Petimezi (Grape Molasses) substitute

Best substitute

Date syrup (date molasses, silan)

Use the same amount plus ½ teaspoon lemon juice per ¼ cup as the petimezi (grape molasses) you are replacing

Best for baking

Close match

Date syrup is the closest substitute for petimezi at 1:1, with half a teaspoon of lemon juice per quarter cup to put back the fruity tartness. Carob syrup is an even better match if you can find it. Pomegranate molasses works at three quarters the amount plus a teaspoon of honey, since it is far more sour. Plain molasses is the last resort, as its bitter mineral edge takes over the dish.

Other petimezi (grape molasses) substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Carob syrup (carob molasses)
Close match
Use the same amount
Carob pods boiled down into a dark syrup, common in Greek, Cypriot and Levantine cooking.
What changes
Best for
baking, drizzling, glazes, tahini and syrup, marinades
Remarkably close and often sold on the same shelf. Slightly more roasted and faintly chocolatey where petimezi is more grapey and wine-like, so a cake made with it tastes a shade darker and more caramel. Sweetness level is nearly identical, so no adjustment is needed.
3Pomegranate molasses
Different taste
Use ¾ the amount, plus 1 teaspoon honey or sugar for every ¼ cup
Reduced pomegranate juice, dark and syrupy but much more sour and tannic than petimezi.
What changes
Best for
marinades, salad dressings, glazes for meat, roasted vegetables
Sensational in savoury cooking and a poor swap in a cake. It is aggressively tart with a drying tannic finish, so a dessert made with it one for one tastes sharp and puckering instead of sweet and mellow. Cut the amount, add sweetness back, and taste as you go. In a lamb glaze it is arguably better than the original.
4Maple syrup
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount reducing other liquid by about 1 tablespoon per ¼ cup
A widely available dark syrup with similar sweetening power.
What changes
Best for
baking, drizzling, pancakes, yogurt, glazes
It works, and everyone has it, but nobody will mistake the flavour. Maple is thinner, less viscous and unmistakably maple, so a Greek cake made with it tastes North American. It has no fruity acidity either, so add half a teaspoon of lemon juice per quarter cup if the recipe relies on petimezi for tang as well as sweetness.
5Blackstrap or dark molasses
Different taste
½ to ¾ the amount, ideally blended half and half with honey
Sugarcane molasses, dark and thick but bitter and strongly mineral.
What changes
Best for
dark spice cakes, gingerbread, marinades, bean dishes
Right colour, wrong personality. Molasses is bitter and metallic in a way petimezi never is, and used one for one it takes over the whole dish. Cut it with honey so you get the darkness without the bitterness. Best confined to strongly spiced bakes where a bitter edge is welcome anyway.
6Honey
Different taste
Use the same amount
The easiest swap of all, and the traditional Greek sweetener petimezi historically stood in for.
What changes
Best for
baking, drizzling, yogurt, syrups, dressings
Honey tastes sweeter than petimezi and brings its own floral perfume, so the finished dish is brighter and lighter in colour and loses the raisiny, wine-like depth entirely. In a syrup-soaked cake this is completely fine. In something like a walnut and petimezi cake, where the dark grape flavour is the point, it changes the dish.

What is Petimezi (Grape Molasses)?

Petimezi (Grape Molasses) is Petimezi is grape must, the fresh pressed juice of wine grapes, boiled down without any added sugar into a thick dark syrup, and it is the same thing sold in Turkish and Levantine shops as pekmez or grape molasses.

Cooking tips

Petimezi's job is not only sweetness. It brings a fruity acidity, a dark raisin and fig flavour, deep colour, and because it is a concentrated syrup it holds moisture, which keeps cakes and cookies soft for days. A swap that only delivers sweetness will give you a paler, drier, blander result.
When replacing granulated sugar with petimezi or any of these syrups, use about three quarters of a cup of syrup per cup of sugar and reduce the other liquid in the recipe by roughly three tablespoons per cup.
Syrups like petimezi are acidic, so add about a quarter teaspoon of baking soda per cup used if the recipe has no other acid. Without it, the crumb can be dense and the flavour slightly sharp.
Anything made with petimezi browns faster than the same recipe made with white sugar. Drop the oven by about twenty-five degrees Fahrenheit and check early, or the edges will be dark before the centre is set.
For moustalevria, the Greek grape must pudding, there is no substitute worth making. The dish is literally set grape must, so use petimezi diluted with water if you cannot get fresh must, and pick a different dessert if you have neither.
With nothing dark and syrupy in the cupboard at all, simmer half a cup of dark brown sugar with three tablespoons of water and a teaspoon of lemon juice until it coats a spoon. That gives you half a cup of a passable stand-in, though it tastes of caramel rather than grapes.
Petimezi keeps for a year or more in a sealed jar at room temperature and crystallises slightly in the cold. If it has gone stiff, stand the jar in warm water for ten minutes rather than microwaving it.

Frequently asked questions

Is petimezi the same as pekmez or grape molasses?

Yes. Petimezi is the Greek name, pekmez is the Turkish name, and grape molasses or grape must syrup is the usual English label. All are boiled-down grape must with no added sugar, so any of them can be used interchangeably.

Can I use regular molasses instead of petimezi?

Only as a last resort and in a reduced amount. Cane molasses is bitter and mineral, while petimezi is fruity and mellow, so at a one to one swap the molasses flavour dominates. Use half to three quarters as much, and blend it with honey to soften the bitterness.

Is petimezi healthier than sugar?

It is still a concentrated sugar syrup and should be treated as one in a recipe. It is unrefined and made from grape juice alone, so it carries some of the minerals and colour compounds of the fruit, but the practical difference in a cake is flavour and moisture rather than nutrition.

Can I leave petimezi out of a recipe?

Only if it is a drizzle at the end, in which case just serve without it or use honey. If it is in the batter, it is providing sweetness, liquid, acidity and colour all at once, so leaving it out throws the recipe off. Replace it with an equal volume of another syrup rather than omitting it.

What does petimezi taste like?

Deeply sweet with a raisin and dried-fig character and a faint winey tartness at the finish, close to a very concentrated grape juice. It is much less bitter than cane molasses and less floral than honey.

Related substitutes

More sweeteners substitutes

Petimezi (Grape Molasses) substitute

Other petimezi (grape molasses) substitutes

2Carob syrup (carob molasses)

3Pomegranate molasses

4Maple syrup

5Blackstrap or dark molasses

6Honey