Syrup:
1 cup water
1 cup sugar
½ cup peeled and sliced raw ginger

Bring water and sugar to a boil.

Add ginger and continue to simmer until liquid is, well, syrupy (liquid reduced by half or liquid holds a line on a plate). This takes about 20 minutes or more. Do NOT cover the pan or it can boil over.

When it’s done, cool it down enough to remove ginger pieces and pour the syrup into a container that can be stored in the refrigerator.

Candy:
When the ginger pieces are cool enough to handle, toss them in sugar and then bake them for 2 hours at 200 degrees. At 30-minute intervals, stir the ginger for even heating. The ginger candy is done when it is desiccated, meaning without moisture.

Note: when you increase the proportion – say, to 1-1/2 cups sugar and water, ¾ cup ginger, as I’ve started doing – then you may need to increase the boiling time. I haven’t had to increase the baking time for the candy, but play it by ear.

Background:
About a year ago, I purchased a bottle of ginger syrup at Whole Foods. It was so yummy that we added it to tea, drizzled it over vanilla ice cream, spread it on biscuits, and would have began drinking it straight from the bottle if I hadn’t wanted to make my supply last.

Before my stash was gone, I thought it best to buy another bottle. A friend who has easier access to Whole Foods than I do offered to pick up a bottle for me. She was told that the brand I wanted was temporarily not available since the producers were in the process of making their product organic. (The bottle I had at home said it was organic, but whatevah.) A few weeks later I stopped by Whole Foods to see if the syrup was available. Not that brand but another, I was told, and it was going for $15 for less than 8 ounces. I may have shouted, “No way,” at that point, paid for my Ezekiel bread, headed for my car, and decided to find out how to make the syrup myself.

Thanks to Ming Tsai. As he says in his video, this is ridiculously easy to make, and not only will you be making syrup but candy as well, which I nibble throughout the day, knowing that it’ll do all kinds of good things for the body.

One ginger thing led to another. We now add it to club soda to create our own ginger ale. Want something more elegant? Then add a lime slice and drop in a piece of candy for a lovely slow fizzing. Want a ginger ale with a kick? Then pour in the syrup then rum then the lime.