Honey syrup substitutes
Honey syrup substitutes — 6 options, ranked, with the exact amount
Use Honey thinned with hot water (making it yourself)
Same amount in place of the honey syrup as the honey syrup
3 parts honey to 1 part hot water by volume
This is not really a substitute, it is the recipe, and it is the answer almost everyone actually needs. Put the honey in a jar, add the just-boiled water, stir or shake for about twenty seconds until it is smooth and pours like warm maple syrup, then use it straight away or chill it.
Honey syrup does two jobs: it sweetens, and it carries honey's floral, waxy aroma into a drink. The reason it exists is purely mechanical, because straight honey is too thick to dissolve in anything cold and will glue itself to the bottom of your shaker. So the best substitute for honey syrup is honey syrup, and it takes thirty seconds: stir 3 tablespoons of honey into 1 tablespoon of just-boiled water until it runs off the spoon in a thin stream. If you have no honey at all, use simple syrup measure for measure and accept that the drink loses its honey character and becomes plainly sweet, or use maple syrup measure for measure, which pours cold and tastes woody and caramel rather than floral. Agave nectar also mixes cold, but it is sweeter, so use about three quarters as much.
- Verdict —
- Works
- Best for —
- Bee's Knees
Updated 26 Jul 2026 · no sponsored swaps
Every option, one card
Ranked| # | Substitute | Instead of honey syrup | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Honey thinned with hot water (making it yourself)Bee's Knees | Same amount in place of the honey syrup3 parts honey to 1 part hot water by volumeWorks | Works |
| 2 | Honey stirred into the warm part of the recipehot toddies | Use about three quarters as much honey as the recipe asked of honey syrupWorks | Works |
| 3 | Simple syrupany recipe where honey is a sweetener rather than the point | Same amountThen tasteTweak it | Tweak it |
| 4 | Maple syrupwhiskey and bourbon drinks | Same amountStraight from the bottleTweak it | Tweak it |
| 5 | Agave nectartequila and mezcal drinks | About three quarters as muchTweak it | Tweak it |
| 6 | Golden syrup or cane syruprum drinks | Same amount, loosenedWith a splash of water if it is very thickTweak it | Tweak it |
Honey thinned with hot water (making it yourself)
similar taste and texture
This is not really a substitute, it is the recipe, and it is the answer almost everyone actually needs. Put the honey in a jar, add the just-boiled water, stir or shake for about twenty seconds until it is smooth and pours like warm maple syrup, then use it straight away or chill it.
- Best for
- Bee's Knees, Gold Rush, Penicillin, iced tea and lemonade, any cold drink calling for honey syrup
Use water that has come off the boil rather than boiling water, and do not simmer it. Cooking honey drives off the volatile aromatics that made you want honey in the first place. A 3:1 syrup is the modern cocktail standard, so if a recipe just says honey syrup, this is what it means.
Honey stirred into the warm part of the recipe
similar taste and texture
If the drink has any warm component, hot tea, hot water for a toddy, a warm base for a marinade, you can skip the dilution step entirely and dissolve honey directly. A honey syrup is roughly three quarters honey, which is where the ratio comes from.
- Best for
- hot toddies, hot tea, glazes and marinades, warm dressings
This does not work for a shaken or stirred cold drink. Honey at fridge or ice temperature is essentially a solid and will sit in a blob at the bottom of the tin, leaving the drink both under-sweet and grainy.
Simple syrup
different taste, similar texture
A 1:1 simple syrup sweetens at very nearly the same strength as a 3:1 honey syrup, so the volume swap is honest. What you lose is everything that made it honey: the floral top note, the faint beeswax smell, and the slight tackiness on the palate.
- Best for
- any recipe where honey is a sweetener rather than the point, lemonade, sours where you have other strong flavours
Be clear-eyed about this one. A Bee's Knees made with simple syrup is a gin sour, and a Gold Rush made with simple syrup is a whiskey sour. Both are good drinks, they are just not the drink you were making.
