Mulberry molasses substitutes

The nearest thing in flavour: sweet, gently floral, with almost no acidity and no bitterness.

Best for

drizzling on yogurt, bread or ice cream, mixing with tahini, sweetening tea and warm milk, spooning over walnuts and clotted cream, desserts and helva

Honey is slightly more perfumed and a touch sweeter, and it runs thinner when warm and can crystallise in the jar, where mulberry pekmez stays a steady thick pour. In a tahini mixture the difference is small enough that most people would not name it. Choose a pale mild honey, since a strong chestnut or buckwheat honey brings a bitterness that mulberry molasses does not have.

The same traditional product made from grape juice instead of mulberries, and used in identical ways across Turkey.

Best for

tahini and pekmez, breakfast tables, baking, winter drinks, glazes

Behaves exactly the same in the pan and on the spoon, which makes it the most authentic swap in practice. It is darker, tastes of raisin and dried fig rather than mulberry's honeyed floral note, and carries a faint tartness that mulberry lacks, so a delicate milk pudding will taste more rustic and less perfumed. Nobody at a Turkish breakfast table would object.

Thick, dark, fruit-derived syrup with the same clinging body and a deep caramel sweetness.

Best for

baking, tahini pairings, drizzling, smoothies, marinades

The texture is right and the sweetness level is close, but the colour goes from amber to near-black and the flavour shifts from floral to toffee and dried fruit, so a pale dessert will look and taste markedly darker. Excellent in anything nutty or spiced, less convincing when mulberry molasses is meant to be the light, fragrant element.

A texture-first answer: neutral, very thick, glossy syrups that pour and cling like pekmez.

Best for

baking, where structure and moisture matter, syrups and sauces, sticky glazes, holding a drizzle on top of a dessert

On its own this is pure sweetness with no fruit character at all, so the dish tastes correct in texture and empty in flavour. The spoonful of honey restores the floral top note. Golden syrup brings a slight butterscotch warmth that suits cakes; light corn syrup is completely neutral and better when you want the other flavours in the recipe to lead.

Making your own fruit syrup, which is all a pekmez really is.

Best for

when you want a genuinely fruity syrup, drizzling, desserts, avoiding a trip to a specialist shop

Simmer unsweetened juice in a wide pan over medium heat for roughly 40 to 55 minutes until it coats a spoon, then add a pinch of salt; it thickens further as it cools, so stop while it still pours easily. White grape juice gives the palest, most mulberry-like result. It will be a little more acidic than real dut pekmezi and keeps two to three weeks in the fridge.

The honest best reconstruction: honey supplies the floral sweetness, grape pekmez supplies the pekmez body and mineral depth.

Best for

dut pekmezi with tahini, recipes where mulberry molasses is named specifically, drizzling over yogurt or ice cream

There is no substitute that captures white mulberry's particular soft, hay-and-honey aroma, and it is worth saying so plainly. This blend gets closer than either component alone, and in a mixed dish it is convincing. Eaten straight off a spoon, an experienced palate will still know the difference.