Now that summer berries are here, I can’t get enough of them. At any given moment I’m slicing them onto breakfast cereal, baking them into tarts, or popping them one after the other into my mouth. Sometimes I cook them down with a little sugar into a compote, which makes a quick topping for waffles or French toast, or even for those pre-packaged cheese blintzes you can find at Polish delis or in the supermarket.

Recently I cooked down some strawberries for a pancake topping, then for some reason decided to pour the finished compote through a strainer. I worked it against the mesh with the back of a wooden spoon to squeeze out as much juice as I could, and ended up with a delicious, fresh strawberry syrup, perfect for my pancakes. As I was enjoying my breakfast the idea struck me: I bet this syrup would be awesome as the base for a soft drink. There was still some left in the pan – I poured it into a glass, topped it with soda water, added ice, and stirred. Refreshing, light, not too sweet, infused with that fresh, only-in-summer berry flavor — instantly, I knew I’d be drinking homemade berry soda for the rest of the summer.

When I had an evening free to experiment, I ran to the Farmer’s Market to stock up: blueberries, sour cherries, more strawberries, red currants, and gorgeous ripe black raspberries that left purple stains on my hands when I barely touched them. After a quick rinse, the berries went into a saucepan and onto the stove. I added white sugar – only a little, less than a tablespoon per pint of berries – and a pinch of lemon zest, and a little water (not too much – only a few teaspoons). I gave it a stir, and as the mixture boiled I mashed it up a bit with back of the spoon or with a potato masher.  I let it simmer for about 10 minutes, then turned off the heat. Once it was just cool enough to handle, I poured it into a strainer set over a bowl, and pressed it repeatedly with the back of the spoon until only a dry, pulpy paste remained in the strainer. I made sure to scrape off the thick stuff that had accumulated on the outside of the strainer, and stirred this into my syrup as well.

And that’s it.  When the syrups were fully cool I funneled them bottles. To make a soda, just pour the syrup into a glass, top with soda water, add ice, and you’ve got the best, most refreshing soda (a.k.a. ‘pop’ for you Midwesterners) that you’ve ever had.  If you like it strong, add more syrup. If you like it sweet, add more sugar.  I use an old-fashioned soda charger to make soda water, but bottled club soda should work just as well. Enjoy!

Some thoughts and pointers:
**With blueberries, there was barely any pulp left in the strainer once I’d worked all the juice out. With raspberries, there was much more left. With strawberries, there was practically nothing left behind at all, but the resulting syrup with quite thick (it sort of looked like ketchup). For a more refined strawberry syrup, think about using a very fine-meshed sieve, or perhaps even cheesecloth.

**Experiment with how much syrup to use for each drink. I like a lighter drink, so I used about a jigger of syrup per pint of soda.  You could use as much as twice that if you like a heavier, sweeter soda.

**Experiment also to find out how sweet you like the syrup. Taste the syrup often as you cook it and add more sugar if needed. It’ll be much easier to dissolve sugar into the syrup as it cooks than it will be once you mix it with cold, iced soda water.

**It’s best to use a strong, good-quality strainer for this. If you have a cheap one, you may bust through it as you work the berry pulp. I’d love to use a food mill for this but the ones I’ve looked aren’t fine-meshed enough.

**Strain the syrup while still warm – it thickens as it cools.

**Add vodka!

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