Maple syrup
different taste, similar texture
Maple syrup is already thin enough to mix into cold liquid, which makes it the easiest one-bottle swap in the pantry. It sweetens at a similar strength but tastes woody, faintly smoky and caramelised rather than floral.
- Best for
- whiskey and bourbon drinks, Gold Rush style sours, coffee drinks, glazes
It works better with brown spirits than with gin. In a whiskey sour the maple reads as a deliberate choice. In a gin drink it can taste slightly out of place, like breakfast wandered into the glass.
Agave nectar
different taste, similar texture
Thinner than honey and it mixes cold without any help. Mostly neutral sweetness with a faint vegetal, almost grassy edge. Because it is high in fructose it tastes sweeter than sugar, so scale it back or the drink goes cloying.
- Best for
- tequila and mezcal drinks, iced tea, vegan versions of honey recipes
The obvious pick if you are making a honey recipe vegan. The honey aroma is completely gone, so expect a cleaner, simpler sweetness rather than a substitute you would fail to notice.
Golden syrup or cane syrup
different taste, similar texture
Both are thick invert sugar syrups, so they give you the syrupy body honey syrup has, plus a butterscotch note instead of a floral one. Cane syrup in particular is closer in weight and mouthfeel than simple syrup is.
- Best for
- rum drinks, baking, anywhere you want body as well as sweetness
Stir a teaspoon of hot water into a tablespoon of golden syrup if it is too stiff to pour. Neither one tastes remotely of honey, but both feel right in the mouth, which matters more than people expect.
Questions
5 questionsCan I just use honey straight instead of honey syrup?
Not in a cold drink. Honey at room temperature is thick, and honey hitting ice is close to solid, so it will stick to the bottom of the shaker in a lump and the drink will come out both under-sweet and unevenly sweet. In anything hot, a toddy, tea, a warm glaze, honey straight is completely fine, and you should use about three quarters as much as the syrup called for.
Can I leave it out?
No, not without replacing it with something. Honey syrup is the entire sweetening element in drinks like a Bee's Knees or a Gold Rush, and without it you are left with spirit and raw lemon juice, which is genuinely unpleasant. If you have nothing else, simple syrup or even a teaspoon of granulated sugar shaken hard until it dissolves will get the drink to a drinkable place.
What is the ratio for honey syrup?
Three parts honey to one part hot water by volume, which is why you sometimes see it written as 3:1 honey syrup. A tidy batch is 6 tablespoons of honey and 2 tablespoons of hot water, which makes about half a cup and is enough for a dozen drinks.
How long does honey syrup keep?
About a month in a sealed jar in the fridge. It lasts longer than plain simple syrup because honey brings some of its own preservative character, but far less long than undiluted honey, which effectively never spoils. Discard it if it goes hazy or fizzy.
Is honey syrup the same as hot honey?
No. Hot honey is honey infused with chilli and is still full-strength honey, so it is thick and spicy. Honey syrup is diluted and has no heat. If hot honey is all you have, thin it 3:1 with hot water as usual and be aware you are adding chilli warmth to whatever you are making, which is actually rather good in a whiskey sour.
Tips for substituting honey syrup
5 tips- Three parts honey to one part hot water is the working standard, and a 1:1 honey syrup also exists but is much thinner and less sweet. If you have made a 1:1 batch and the recipe wanted 3:1, use roughly half again as much.
- Honey clings to everything. Rinse your measuring spoon in hot water first, or better, weigh the honey, and it will slide out cleanly instead of leaving a third of itself behind.
- Pick the honey deliberately. Clover, acacia or orange blossom stay in the background and let gin or lemon lead. Buckwheat, chestnut and manuka are dark and assertive enough to take over a drink completely, which is sometimes what you want in a Penicillin.
- Diluting honey removes the very low water content that makes raw honey shelf stable, so honey syrup is a perishable ingredient. Keep it in the fridge, expect about a month, and throw it out if it turns cloudy, smells yeasty or starts to fizz, which means it has begun to ferment.
- For a Penicillin, honey-ginger syrup is the actual target: steep a few coins of fresh ginger in the hot water for ten minutes before you stir the honey in, and strain.