Cock-tail is a stimulating liquor, composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water, and bitters—it is vulgarly called bittered sling, and is supposed to be an excellent electioneering potion, in as much as it renders the heart stout and bold, at the same time that it fuddles the head. It is said, also to be of great use to a democratic candidate: because a person, having swallowed a glass of it, is ready to swallow any thing else.
Harry Croswell, The Balance and Columbian Repository May 13, 1806
If you've reached the last sip in the cocktail history bottle, you have certainly come across this quote from Harry Croswell at some point. Most of the time, that last sentence is left out, but I'm not here to sugarcoat things.
There is plenty of writing about spirits and bitters, and even water gets some good press but usually only to talk about its frozen crystal clear form. Sugar, however, gets passed over all the time. If you combine sugar and water, that makes simple syrup, often seen as a crucial component for cocktails, but one that many people don't talk about aside from a line or two in the front of their cocktail book that says, "mix equal parts sugar and water."
Quick Question:
What weighs more: A pound of wet sand or a pound of dry sand?
Before we get too far in, I should warn you that some science talk is on the way. Don't worry. I have included a video of Nancy Sinatra singing "Sugar Town" to signify the end of the nerdy stuff.
Back to our sand, a pound is a pound dry or wet, they are equal in terms of weight, but the volume will be different.
When I see "equal parts," my nitpick is that most people doesn't understand what equal means. Equal when cooking, baking, or making simple syrup means by weight, not volume. So a 1:1 simple syrup should be the same weight of water and the same weight of sugar.
Now, a 2:1 sugar to water ratio doesn't mean that the resulting syrup is twice as sweet. Let's look at some math to find out what percentage of these basic solutions is sugar.
To find percentage composition:
Parts of Solute / One Hundred Parts of SolutionA solution is a mixture of a solute and a solvent.
Sugar is the solute.
Water is the solvent.
Simple Syrup is the solution.
1:1 Sugar solution:
(1000 g of sugar) / (1000 g Sugar + 1000 g Water) X 100 = 50%2:1 Sugar Solution:
(2000 g of sugar) / (2000 g Sugar + 1000 g Water) X 100 = 66.6%Make sense? A 1:1 mixture is 50% sugar, while a 2:1 mixture is 66.6% sugar—anything over that you and are pushing the saturation point of a sugar-water solution.
Also, remember: water at room temp weighs in grams what its volume in milliliters is. 10 points to the Metric System for simplicity!
So to make simple syrup, you first need scale. Simple isn't as simple as it seems!
The other issue is how to incorporate the dry sugar into the wet water? Most recipes call for heat. Heating water will reduce the water in your ratio; see that steam, that's water leaving the pot and what is known as a physical change. More importantly, heating sugar will result in a chemical change.
When heat is applied to table sugar (sucrose), it breaks down into glucose and fructose. You notice this exact change when you make caramel, and the whole kitchen smells amazing as the sugar turns to liquid and gets darker in color. Those are signs of a chemical change because chemical changes are marked by a release of gas, odor, color, or sound. This exact chemical change will happen in your body, but instead of smelling like a toasted marshmallow, it just turns the sucrose into digestible glucose and fructose. Subsequently, those turn quickly turn into fat and hang out wherever your body likes to store that.
A simple way to think of it is: can you get your ingredients back? With boiling water, you can collect the steam and condense it back into water. Once sugar is heated and changed, you can't go back from the resulting fructose and glucose or caramel to table sugar. It has been chemically altered. So how do you avoid this change?
Dissolving sugar in water is a physical change. With no heat applied, the sucrose is still there, just in a different physical form; you could dehydrate the sugar solution and get your sugar back. The best way to get sugar into a solution with water is through agitation. Throw it all in a blender and give it a good spin, or measure it out and shake it up!
You made it! Take it away, Nancy:
Now, does any of this matter?
Well, I am going to let you in on a secret. I don't make simple syrup anymore—I buy it.
Why? It's way simpler and somehow shelf-stable. When I make simple syrup it goes bad before I use it all. These days, I only use simple syrup in stirred whisky cocktails, and by stirred whisky cocktails, I mean the Old Fashioned. I would say every few times I even reach for a sugar cube and go that route to keep my muddling muscles in shape. I always have a box of Domino Dots around.
If I use sugar in a shaken drink, I use caster sugar (AKA superfine or bar sugar), which is also shelf-stable in its dry sandy form. Is it a little extra work? Yeah, but not much, and I enjoy it. Try a Daiquiri or a Tom Collins with caster sugar, and you may not go back to the simple syrup versions.
Daiquiri
In a shaker:
60 ml White Rum
30 ml Lime Juice
~2 Barspoons Caster Sugar (to taste)
Shake with ice
Strain into a chilled cocktail glass
Something about using dry sugar instead of syrup produces a sharper cocktail as opposed to a rounded drink. It sounds funny, but I wouldn't say I like a perfectly round cocktail. I want drinks to be booze forward and the other components, most often acid and sugar, to compliment the alcohol rather than perfectly balance the entire drink.
I understand why bars don't use caster sugar much anymore, and that is simply because time is money and using syrup is an easy shortcut. I always love seeing bartenders take the time to make drinks with caster sugar because it shows they truly understand the entire process of making a cocktail.
My favorite part of caster sugar is the muffineer. What is a muffineer, you ask? A muffineer is a device used to shake sugar onto muffins, but it is basically what a salt shaker is to sugar. The first time I saw one in action behind a bar was at Bar Hemingway in Paris. Looking through the cocktail books from that lovely bar in The Ritz written by Colin Peter Field, you rarely come across even a mention of simple syrup. If sugar is needed, his recipes call for a spoonful or two and "take your time."
I will say not all muffineers are made the same. Most have slots in the top that allow the sugar to come out. I like one with a moving mechanism that lowers when the muffineer is turned upside down to let the sugar fall out and then when set down, falls back to close the vessel. Both styles work fine; I prefer the latter.
You should get a muffineer. I leave mine next to my bitters bottles and use it often. I recommend the brand La Parfaite, but you will have to dig to find a good one. Not as pretty, but equally useful, would be an offering from Cristofle.
eBay Links:
La Parfaite
Cristofle
There are a few on Etsy too!
To sum it up:
When making simple syrup always weigh the ingredients
Equal parts means equal by weight
Agitate to mix rather than heating
If thats too complicated just buy cane syrup from Monin like I do
Shoo-shoo-shoo, shoo-shoo-shoo shoo-shoo, shoo-shoo, shoo-shoo Sugar Town
A muffineer is a cool bar tool if you like using caster sugar
Caster sugar makes for great shaken sour drinks
Sugar is not a simple as it seems
Thanks for reading!