Brown Sugar Syrup substitute

Best substitute

Simple syrup plus molasses

Use the same amount replacement, adding about ½ teaspoon molasses per ¼ cup (60 ml) of simple syrup as the brown sugar syrup you are replacing

Best for whiskey and rum cocktails

Close match

The closest possible match, because you are reassembling the original. Commercial brown sugar is refined white sugar with cane molasses blended back in, roughly 3 to 4 percent for light brown and 6 to 7 percent for dark, so adding molasses to plain syrup lands you in exactly the right place.

Other brown sugar syrup substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Demerara or turbinado syrup
Close match
Use the same amount
Raw cane sugars that keep a thin coating of their original molasses rather than having refined molasses added back.
What changes
The result tastes cleaner and more mineral, with a dry toffee note instead of the sticky, slightly bitter richness of brown sugar.
Best for
Old Fashioneds and stirred whiskey drinks, tiki and rum drinks, iced coffee
In a bourbon drink most people prefer this to brown sugar syrup outright. Where it falls short is brown sugar boba, where the heavy, almost caramel-toffee depth is the whole point and demerara reads as too polite.
3Maple syrup
Different taste
Use the same amount straight from the bottle
No cooking, no dissolving, and it is already the right consistency and roughly the right colour.
What changes
What changes is the flavour direction: maple is woody, faintly smoky and vanilla-like, where brown sugar is toffee and mineral.
Best for
bourbon and rye drinks, coffee, pancake-adjacent baking, glazes for pork and ribs
Excellent in anything with whiskey. Distinctly noticeable in brown sugar milk tea, where the drink stops tasting like brown sugar boba and starts tasting like a maple latte. Grade A amber is milder, grade B or dark robust is closer in weight to brown sugar.
4Muscovado or dark brown sugar syrup
Close match
Use the same amount if the recipe wanted dark brown, about ¾ as much if it wanted light brown
Muscovado is unrefined cane sugar that keeps all of its molasses, so it is the same idea turned up.
What changes
Deeper colour, stickier body, a pronounced liquorice and treacle edge that light brown sugar does not have.
Best for
dark rum drinks, brown sugar boba, gingerbread and sticky puddings
Because it is more strongly flavoured than light brown sugar, scale back or it will bulldoze a delicate drink. It also dissolves more slowly and clumps, so break it up with a fork before it goes in the pan.
5Golden syrup or cane syrup
Different taste
Use the same amount loosened with a tablespoon of hot water per quarter cup if very thick
Thick invert syrups with a clean butterscotch flavour.
What changes
They give you body and caramel sweetness, but none of the slightly bitter, mineral edge that molasses provides, so the result tastes rounder and simpler.
Best for
rum drinks, baking where a sticky texture helps, coffee syrups
The mouthfeel is arguably better than brown sugar syrup, thicker and glossier. If you want the missing bitterness back, a quarter teaspoon of molasses per quarter cup closes the gap.
6Coconut sugar syrup
Close match
Use the same amount
Coconut palm sugar dissolves into a syrup that is genuinely close to brown sugar in colour and carries a comparable caramel note, plus a slight nutty, smoky character of its own.
What changes
Best for
brown sugar milk tea, Southeast Asian desserts, coffee, refined-sugar-free versions
One of the better swaps for boba specifically, because it can be cooked down dark without turning acrid. It does not dissolve quite as readily as brown sugar, so keep it on low heat and stir until there is no grit left on the spoon.

What is Brown Sugar Syrup?

Brown Sugar Syrup is Brown sugar syrup is brown sugar dissolved in water, made either as a pourable 1:1 syrup for cocktails or as a thick 2:1 syrup for brown sugar boba and coffee drinks.

Cooking tips

Check which concentration the recipe wants. Cocktail recipes mean a 1:1 syrup, equal volumes of packed brown sugar and water. Brown sugar boba and brown sugar milk tea want a thick 2:1 or even 3:1 syrup that clings to the inside of the glass, and using a thin 1:1 there gives you a watery drink with no tiger stripes.
Brown sugar scorches faster than white sugar, because the molasses in it contains proteins and minerals that brown at a lower temperature. Keep the heat at medium, stir until it is dissolved, and take it off. If it starts smelling sharp rather than sweet, it has gone too far.
Brown sugar has to be packed into the measuring cup, not spooned in loosely. A loosely filled cup can hold thirty percent less sugar, which is the difference between a syrup and slightly sweet water.
For brown sugar boba the point is deliberately taking the syrup past dissolved and into lightly caramelised, until it darkens and turns faintly bitter. That bitterness is what stops the drink being flatly sweet, and no uncooked sweetener will imitate it.
It keeps less well than plain simple syrup, because molasses brings solids that microbes like. Expect two to three weeks in a sealed jar in the fridge, and discard it if it smells yeasty or grows anything.

Frequently asked questions

Can I use white sugar instead of brown sugar for the syrup?

Yes, and you can make it indistinguishable. Dissolve white sugar and water as usual, then stir in about half a teaspoon of molasses per quarter cup of finished syrup, since brown sugar is nothing more than white sugar with molasses blended back in. Without the molasses you have plain simple syrup, which will sweeten the drink correctly but lose the toffee flavour and the amber colour the recipe was after.

Can I leave it out?

Only if something else is sweetening the recipe. It is not a garnish or an accent, it is the sugar. If you leave it out of a whiskey cocktail you get a harsh, hollow drink, and if you leave it out of a brown sugar milk tea you get plain tea and milk. Any syrup at all is far better than none.

Is brown sugar syrup the same as simple syrup?

No. Simple syrup is white sugar and water and tastes of nothing but sweetness, which is the point of it. Brown sugar syrup carries molasses, so it adds a caramel and slightly bitter flavour plus a brown colour. They are interchangeable in volume but not in effect, and if a recipe specifically named brown sugar syrup, the flavour is why.

Will it make my cocktail cloudy?

It will make it opaque and amber rather than cloudy, which is expected and fine in an Old Fashioned or a rum drink. If you want a clear drink, strain the cooled syrup through a coffee filter to catch the fine molasses solids, or use demerara syrup instead, which settles clearer.

Is muscovado syrup the same thing?

Close but stronger. Muscovado is unrefined cane sugar that has never had its molasses removed, so a muscovado syrup is darker, stickier and much more treacly than one made with ordinary light brown sugar. Use about three quarters as much if you are swapping it into a recipe written for light brown sugar syrup.

Related substitutes

More sweeteners substitutes

Brown Sugar Syrup substitute

Other brown sugar syrup substitutes

2Demerara or turbinado syrup

3Maple syrup

4Muscovado or dark brown sugar syrup

5Golden syrup or cane syrup

6Coconut sugar syrup