How To: Make and Use Miso Syrup

Add Umami and depth to your next drink with this effortless syrup.

Miso has been a staple of Japanese cuisine for centuries, popular enough that the fermented paste has been produced on an industrial level for at least 500 years. It’s a kitchen staple for adding umami to a variety of foods, and has been steadily finding its place in bar programmes.

Production techniques and ageing vary, resulting in a wonderfully diverse array of miso options. Today, many grocery shelves are stocked with multiple varieties, but we’ll focus on White Miso Paste, a wonderful starting point and the most widely available.

Scroll on to learn how to make Miso Simple Syrup, and check out three cocktails that show its range.

How To Make Miso Syrup

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/watch?v=REpzaaL_wz4

Miso Syrup Ingredients:

• 480 ml Water
• 400 g Granulated Sugar
• 120 g White Miso Paste

Instructions:

• Bring water to a boil, and then lower the heat.
• Add sugar and whisk until combined.
• Add miso paste and whisk until combined.
• Fine strain into a non-reactive container and store refrigerated.

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How to Use Miso Syrup in Cocktails

Miso syrup is your cheat code to easily add umami and depth to a whole range of cocktails.

A quick Google search for miso flavour-pairing affinities yields so many options it will make your head spin. From the simplest dashi to caramel ice-cream drizzles, fish glazes, and Peanut Butter Cookies with 7,000+ reviews, miso is a versatile and powerful tool to surprise and delight your guests.

As a syrup, it’s just as generous. And while we love our base recipe for White Miso Syrup, we suggest thinking of it as a template – a jumping-off point for your creativity. Swap out the white sugar for alternative sweeteners like agave or jaggery. Try an aged miso. Make a compound syrup, make a shrub… go wild.

Below are three recipes that show just a hint of what miso syrup can do behind the bar. Enjoy!

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Peanut Butter Miso Old Fashioned

Peanut butter and miso syrup double down on the sweet-and-savoury combination in this Old Fashioned riff. The fat wash provides a lush mouthfeel, and the umami highlights the bourbon’s vanilla and caramel notes.

Ingredients

• 50 ml Peanut Butter fat-washed Wild Turkey 101*
• 15 ml Miso Syrup
• 2 dashes each Orange Bitters and Aromatic Bitters

Instructions:

• Add all ingredients to a mixing glass with ice.
• Stir and strain over a large cube. Garnish with expressed lemon and orange twists.
• Peanut Butter Wild Turkey: Spread 450 g peanut butter across a large baking tray with a lip, creating a thin layer. Pour one 750 ml bottle of Wild Turkey 101 Bourbon on top. Cover the tray tightly with cling film to prevent evaporation and allow it to sit overnight at room temperature. The next day, strain the bourbon through a coffee filter and funnel it back into the bottle. Discard the peanut butter.

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Miso Dark and Stormy

This riff replaces the layered build with a whip shake, better aerating and marrying all the components. Appleton’s apricot and molasses really sing with an umami counterpoint, and the dark rum float is replaced with Averna, offering complexity by way of its bitter orange and liquorice notes.

Ingredients:

• 40 ml Appleton Estate Signature Jamaica Rum
• 25 ml Lime Juice
• 20 ml Miso Syrup
• 15 ml Averna
• Club Soda

Instructions:

• Add all ingredients except soda to a shaker tin with a small handful of pebble ice.
• Whip shake until the ice dissolves. Add soda and give a quick stir to incorporate.
• Pour into a chilled highball glass full of ice. Garnish with a lime wedge.

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Thai Basil Miso Margarita

Thai basil, more opinionated and often more anise-forward than other basils, is an obvious addition to the Margarita.

This recipe is sweetened with a miso agave syrup, which highlights the flexibility of the template and perfectly accompanies a quality tequila: bright, vegetal, and complex.

Ingredients:

• 50 ml Espolon Blanco Tequila
• 20 ml Lime juice
• 15 ml Miso Agave Syrup
• 10 ml Grand Marnier Cordon Rouge
• 3 Thai Basil leaves

Instructions:

• Add all ingredients to a mixing glass with ice and shake hard.
• Fine strain into a chilled rocks glass with ice.
• Garnish with a Thai basil leaf and a lime wheel.

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Want more bartender how-to’s? Learn to make Aperol Caviar, ferment DIY Ginger Beer, and Create Campari Dust.