Most of the time we use liquid sugars (syrups) at the bar, because granulated sugars don’t dissolve quickly enough. These syrups need to measure and pour well in a jigger and quickly and easily disperse with other cocktail ingredients. They need to be fairly liquid but can’t contain so much water that they spoil easily or overdilute your drink. Two sugar levels hit the sweet spot and are thus commonly used in bar recipes: 50 percent and 66 percent sugar by weight. Anything below 50 percent spoils too quickly and overdilutes. Anything over 66 percent is hard to pour quickly and may crystallize in the fridge.
simple it is: just sugar and water. Simple comes in two varieties, 1:1 (regular simple) and 2:1 (rich simple). Regular simple is 1 part sugar to 1 part water by weight. Rich simple has 2 parts sugar to 1 part water by
weight. Perhaps counterintuitively, rich simple is not twice as sweet as
regular simple. Every fluid ounce of rich simple provides the same sweetening power as 1.5 ounces of regular simple. At the bar and in this book I use 1:1, regular simple, almost exclusively. It pours better and mixes quicker than 2:1. It is also more tolerant of bad jiggering than rich simple is. Regular simple is easy to make. Put equal weights of sugar and water in a blender and blend on high till the sugar is dissolved. If you have time, let the syrup settle for a few minutes to get rid of air bubbles. To make rich simple, or regular simple without a blender, heat the ingredients on a stove until the syrup turns clear (indicating total dissolution) and then let the syrup cool. The disadvantages of stovetop simple are (1) you can’t use the syrup right away because it’s too hot, and (2) some water evaporates, throwing off your recipe. If you don’t have a blender, stove, scale, or time, use superfine sugar. The crystals in superfine sugar are small enough to dissolve without a blender, and superfine comes in conveniently, though expensive, preweighed 1-pound (454-gram) boxes. Just add one box of superfine sugar to a pint (2 cups or 454 milliliters) of water, shake in a covered container for a minute, and you’re off to the races, no weighing necessary.
Many bartenders measure their sugar by volume, a practice I discourage. Granulated sugar and water do not have the same density. Domino-brand granulated sugar has a density of .84 gram per milliliter straight out of the bag, while room-temperature water has a density of 1 gram per milliliter—a 16 percent difference. If you tap on your measuring cup repeatedly to compact the sugar, you can achieve a density very close to that of water, but few people go through that process, and it is more difficult than weighing.
Both regular and rich simple can be left unrefrigerated for several hours at a time, but eventually they will develop moldy, floaty occlusions. Store yours in the fridge.
Brown Sugar, Demerara Sugar, and Cane Syrup: Brown sugar is made
by adding molasses to refined white sugar. Demerara is crystallized sugar that was never refined into white sugar. Cane syrup is unrefined sugar that has been concentrated but not crystallized. All these sweetners have more or less of a rich molasses note. When using brown sugar or Demerara, make a 1:1 syrup. Cane syrup has no standardized sweetness but is almost always sweeter than 1:1 syrup.
Honey: The taste of honey varies dramatically depending on the species of flower the bees visited during pollenation. While it’s fun to experiment with different varieties, most bartenders settle on fairly neutral honeys, such as clover. I have tried many times to make a good drink with buckwheat honey, which is superdark and funky-tasting, but have had no luck.
Honey is roughly 82 percent sugar and very, very thick. It is hard to use at the bar unless you make it into a thinner syrup. To make a honey syrup that can be substituted for simple syrup in any recipe, add 64 grams of water to every 100 grams of honey (note that the honey must be weighed; it is much denser than water). Unlike simple syrup, honey has some protein in it. Those proteins will increase the foaminess of shaken drinks, especially those with acidity in them as well.
Maple Syrup: Maple syrup is a fantastic cocktail sweetener. It is roughly
67 percent sugar by weight, comparable to rich simple syrup. Every fluid ounce of maple syrup is as sweet as 1½ fluid ounces of simple syrup. Flipped around, to replace 1 ounce of simple syrup, use ⅔ ounce maple syrup; to replace ¾ ounce simple, use ½ ounce maple (remember, these conversions are by volume!). Because maple syrup is expensive and I want the longest possible shelf life, I never water it down to typical simple-syrup levels. Maple syrup doesn’t need to be refrigerated on a short-term basis, and it is never dangerous to leave it at room temperature. A disgusting mold can grow and spoil your syrup overnight, so keep it in the fridge for long- term storage, or boil it periodically. That mold tastes nasty—really nasty. Always smell the syrup before you pour it into your drink. I once ruined a hundred dollars’ worth of batched cocktail by adding moldy maple syrup.
Agave nectar is composed mainly of fructose, with a little bit of glucose
mixed in. Usually it is around 75 percent sugar by weight—between maple syrup and honey. The flavor changes from brand to brand. Fructose sweetness hits fast and decays fast, so use agave when you don’t want the sweetness to linger. When using agave nectar straight, use about 60 percent of what you would use for simple syrup by volume. To make an agave nectar that you can substitute for simple syrup, add 50 grams of water to every 100 grams of agave nectar (note that the agave must be weighed; it is much denser than water). Agave nectar goes well in margaritas, but not because tequila is made from agave; that’s a coincidence. Agave does well with lemon-based drinks because the acidity of lemon is also fast attack, fast decay (see the Acids section, here).
Quinine Simple: Quinine is the intensely bitter bark that gives bitterness to
tonic water. Use this simple syrup for making tonic water, or any time you want the characteristic bitterness of tonic. (See the recipe here)