Cocktails with Demerara syrup
Demerara syrup is a liquid cane-sugar sweetener made by dissolving pale-brown demerara sugar in water.
Taste profile
Sweet with a mild caramel-and-molasses undertone, carrying a fuller, rounder body than a plain white-sugar syrup.
How it's used
Stirred or shaken into the build as an accent sweetener, it adds sweetness along with extra body and a light caramel note. Because the rich 2:1 ratio makes it more viscous than 1:1 simple syrup, an equal volume delivers more sweetness and body, so dosing by volume against plain syrup will over-sweeten and thicken a drink.
Substitutes for Demerara syrup
Another brown-cane-sugar syrup covers the role, matching the sweetness, added body and light-brown colour; a plain simple syrup can stand in if made at a richer ratio and tinted with a little molasses to approximate the caramel note, and only fails where the specific demerara character is meant to be tasted.
Often confused with
Muscovado syrup
Demerara sugar is a partially refined, large-crystal, pale-brown cane sugar with modest residual molasses; muscovado is an unrefined, fine, dark, moist cane sugar with much higher molasses content, so its syrup is darker and far more strongly molasses-flavoured.
