How to make simple syrup, cane sugar syrup, and Demerara syrup

Today it's back to basics as we make simple syrup. A few different kinds of basic sugar and water syrups and a little bit more about what makes them each different, including different kinds of sugar. All of these are going to be super easy to make and all you need is sugar and water. It's easiest to do this with a blender. You want to cold process these as I do, but you can also use heat and make them on your stove top if you want to. We'll make a standard two-to-one rich simple syrup, a cane syrup, and a demerara syrup. All of these are going to be in a two-to-one ratio, but if you're looking at historical recipes, it's important to understand what a simple syrup is because the words that we use today are not the same as what was used in the past. A simple syrup is a combination of water and sugar in any ratio. It's not defined as a one-to-one ratio syrup. The use of simple syrup as a one-to-one syrup or rich simple as a two-to-one syrup are newer definitions. Now there's still ones we should use today because it helps us to clarify, but in a historical context, something that called for a sugar syrup or a simple syrup was not necessarily calling for a one-to-one syrup. So what about rock candy syrup? Well, I did a whole video on that and it also does not signify a ratio. Even if you've read somewhere online that it's two-to-one, three-to-one, or four-to-one, even in the world of Trader Vic, you'll find a recipe that ends up as a two-to-one syrup where they currently sell one that's one-to-one. There is no standard ratio for rock candy syrup. One of the most common questions is whether you should measure by weight or volume like in cups. Weight is far more accurate, but if you want to make a simple syrup that's one part water to one part sugar and use cups, that would be pretty close to 50 bricks. That's 50% sugar by weight, but it would also be a little bit under that because one cup of sugar does not weigh the same as one cup of water and your sugar is going to dissolve in that water. If you don't have a scale, you'll be okay, but weight is far more accurate and that's what I'm going to be doing here today. To make a two-to-one rich simple syrup, I just weigh out some sugar. In this case, I'm measuring out 600 grams of sugar. Now I'm adding in half of that in water, so 300 grams. Now, if you're trying to get an exact volume of syrup, let's say 750 milliliters so you can fit in a standard size bottle, you can't just divide by three and use 500 grams of sugar and 250 grams of water. That will not equal 750 milliliters by volume because sugar changes the density of water. But if you want to target a volume when making a two-to-one syrup, just multiply what you want your final volume to be by 1.33 and then use that for your weight. So for 750 milliliters of rich simple, multiply 750 by 1.33. That equals 997.5. Then use 332.5 grams of water to 665 grams of sugar and you'll end up with something that's close to 750 milliliters. So the two other syrups that I'm going to make today are a cane syrup and a demerara syrup. So what is cane sugar, demerara sugar, or turbinado sugar, and I guess what even is brown sugar? Well, if we had a scale that measured sugar flavor, granulated sugar would be on one side, that's white granulated sugar, and on the other side would be demerara sugar, and then everything else would kind of fall in between those. And these would probably all be best characterized by the amount of molasses or raw sugar flavor left in the sugar. But even that is not a great way to describe it because molasses is the byproduct of the sugar making process. It's not something that's inherently in sugar, so saying that something has more or less molasses might not be accurate, but it's still probably the best way we have at describing the way something tastes. But when it comes to molasses in sugar, there is one sugar that has molasses in it, which is brown sugar. Brown sugar is not a less refined sugar, but a fully refined crystallized white sugar that has molasses added back into it. In fact, you can make this at home yourself with some white sugar and some molasses and a food processor. Don't use a blender there, or you'd have powdered brown sugar. But if we go back to that scale, what are these things? So what is cane sugar? Well, pretty much any sugar that comes from sugar cane and not sugar beets is cane sugar. This would include white sugar, but generally we're referring to a less processed sugar when someone says cane sugar or they're talking about a cane sugar syrup. You'll often see evaporated cane sugar, which is a process where the sugar cane juice is dried, which creates a less processed sugar that retains more natural cane juice flavor. It has that more earthy and grassy quality as opposed to the dark molasses flavors or the super clean white sugar flavor. Turbinado sugar has more flavor than your evaporated cane sugar, and in this process, the cane juice is heated up to remove moisture. When it crystallizes, more of those concentrated sugar cane and molasses flavors are present. Most commonly, you'll find this sold from the brand Sugar in the Raw. That's a turbinado sugar. Now, I can't say I've ever seen someone ask for a turbinado syrup, but if someone said to make a syrup with Sugar in the Raw brand, then they're talking about a turbinado syrup. Demerara sugar has origins to Guyana and named after the Dutch colonized region Demerara. Demerara sugar today is generally sugar that has even more of that concentrated molasses flavor than the turbinado, but most brands of Demerara sugar are not coming from Guyana. They're coming from South America or Mauritius, and here's probably the most important thing about all of these sugars is that they are not well regulated. Evaporated cane, turbinado, and Demerara, they don't have strict laws here in the United States, so what you're buying is not going to be exactly the same as another brand. These two Demerara sugars that you see in front of you have drastically different color and flavor and come from different countries, but they're both labeled as a Demerara sugar, and neither one of them is from Guyana. For my cane syrup, I'm adding 400 grams of this organic cane sugar from Trader Joe's to a blender with 200 grams of water. For the Demerara sugar, I'm trying out this India tree Demerara sugar and using 400 grams of sugar and 200 grams of water. So while it's probably not technically accurate to say that a sugar has more molasses in it than others, more molasses flavor is what we're talking about in those darker sugars and those darker syrups. So what seems like a simple topic is kind of complicated when you dive into it because we don't have universal laws and definitions for these things, but these three syrups will cover all of your basic needs when it comes to making cocktails, or most of your basic needs, especially in the tropical, antique-y world of cocktails. You might notice that the color looks off as soon as you make these, but just let them settle and after a few hours or a day, they're going to look like this. They're going to get back their color. It's just you've whipped in a lot of air to that sugar syrup and not all of the sugar is yet dissolved. So just give it some time and it'll end up looking like this. So this is for the most part, the first part in a series of videos, or at least a couple videos on syrups covering really the basic simple syrups, the ones that call for just a sugar and a water. For the most part, the ones that call for just a sugar and a water, these are the three syrups you're going to see the most often. And I see a lot of questions like what type of Demerara sugar should I use? What is a cane syrup? And now we have kind of a foundation and a backbone to those things, but I'll be back soon with all of the essential syrups that you're going to need to make tropical and tiki cocktails. And when I say essential, I'm not giving my opinion. I'm talking about the ones that are the most common and most popular called for syrups in most of the cocktail books that we're all reaching for. So we're going to cover all of those things. I think that there are eight essential syrups from those books and those are the syrups outside of these simple ones, which we just covered right now. So if you enjoyed this video, please give it a like below. Comment here about these. Do you have a specific brand of sugar you use when you're making your simple syrups? Check out the Patreon page if you want to support this channel more, and otherwise I'll see you in the next one.