At the Chicago Food + Wine Festival this weekend, Violet Hour managing partner Eden Laurin hosted a cocktail-making demo, during which she mentioned that the Wicker Park bar is selling new retail products. First up is Batch No. 1, a cocktail syrup made with scorched Demerara sugar, vanilla, wormwood and other bitters.
Laurin recommended using a quarter-ounce of the syrup in an old-fashioned. I took home a bottle of the syrup and can confirm that this works quite nicely, as it lends warm vanilla tones and a velvety mouthfeel to the cocktail. The bottle’s label suggests mixing it with your favorite spirit or adding it to lemonade, but generally keeps it open-ended in terms of what you can do with it. I think the syrup would work in many of the places where regular simple syrup would, particularly with whiskey drinks that can stand up to the rich sugar and vanilla.
The syrup retails for $13.70 and is available at the Violet Hour now, and it will soon be available at Publican Quality Meats. And stay tuned—more Violet Hour bar products are on the way.