Concord Grape Soda: Fall Syrup for $0.78 a Glass

Concord grapes have the shortest season of anything I buy. They show up in September, they smell like every grape candy I ate as a kid, and by late October they are gone. This year I stopped eating them over the sink and turned a 1.5-pound bunch into syrup. The result is the closest thing to real grape soda I have made at home, and the batch math is kind: eight glasses for less than five dollars of ingredients.

The syrup: grapes, sugar, lemon, twenty minutes

My proportions follow the classic soda-fountain approach, in the ratios used by Turnip the Oven's concord grape soda: 1.5 pounds of Concord grapes, 3/4 cup of sugar, 3/4 cup of water, a couple of strips of lemon zest, a tiny pinch of salt, and the juice of half a lemon added at the end. Everything except the lemon juice goes into a saucepan. I bring it to a simmer and crush the grapes against the side of the pan as they soften. After about 20 minutes the skins have slipped and the liquid is nearly black-purple. I strain it through a fine mesh sieve, pressing gently, stir in the lemon juice, and chill it. Pressing too hard clouds the syrup, so I let gravity do most of the work. That gives me about 2 cups of syrup.

To serve, I pour 1/4 cup of syrup over ice and top with plain sparkling water. That ratio is the standard one across the recipes I checked, and it is strong enough that the grape flavor survives the fizz. If your grapes are very ripe and sweet, drop the sugar to 1/2 cup on the next batch; Concords vary more than any fruit I cook with.

What a glass actually costs me

These are my local store-brand prices in Knoxville, Tennessee, in October 2026, and I am showing the whole batch so you can check me. Grapes at $2.99 a pound come to $4.49 for 1.5 pounds. The sugar is about $0.18, and the lemon and zest about $0.30. The batch totals $4.97.

Figure 1: Ingredient cost for one batch of concord grape syrup. Source: author's local store-brand prices, Knoxville, TN, October 2026.

Divide $4.97 by 8 glasses and the syrup runs $0.62 a glass. Add $0.16 of sparkling water and the finished 12-ounce soda is $0.78. Grapes are 90 percent of the cost, so the only real lever is the grape price: when Concords drop on sale late in the season, I buy double, make two batches, and freeze one. The syrup base also freezes well in an ice cube tray for up to three months, a storage window The Soda Fountain's grape syrup recipe notes as well.

Storage, and two ways to use the last of the batch

In the fridge, I treat two weeks as my limit in a sealed jar, even though some recipes say the syrup keeps up to a month. Grapes ferment eagerly, and if it smells winey or fizzes on its own, I throw it out. Two uses keep a batch from dying in my fridge. First, a grape float: syrup, sparkling water, and a small scoop of vanilla ice cream, which turns the soda into a dessert for the same $0.62 of syrup plus the scoop. Second, a warm version for cold nights: 1/4 cup of syrup stirred into hot water with a cinnamon stick. It is not cider and does not pretend to be, but it is the drink my household actually finishes in October.

One honest note: bottled concord grape juice makes a shortcut version, and it is fine. It is not the same drink. The cooked fresh grapes give you the skins' tartness and that deep, jammy middle that juice alone never has. The season is short. That is the whole argument for making this now.

FAQ

How much does homemade concord grape soda cost per glass? About $0.78 for a 12-ounce glass: $0.62 of syrup plus $0.16 of sparkling water, using my local store-brand prices in Knoxville, TN (October 2026), with the full batch math shown above.

How long does concord grape syrup keep? I use it within two weeks refrigerated in a sealed jar, though some recipes allow up to a month. It freezes well for up to three months. Discard it if it smells fermented.

Can I use regular red or green grapes instead? Yes, but the flavor will be milder and less like classic grape soda. Concords are only in season in the fall, which is why this recipe runs in October. Bottled concord juice is the best off-season substitute.

How much syrup goes in each glass? One quarter cup (2 ounces) of syrup topped with sparkling water over ice, the standard ratio in the recipes I tested against.