Cocktails with Cane syrup
Cane syrup is a sweetener made from sugarcane. The name covers two different products: a thick dark syrup boiled down from pressed juice, and a clear bar syrup of cane sugar and water.
How it's used
It sweetens and adds body, stirred into a build or shaken in, most often in rum drinks that suit the cane note. It is the traditional sweetener of the Ti Punch; a Cuban Mojito is sweetened with granulated cane sugar, not syrup.
Substitutes for Cane syrup
Rich 2:1 sugar syrup works one for one. Bar cane syrup such as Petite Canne is about 72% sugar against about 67% for 2:1, so the drink comes out a touch less sweet. Demerara syrup made 2:1 adds a little brown-sugar warmth. A dark cane syrup boiled down from juice, such as Steen's, tastes of molasses, so use it only where molasses suits the drink.
Two products under one name
One is cane juice boiled down until dark; the other is clear and simply sweet. A dark bottle that tastes of molasses is the first kind.
Molasses
The dark residue left after sugar is crystallized out of the juice: thicker and more bitter, and no substitute for syrup.
Storage
Unopened it is stable at room temperature. Once opened, refrigerate it: cane syrup is thick and wet, and an opened jar left warm eventually gives mold a foothold. It will keep a couple of months cold.
