Honey Sweetened Snow Cone Syrup

The snow cone.  It's a sweet, cool treat on a hot day.  We recently got an ice shaver, but the bottles of syrup are rather high in sugar and limited in flavour.  Cherry, blue raspberry, strawberry.  That's it?  What about all the other fruit flavours out there?

There are a few ways you can make some homemade snow cone syrup.  The one I'm focusing on uses honey and citrus fruits, but I have included the more traditional way in this post as well.

1 cup honey
1/2 cup water
1 1/2 cups fresh squeezed lemon / orange juice.

In a small saucepan, add the water and honey.  Over medium low heat, stir until honey dissolves into water.  Remove from heat and let cool.

Stir in the fresh squeezed citrus juice (strain any pulp out first) and chill in the refrigerator.  Once it's cold, make some snow cones!

Don't feel limited by the flavours and ingredients you normally equate with a snow cone.  Do you have a juicer?  Well that opens up a huge door doesn't it!  Think about the possibilities and experiment!  Pineapple is very sweet and juicy, so are peaches.  You could even sneak some beet or carrot juice in there which will give it great natural colour too.

Of course, you can also make snow cone syrup the more conventional way using sugar, water and kool-aid packets.

1 (pitcher) packet of kool-aid unsweetened drink mix (or to taste)
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup water

Over medium low heat, combine all ingredients until sugar crystals have completely dissolved.  Chill in refrigerator.  You can adjust the sugar according to your liking. 

*If your mixture separates while stored in the fridge, just shake or stir before use.  Enjoy!