favorite fall cocktail combinations.
Get the full Cinnamon Simple Syrup recipe.
Allspice Syrup
Despite the name, allspice is a single spice with a flavor is a nice little combo of cinnamon, clove, and nutmeg all in one little ball. In syrup form, the flavors soften into a rounded and warm taste. It works best as a background note that adds depth without screaming “I’m using spices, look at me!” Start with half an ounce in a cocktail and adjust from there.
Get the full Allspice Simple Syrup recipe.
Cardamom Syrup
Cardamom is floral, citrusy, and faintly spiced, and sadly, one of the more underused fall flavors in home bartending. Personally, I’d put cardamom in anything and everything I shake up, stir and even bake.
It works especially well in gin cocktails and chai-inspired drinks. Try it in a cardamom Old Fashioned, Date Cardamom Whiskey Sour or a spiced gin sour.
Get the full Cardamom Simple Syrup recipe.
Ginger Syrup
Ginger simple syrup has heat and sharpness that wakes up a cocktail. Use it in whiskey cocktails, hot toddies, or sparkling mocktails, or as the base for a Moscow Mule made from scratch rather than relying on ginger beer. Just keep an eye on your ginger syrup “spice” level. Too much ginger will overwhelm any cocktail you make with it, kind of like hot honey simple syrup can.
Maple Cardamom Syrup
Combining maple and cardamom in a single syrup creates a warm and slightly floral taste I love to add to my cocktails. The maple provides a woody sweetness, and the cardamom adds that bit of floral I love to hint at but not overwhelm in my drinks. It pairs well with bourbon, rum, and dark spirits.
Spiced Maple Syrup
Plain maple syrup works fine as a sweetener, but adding warming spices, like cinnamon, cardamom, and/or a clove or two, turns it into a sweetener perfect for autumn cocktails. Try it in bourbon cocktails, hot toddies, and coffee drinks.
Juniper Syrup
Juniper is the botanical that defines gin, so the syrup just amps up that flavor in gin cocktails. In the fall, try mixing it with darker fruits like blackberry, fig, and apple, where its piney, slightly peppery quality complements the other botanicals. Just remember to use dried culinary juniper berries only.
Get the full Juniper Simple Syrup recipe.
Hot Honey Syrup
Hot honey has sweetness with a slow heat that works really well in whiskey drinks and anything with citrus. It is also good drizzled over a cocktail garnish or stirred into a spiced mocktail, oh, and on pizza. My kid loves it on pizza for some reason.
Herb Syrups
Sage Syrup
Sage gets savory and earthy when cooked, and that translates into a syrup that tastes like fall probably because so many people use it to make stuffing and in turkey on Thanksgiving and with Christmas roasts.
I grow sage in my garden year-round, but I love it when it starts to cool down in late autumn, when the summer California sun doesn’t fry it. You can pair it with apple, pear, or bourbon cocktails.
Get the full Sage Simple Syrup recipe.
Thyme Syrup
Thyme is super easy to grow, and like basil, I use it constantly in food and cocktails. The syrup captures the earthy, slightly floral quality of fresh thyme without any woodiness that you would get from dried thyme. Try it with bourbon, gin, lemon, and pear, and in my Pear Thyme Martini.
Get the full Thyme Simple Syrup recipe.
Rosemary Syrup
Rosemary is one of the most forgiving herbs to work with, and I have grown it everywhere I have ever lived (Philadelphia, Seattle, Georgia, Chicago, etc.). In Southern California, it pretty much grows itself since I forget to water the giant bush that came with our house most of the time.
The syrup is woodsy and fragrant, and it bridges fall and winter better than most flavors. Use it in a rosemary gin spritz, a Cranberry Rosemary Gin Smash cocktail, or my Rosemary Blackberry Bourbon Sour if you want something spirit-forward.
Get the full Rosemary Simple Syrup recipe.
Tarragon Syrup
Tarragon has a subtle anise flavor that is lighter than star anise or fennel. In a syrup, it adds a slight herbal note that works in gin cocktails and citrus-forward drinks. Tarragon syrup makes a drink taste more interesting, but trust me, no one will be able to guess what you used.
Basil Syrup
My basil goes nuts in the summer and autumn, but in early fall, most people can still get one last batch of basil syrup before the cold kills it. The syrup is earthy, peppery, and herbal, and it goes well with fig, pear, and bourbon. It is also super easy to can simple syrups, so you can have basil syrup year-round.
Get the full Basil Simple Syrup recipe, and try my Orange Basil Fizz recipe.
Tea Syrups
Earl Grey Syrup
The bergamot in Earl Grey, which is floral, citrusy, and a little pithy, is easy to use in gin, vodka, bourbon, and sparkling wine cocktails. I have been making it since I wanted to recreate a London Fog latte at home and never stopped. It can also add a bit of tannin to cocktails, which punches up the flavors of stone fruits and other flavors, something I learned from my brother-in-law.
Get the full Earl Grey Simple Syrup recipe.
Genmaicha Syrup
Genmaicha is green tea blended with toasted rice, and the syrup has a nutty, slightly earthy flavor. The toasted quality makes it feel more autumnal than straight green tea, and it mixes well with whiskey, bourbon, and darker spirits.
