Make Violet Hour's Beloved Cocktails At Home With Syrups That Don't Suck

By Anthony Todd in Food on Sep 2, 2015 4:59AM

The new syrup, photo courtesy of The Violet Hour

The Violet Hour is the ancestor of every trendy Chicago cocktail bar serving homemade bitters.

They were one of the first great cocktail spots in Chicago, and though they've been slinging drinks for 10 years, they've still got it. This year, they won the James Beard Award for best bar program in America. But despite all the fame, there was still no way to get the Violet Hour experience aside from actually going to the bar, standing in line and following the infamous rules. Until now.

The Violet Hour recently released its very first product—a cocktail syrup—in a new product line. Manager Eden Laurin is behind the syrup, which was inspired by an unfortunate family visit.

"I went to my brother's house, and I gave him a special bottle of bourbon we had picked out at Buffalo Trace," Laurin told Chicagoist. "He went to his pantry and pulled out a bottle of Old fashioned Mix—it was the nastiest stuff! Carmel coloring and artificial sweeteners. That was influential in making this first syrup."

In a world with good syrups, there is no reason for crap like that to exist. The bar also wanted to "create accessibility," to try to bring high-end cocktails into people's homes. Violet Hour hosts classes, and at the end of those classes, they often give away homemade syrups and bitters. Heck, Violet Hour has an entire chef dedicated to making their huge variety of homemade syrups, so bottling and selling them seemed a natural fit.

So Laurin got busy. Turns out making a cocktail syrup worthy of the Violet Hour isn't easy. This one, Violet Hour + Batch No. 1, starts with burned demerara sugar.

"I literally just burn the demerara a touch. Everyone told me you're not supposed to do that, so I was being cheeky," Laurin said. Then they add tahitian vanilla, orange oil and dried orange, and a bittering agents like wormwood, caccia bark, licorice root. It's a complicated formula, and required a lot of trial and error to get right. But for the customer, it means an instant, awesome Old Fashioned is always at your fingertips.

"Last week, we put a small line on the menu at The Violet Hour that says 'Available for purchase,'" Laurin said. "We've had a retail license for a long time but never used it, and we bottle each one to order, because we're still really nerdy about wanting super fresh products." Soon, the product will be available at Publican Quality Meats, and eventually Laurin hopes to see it in wider distribution.

This isn't the last product in the Violet Hour line. More flavors are on the way, including a tonic made with lemongrass, quinine and lime and something called "Aqua de Flor," which combines hibiscus flower, vanilla bean and fresh ginger. The bottle is priced around $14 for 8 ounces, and since Laurin recommends you only use about 1/4 ounce per cocktail, that's about 44 cents to change your drink from good to great. It's definitely worth it.