Brown Sugar Syrup

Homemade Brown Sugar Syrup is the perfect ingredient to help you elevate all of your coffee, cocktail, and mocktail recipes. You'll want to keep a bottle of it on hand at all times.

Looking for more delicious, classic syrups for cocktails and coffee? Try my Honey Syrup and Vanilla Simple Syrup recipes. They're as versatile as they are tasty.

Why you'll love this recipe

It requires two ingredients. That's it! And you probably have both of them on hand already.
It's so simple to make. If you can simmer some water, you can make this recipe.
It's customizable and versatile. You can customize it to your tastes and use it in countless ways.

Why make brown sugar syrup at home?

We've covered some of the reasons for making this brown sugar simple syrup at home above: few ingredients, ease of preparation, versatility. But there are even more reasons!

• Starbucks (or, insert your preferred chain coffee shop here) is too dang expensive. $8 for a latte or a cold brew? In this economy? Having your own fun, delicious flavored syrups at home makes it that much easier to whip something up yourself and save some cash - not to mention the time saved from not having to sit in the drive thru.
• When making your own, you know exactly what's going into it. I'm not going to lie and tell you that I don't buy Monin syrups from time to time, but I really love making flavored syrups at home because I can control what's going into them. And that's usually just water, sugar, and sometimes some kind of flavoring. No preservatives or any extras.
• You can make a little (or a lot!) if you want. No need to commit to a huge store bought bottle.

Ingredients

You only need two of 'em! See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.

• Water: Tap or filtered water will do.
• Brown sugar: Use light or dark brown sugar (or a mix), depending on what you have/prefer.

Substitutions or variations

• Make a rich syrup: A rich simple syrup is one that uses proportionally more sugar than water. A 2:1 (2 parts sugar to 1 part water) rich syrup is common.
• Use a different sugar: You can use light brown sugar or dark brown sugar, or another kind of sugar entirely. Try demerara sugar to make Demerara Syrup or regular white granulated sugar to make plain simple syrup. See the picture below for what some of the other options look like.
• Make it your own: Add a cinnamon stick (it will be similar to this Cinnamon Dolce Syrup) or any other warming spice (think star anise, cloves, nutmeg...) to jazz this syrup up a little bit.

How to make brown sugar syrup

How to store simple syrup

At the bare minimum, brown sugar syrups need to be stored in an airtight container in the fridge. Since there are no preservatives in this recipe, it will start to get funky pretty quickly if kept on the counter at room temperature

When choosing a container for your syrup, stick to glass. Plastic can retain odors from previous contents. I've used Mason jars, glass swing top bottles, as well as the Chubby Bottles from Crew (the bottle used in the pictures).

You can prolong the shelf life of this syrup by adding a splash of vodka (think: 1-2 tablespoons per cup of syrup) to your syrup before stashing it in the fridge.

How to use brown sugar syrup

• Cocktails - You can use this syrup in any number of cocktails (think Tiki drinks). Brown sugar syrups would make a really delicious addition to an Old Fashioned Cocktail. Just use it in place of the sugar or plain simple syrup.
• Coffee - Brown Sugar Shaken Espresso, anyone?? Use it to sweeten drip coffee, lattes, cold brew, etc.
• Boba (and other teas) - Brown Sugar Bubble Tea (or boba tea) is a rich and delicious way to use this brown sugar simple syrup. Use it in hot and iced teas, too.
• Dessert - I think we all sometimes forget that you can totally use simple syrups in non-drink applications. Spread a layer of syrup on top of your cake layers or cupcakes to keep them super moist. Or! Drizzle some on ice cream or on your pancakes or waffles.

More simple syrup recipes

I'd love to know what you thought of this recipe! Don't forget to leave a comment and ⭐️ star rating below!

Brown sugar syrup recipe

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