Rooibos Vanilla Syrup
Rooibos is a naturally caffeine-free herbal tea from South Africa with a warm, slightly sweet, vanilla-adjacent flavor. Adding vanilla to the syrup deepens that vanilla flavor what you can easily make into cocktails with rum, bourbon, and cream-based cocktails, plus it tastes great in coffee or tea.
Sweetener Syrups
Honey Syrup
Plain honey is too thick to mix cleanly into a cold cocktail; it clumps as soon as it hits the ice. A 1:1 honey syrup makes it easier to handle and adds a gentle floral sweetness that works in everything from a Bee’s Knees to chamomile tea. I keep a jar in the freezer year-round ( I LOVE a bee’s knees variation). Try it with whiskey and thyme to make a fall flavor.
Brown Sugar Syrup
Brown sugar has a molasses undertone you can’t get with plain old white sugar, giving the syrup a deeper, slightly caramel quality similar to maple syrup. Use it in a Brown Sugar Old Fashioned, stir it into spiked hot chocolate, or swap it for plain simple syrup in any bourbon cocktail to see how the flavor shifts.
Brown Sugar Spiced Syrup
The spiced version adds cinnamon and clove to the brown sugar base, and it works anywhere you want brown sugar sweetness with a warming spice edge.
Caramel Syrup
Caramel syrup is richer and more complex than plain simple syrup, with a toasted sugar quality that adds sweetness to bourbon, rum, and coffee drinks. Use it in a caramel Old Fashioned or stir it into a spiked latte.
Nut Syrups
Pecan Syrup
Pecan syrup has a toasty, buttery taste similar to pecan pie without the crust. It goes with bourbon Old Fashioneds, hot toddies, and anything with apple or maple. Toast the pecans before simmering to bring more pecan-flavor depth to the syrup.
Brown Sugar Pecan Syrup
Combining brown sugar and pecans gives you a richer, more caramelized version of plain pecan syrup. It is great in bourbon cocktails, spiked coffees, and anything that should taste like a Southern dessert (think pecan bars, pecan pie, and pecan cobbler).
Walnut Syrup
Walnut syrup is earthier and slightly more bitter than pecan syrup, making it work better in spirit-forward cocktails where you want complexity, not just a sweetener. Try it in bourbon, rum, and dark spirits. Remember to taste as you go when simmering, as walnuts can turn bitter if you steep them too long.
Hazelnut Syrup
Hazelnut syrup works really, really well in espresso martinis, bourbon cocktails, and coffee drinks. It is nutty and slightly sweet without being heavy, and it pairs well with chocolate, vanilla, and dark spirits. Just watch out, or your cocktail could end up tasting like a Ferrero Rocher chocolate candy treat, which might not be a bad thing, come to think of it.
What Tools You Need to Make Simple Syrup
You don’t need much equipment for syrup-making, but a fine-mesh strainer is definitely needed for nut and herb syrups. Cheesecloth layered over the strainer gives you an even cleaner result. Store finished syrups in 4 oz glass jars and label them with the date. Most last a week in the fridge and a few months in the freezer; as long as you get the pH levels right, you can also can them for long-term storage and use as needed.
My Amazon shop has the bar tools and storage jars I use most.
Where to Start
If you are only going to make one syrup this fall, make the cinnamon syrup. It works in a ton of drinks, it is the fastest to make, and it costs almost nothing. From there, maple fig and sage are the ones I keep refilling most.
Browse my full simple syrups archive for more recipes, and check out my autumn cocktails collection for drinks that use them. My cocktail garnishes guide is also worth a look for finishing touches.
Fall Cocktails That Use These Syrups
- Earl Grey Cinnamon Sour — cinnamon syrup, gin, Earl Grey tea, lemon
- Pumpkin Patch Whiskey Fizz — pumpkin butter, whiskey, ginger ale
- Pear Moscow Mule — pear vodka, ginger beer, lime
- Persimmon Sparkler — persimmon puree, honey syrup, lemon, prosecco
- Persimmon Bee’s Knees — persimmon puree, honey syrup, gin, lemon
- Rosemary Fig Collins — rosemary syrup, fig syrup, gin, lemon, soda
- Thyme Blackberry Bourbon Bramble — thyme syrup, bourbon, blackberry, lemon
- Blackberry Earl Grey Sour — Earl Grey syrup, blackberry, bourbon or gin, lemon
- Earl Grey Peach Smash — Earl Grey syrup, bourbon, peach, basil, lemon
- Blackberry Maple Bourbon Smash — maple syrup, bourbon, blackberry, lemon
- Maple Bourbon Smash — maple syrup, bourbon, lemon, rosemary
- Whiskey Sour with Thyme and Honey — thyme syrup, honey syrup, whiskey, lemon
- Rosemary Blackberry Bourbon Sour — rosemary syrup, bourbon, blackberry, lemon
- Rosemary Blackberry Gin Sour — rosemary syrup, gin, blackberry, lemon
- Maple Pear Fizz Mocktail — maple syrup, pear juice, lemon, tonic
- Cinnamon Pear Sour — cinnamon syrup, bourbon, pear nectar, lemon
- Apple Cider Bourbon Smash
- Autumn Harvest Whiskey Sour
