Cocktails with Sugar syrup

Sugar syrup is granulated sugar dissolved in water, used as a liquid sweetener in cocktails.

Substitutes for Sugar syrup

Demerara syrup adds a light molasses note. Agave pours thinner and is sweeter by volume. Honey syrup brings flavor with the sugar. All of them sweeten; none of them is neutral except this one, which is why it exists.

Often confused with

Rich syrup (2:1)

Two ingredients in different proportions, and not interchangeable by volume: it carries roughly 1.4 times the sugar per milliliter, not twice, so a recipe written for 1:1 needs about three-quarters of the measure.

Gum syrup

Sugar syrup with gum arabic dissolved into it. It pours the same and feels rounder in the mouth, which is the whole reason old recipes call for it.

Storage

Refrigerated in a clean bottle, a one-to-one syrup keeps two or three weeks and a two-to-one keeps a couple of months, because there is less water in it. A spoon of neutral spirit extends either. Threads, cloudiness or a fizz mean it has gone, and there is no rescuing a syrup.