rose syrup... what to do?

Oh, hi. Yeah, new here. Anyway, I have an ingredient to play with... rose syrup. I picked it up at an Asian grocery store. It's just simple syrup (sugar), flavored with roses and a smidge of red food coloring. So now I'm playing with recipes for it, and looking for more ideas.

My first attempt with it was with Trader Vic's Spiced Rum, pineapple juice, and a couple of drops of Angostura Bitters. It was pretty good, but I'm sure it could be better. Any suggestions on ingredients I could try? Something that might be a good contrast?

Also, I'd like to be able to make something in quantity... a whole bottle of rum, however much rose syrup, and other ingredients, for a party. I could do with a couple of rums or some gin or something too.

Thanks in advance for any ideas!

Not sure about recipes, but some other fun things to try....

Take a small container of sugar and add about teaspoon and shake it up. Use that to rim glasses.

Use it when you make home-made orgeat.

Add it to soda water with lemon and rum or gin. A refreshing adult soda.

You could add it to Gin Martini's with some of the newer Gin's like Hendricks.

All I got for the moment. Did these ideas spur any others?

Not so much ideas as orders now... some friends are having a "Technicolor Pirates" party, and my wife said I should make a "Pink Pirate". So, pink. Now, my daughter had her own ideas with the rose syrup. She's too young to drink, but she's quite devoted to making smoothies and has marvelous taste. She concocted something the other night with rose syrup, coconut cream, bananas, and almond that worked well. So I'm going to experiment with rose syrup, coconut milk, and white rum. Needs something sharper-flavored, now.

Pardon me while I limp into the kitchen and mix up some medicine for the ankle I twisted earlier tonight...

On 2010-06-16 20:28, kludge wrote:
She concocted something the other night with rose syrup, coconut cream, bananas, and almond that worked well.

Sounds like an excellent base for rum.

Add a full bodied gold rum to that mix, something like Appleton or Cruzan, and you should be pretty close to a yummy drink.

Okay, first pass at the Pink Pirate. No real measurements here, other than how long I had to stand on my injured ankle...

First attempt, I balanced out coconut milk and rose syrup, then added bitters and lime juice (sore and lazy, used Roses rather than juicing a lime). Added rum. It didn't work AT ALL. Like pour-it-down-the-sink bad.

Next pass was more basic... coconut, rose, and Westerhall rum (sort of a light gold, from Grenada). Better, but in dire need of something still. Added Trader Vic's Spiced Rum and it's much better.

It's still not done, but I'm on the path now. It needs a white rum and I don't have any. I'm going to get some Wray and Nephew Overproof tomorrow, I think, and a more powerful spiced rum... perhaps Kraken (ran out of that, somehow). This might end up over-rumming it, but it IS pirate, right?

Visually... it's a Pink Pirate. If it wasn't already named, I'd call it a Pepto-Bismol.

edit: Almost forgot... about a half-teaspoon of sugar, too (Sugar in the Raw). Needs more sweetening than I expected.

[ Edited by: kludge 2010-06-16 20:59 ]

[ Edited by: kludge 2010-06-16 21:00 ]

Hey Kludge, we have 3 things in common:

1. New to posting here
2. Spotted Rose Syrup in an Asian Grocers and thought "I can do something with that"
3. Wasted good booze trying to make it work :)

Anyways...I have 2 drinks that others seem to find 'work'. First is Turkish Delight. UK readers should be thinking "Frys" right now, as Fry's Turkish Delight is what it tastes like, as was intended. 1 part Kahlua, 1 part Creme de Cacao, 1/2 part Rose Syrup.

I spent ages trying to find something else to work with Rose Syrup, I find it one of those overpowering flavours that really kills a drink. Rather than ruin perfectly good rum (though reading about Orgeat & Coconut I think a White Rum could be tried here, thanks!) I next moved on to Gin. Eventually called Gin'll Fix It (again, a name UK folk should 'get'): 2 parts Gin, 1/2 part Orange, 1/2 part Lemon, 1/4 part Rose Syrup, dash Orange Bitters. Of the two, this is one I actually enjoy.

Further Rosey delights anyone?

Well, I haven't tackled the problem again yet, but I'm very much thinking gin mixed with rum here. I think the next round will have rum, gin, cream, and rose syrup. I may try it with Wray & Nephew rum, which isn't intimidated by anything. But I was impressed with how much Trader Vic's Spiced Rum helped with a previous iteration, and I'm wondering what, if any, spiced rum can go in there and not get beaten senseless by the Wray & Nephew. I have some Kraken, but I'm afraid it will skew the color, and I really want it to be a nice rosy pink.

Newest iteration of the Pink Pyrat...

3/4oz Kraken
3/4oz Pyrat
1.5oz milk
1/2oz rose syrup
3/4oz almond syrup

This actually isn't too bad. But I'm just trailing in my daughter's footsteps now. Her latest rose smoothie recipe is rose syrup, almond syrup, and vanilla ice cream, and it's delicious. All I'm doing is taking her ideas, adding booze, and calling it piratey. My next iteration will use her melted ice cream. And probably less Kraken and more Pyrat in the interest of preserving the color... the very dark Kraken makes the pink a bit brownish.

This really isn't a "tiki drink" right now. It's lacking the signature fruit flavors that make me think "tiki" (and the original passes with coconut pretty much sucked). But I may go back to a bit of lime, and I'm thinking seriously about ginger too - for all my putzing around with exotic ingredients, the best drinks I've made lately were just rum, ginger ale, and bitters.

And the latest Pink Pirate recipe, probably the keeper...

1/2oz rose syrup
1/2oz grenadine (homemade)
3/4oz almond syrup
2oz half'n'half
1oz vodka (Shaker's Rye, it's what I had)
1oz Westerhall rum
1/3oz Wray & Nephew Overproof

The clear/light alcohols protect the color, and the Wray & Nephew adds a wonderful complexity and fights the tendency toward cloying. The texture is a lot like a White Russian, but the flavor profile is completely different. It's good, and implies the mood I wanted.

But man, rose syrup is a pain in the butt to work with!

Here in Australia it can be found in the chemist/pharmacy shops

http://www.rolandelectronicdrums.org/
http://www.rolandelectronicdrums.org/buy-roland-electronic-drums

[ Edited by: JuliaKhanam 2010-08-23 07:40 ]