Rhubarb Syrup

Bright red and sweet-tart, this springtime syrup is easy to make and delicious mixed with seltzer, in cocktails, or drizzled over ice cream.

By
Maggie Hoffman
Maggie Hoffman is a contributing writer at Serious Eats.
Maggie Hoffman
Maggie Hoffman is a longtime food and drink expert whose recipes and cocktail-making tips can be found on her newsletters What to Drink and The Dinner Plan. She is the author of  The One-Bottle Cocktail and Batch Cocktails, both published by Ten Speed Press.
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Published June 26, 2023
A Late Spring Dark and Stormy, which uses homemade rhubarb syrup.

Serious Eats / Maggie Hoffman

Why It Works

  • Simmering the rhubarb with water and sugar rapidly extracts its color and flavor into the simple syrup.
  • You get two for the price of one, as the cooked rhubarb is also great to eat.

This vibrant, sweet-tart syrup comes together in just minutes by simmering the chopped-up springtime vegetable with sugar and water. After straining (don't discard the cooked rhubarb, it's still perfectly good to eat—see the notes section below for some suggestions), the resulting syrup is infused with both the bright magenta color and fruity-sour flavor of the rhubarb stalks.

The syrup is wonderfully versatile. You can add it to seltzer for a light and refreshing homemade soda, drizzle it over baked goods and ice cream, and mix it into alcoholic drinks. We use it to great effect in this rhubarb twist on the classic boulevardier cocktail, and it's also quite tasty mixed with ginger beer, dark rum, and lime—let's call it a "Late Spring Dark and Stormy."

Feel free to adjust the sweetness of this syrup to your liking. We've kept the sugar on the lower end relative to the water content of the mixture, for a syrup that leans more tart and bracing than sugary sweet. But you may find that in some instances more sugar is a welcome addition, which you can add either right at the beginning when simmering the rhubarb, or later on by dissolving more additional sugar into the syrup.

Recipe Details

Rhubarb Syrup Recipe

Cook 10 mins
Total 10 mins
Serves 6 servings of 4 tablespoons
Makes 1 cups
Cook Mode (Keep screen awake)

Ingredients

  • 1/2 pound (227g) rhubarb (about three 24-inch stalks), cut into 1/2-inch pieces (about 2 cups)

  • 1 cup (237ml) water

  • 2 tablespoons(25g) sugar

Directions

  1. In a medium stainless-steel saucepan, combine rhubarb, water, and sugar. Cover and cook over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until rhubarb is tender and begins to fall apart, about 7 minutes.

    Chopped rhubarb cooking in a blue Dutch oven, with the rhubarb being stirred by a wooden spoon.

    Serious Eats

  2. Pour cooked rhubarb and its syrup through a fine-mesh strainer set over a heatproof bowl, gently pressing on rhubarb ro express syrup. Let cool, then store syrup in a clean jar, bottle, or container in a refrigerator for up to one week. Cooked rhubarb can be reserved for another use (see notes).

    Strained rhubarb syrup in a white bowl.

    Serious Eats

Special Equipment

Stainless-steel saucepan, fine-mesh strainer

Notes

The cooked rhubarb can be reserved for any number of subsequent uses, including stirred into yogurt, spooned onto ice cream, folded into muffins or other baked goods.

Make-Ahead and Storage

When stored in a refrigerator, syrup will stay fresh for up to one week.

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Nutrition Facts (per serving)
25Calories
0gFat
6gCarbs
0gProtein
×
Nutrition Facts
Servings: 6
Amount per serving
Calories25
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 0g0%
Saturated Fat 0g0%
Cholesterol 0mg0%
Sodium 3mg0%
Total Carbohydrate 6g2%
Dietary Fiber 1g3%
Total Sugars 5g
Protein 0g
Vitamin C 3mg16%
Calcium 36mg3%
Iron 0mg1%
Potassium 117mg2%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.
(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)

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