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Brown Sugar Simple Syrup
What is brown sugar syrup, what is it used for, and how is it made?
Published January 19, 2022
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Chandra Melo
Coffee experts@The Coffee Lab
The Starbucks brown sugar syrup is a great addition to any coffee drink adding a sweet, rich flavor to your beverage. Since the brown sugar is already dissolved in the syrup, it can be added to mix perfectly with both cold and iced drinks. And even better, you can easily make it at home to add to your own coffee, tea, and other drinks. One of the best things about brown sugar syrup is that the sugar contains molasses, which gives it a caramel flavor.
How to Make Simple Syrup
If you’ve not tried making simple syrup at home to add to coffee and tea yet, then it’s definitely worth trying. There are plenty of reasons to consider making some homemade simple syrups to add some flavor to your drinks at home, including:
- It’s ridiculously easy to make – most recipes will only ask for two or three ingredients
- Since the main ingredients are sugar and water, it’s quite cheap to make
- Making your own simple syrup is usually much cheaper compared to buying it pre-made
- When you make your own syrups, you can make different flavors and keep them on hand to make different types of drinks
How to make your own simple syrup? Most simple syrup recipe options and brown sugar syrup recipes only require you to use a one-to-one ratio of water and sugar. Of course, you can change this up, such as adding more sugar to make it even sweeter, or less sugar if you want a healthier version. If you want to make a flavored syrup, this is also super easy as all you need to do is add something to infuse the flavor that you want or add some extract. A few drops of peppermint extract or vanilla extract is all you need to add to your basic simple syrup combination to really change it up.
Making Brown Sugar Syrup
Can you make simple syrup with brown sugar? Making brown simple syrup is also fairly easy. To make the brown sugar simple syrup recipe, all you need to do is mix equal parts of water and brown sugar in a saucepan. Allow the mixture to simmer and keep stirring it until all the sugar has dissolved. Then, remove from the heat, allow the syrup to cool, and pour it into a bottle. It’s normal for the syrup to get a little thicker as it cools down. You can then store it in the fridge for around four to six weeks. One of the best things about this syrup recipe is that it’s easy to adapt to however much you want to make – all you need to do is mix equal parts of water and brown sugar, and you can make as much or as little as you like.
What Type of Sugar to Use
When you make syrup with brown sugar for your coffee and other hot drinks, you can choose between light brown or dark brown sugar. Which of these you decide to use is really a matter of personal taste and preference. Refined brown sugar is just white sugar mixed with molasses, and the main difference between dark and light brown sugar products is the amount of molasses in each one. There’s about half as much molasses in light brown sugar compared to brown sugar. This gives dark sugar a richer and more caramel-like flavor, which is ideal if you like this in coffee.
What Equipment Do You Need?
If you want to make your own homemade syrup with brown sugar at home, then the good news is that you don’t need to get any expensive or fancy kitchen tools. All you’ll need is a saucepan, a stove, and something to stir with, like a wooden spoon. However, it’s recommended that you use filtered water to make your simple syrup, so if your kitchen doesn’t have a water filtration system, you may want to invest in a filter jug. This will have many other uses in your kitchen including making better-tasting coffee or simply encouraging you to drink more water as it tastes a lot better compared to straight out of the tap.
How Long Will the Syrup Last?
If you store your brown sugar simple syrup for coffee in an airtight container in the fridge, then you can expect it to last for around one month. A rich syrup with two parts sugar and one part water will last even longer, for around three months. If you want to make a flavored syrup, you should always strain it thoroughly before you store it. These will usually last for around a month.
What’s in Starbucks Brown Sugar Syrup?
The brown sugar syrup that you can get from Starbucks is basically simple syrup made with brown sugar. However, it does have a couple more ingredients including salt and preservatives. If you want to make the brown sugar syrup that you make at home taste more like the one that you get from Starbucks, then it’s a good idea to add a pinch of salt to the recipe. This will reduce the bitterness and help to increase sweetness which makes it an ideal addition to coffee.
What’s the Difference Between Brown and White Sugar?
Sugar is something we are all familiar with; a natural food product that has been consumed by humans for centuries. White and brown sugar are among the most popular types of sugar, although there are many varieties. You can use either white or brown sugar in a sugar syrup recipe, but what’s the difference between the two?
Nutritional Differences
Since both white and brown sugar originate from the same crops, they are quite similar. Most brown sugar is a combination of white sugar and molasses, a sugar-derived syrup that increases the nutritional value of the sugar and is responsible for the darker color. One of the main nutritional differences between the two types of sugar is that brown sugar is slightly higher in iron, calcium, and potassium. It is also slightly lower in calories compared to white sugar. One teaspoon of brown sugar has fifteen calories while there are just over sixteen calories in the same amount of white sugar, making a very minimal difference. Aside from these very small differences, the two types of sugar are very nutritionally similar, with the taste and color being the main differences.
Production Differences
How the two types of sugars are produced is also different. Sugar is produced from sugarcane or sugar beets, which grow in areas with a tropical climate. Both of these plants are put through similar processes to produce the sugar; however, different methods are used depending on whether white or brown sugar is being produced. To produce sugar, the juice from both of the crops is first extracted and then heated, forming molasses, which is a brown, concentrated syrup. The crystallized sugar is then centrifuged, which produces sugar crystals by separating them from the molasses by spinning very fast. The white sugar is then processed further, removing any additional molasses and creating smaller crystals. It is filtered through a system that is made with bone char, or crushed animal bones, to form white sugar.
Refined brown sugar is white sugar that has had some molasses added back into it after this process is complete. On the other hand, unrefined brown sugar does not go through as much processing compared to white sugar, which allows it to retain some molasses content and its natural brown color.
Uses in Cooking
Both brown and white sugar can be used in cooking and baking; however, they may affect the final product in different ways. Since brown sugar contains molasses, it will retain moisture leading to baked goods that are denser and softer compared to when white sugar is used. Because of this, white sugar tends to be more commonly used for baked goods that require a lot of rising, while brown sugar is added to denser products. Brown sugar is also often added to rich sauces and glazes like barbecue sauce.
Which Sugar to Choose?
When it comes to nutritional value, there is not a lot of difference between brown and white sugar for making a simple syrup at home, so which one you choose is largely down to your personal preference, since the taste and color of the sugar are the main differences. No matter whether you decide to go with brown, white, or even a combination of both sugars to make your simple syrup, it’s a good idea to bear in mind that only 5-10% of your daily calories should come from sugar, as recommended by experts.
Sugar syrup is cheap and easy to make at home, and you can easily add a range of different flavorings to the recipe to make syrups that are just like your favorite options at Starbucks including vanilla, caramel, peppermint and more. Making your own simple syrup with brown sugar only requires brown sugar, water, and some basic ingredients, and you can store it in the fridge for around 4-6 weeks in an airtight container.
About the author
Chandra Melo
Marketing as job, barista as passion. An authentic coffee lover, looking for the next fantastic cup of coffee that I will fall in love with. Coffee, for me, is more than a beverage. It's about community and connection - how can all the world consume the same fruit? And differently? How can we have so many different tastes? I also don't know. And because of this, I feel in love each day more for this world. Happy to share and make a change in the coffee community.
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