Demerara syrup substitutes

Two parts white sugar to one part water, so the sweetening power per quarter ounce is the same and no extra water enters the drink. What you lose is the toffee and mineral note, so a Mai Tai or Jet Pilot made with it tastes brighter and a little hollow in the middle.

Best for

tiki drinks, Mai Tai, Old Fashioned, any recipe calling for rich or 2:1 syrup

You can close most of the flavour gap with about an eighth of a teaspoon of molasses per two ounces of syrup, which is roughly what the raw sugar was contributing. Do not overdo it, demerara is subtle and blackstrap is not.

The most likely thing to already be in your fridge. Doubling the volume gets the sugar right, but you are also adding the extra water that the rich syrup did not contain, so the finished drink is measurably more dilute.

Best for

shaken sours, drinks with strong flavours that hide dilution, when it is the only syrup you own

Compensate for the extra water by shaking for a shorter time, using larger and colder ice, or stirring rather than shaking. Otherwise a spirit-forward drink loses its backbone and tastes watery even though the sweetness reads correct.

Not a substitute so much as the same ingredient wearing a different label. Turbinado, raw sugar, Sugar in the Raw and demerara are all partially refined cane sugars with a residual molasses coating. Made 2:1 with water they give you an essentially identical syrup.

Best for

everything demerara syrup is used for

True Demerara sugar from Guyana has slightly larger, drier crystals than most turbinado, so it needs a little more heat and stirring to dissolve. The finished syrup tastes the same. Buy whichever your shop stocks.

Brown sugar has refined molasses blended back in rather than clinging on from the start, so the flavour is noticeably heavier: stickier, sweeter, and with a slight bitterness. In a dark rum drink most people cannot tell them apart.

Best for

dark rum and whiskey drinks, Old Fashioneds, hot buttered rum

In a delicate drink such as a Daiquiri variation or anything with gin, it muddies things. It also settles cloudier, so a stirred drink you wanted crystal clear will look murkier.

Invert sugar syrups that are thicker than demerara syrup and taste more of butterscotch than of minerals. The extra viscosity is genuinely pleasant in the mouth, and there is no risk of undissolved crystals.

Best for

rum drinks, Ti Punch style drinks, anywhere body matters as much as sweetness

Because they are invert syrups they will not recrystallise, which makes them convenient. They are sweeter per spoonful than a 2:1 sugar syrup, so start at three quarters and taste up.

Ready to pour, roughly the right thickness and colour, and unexpectedly good in aged rum and whiskey drinks. It is unmistakably maple though, so it is a flavour decision rather than a stealth substitution.

Best for

aged rum drinks, bourbon and rye, hot drinks

Dark, robust grades are closer in weight to demerara syrup than the pale delicate grades. In a bright, citrus-heavy tiki drink the maple can taste odd against the pineapple and lime.