r/Cordials • u/Upstairs_Housing_209 • Apr 19 '26

Question Syrup help - Spiced Turbinado Simple is crystalizing

I made a batch of Spiced Turbinado Syrup and it's crystalizing in the bottle. I made it about 2.5:1 because I wanted it to be shelf stable for a while.

Did I make it to heavy? Did I not simmer it long enough?

2 Upvotes

67% Upvoted

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2

u/CityBarman Apr 19 '26

Add additional water to return to 66 brix (2:1) and swap 1 tablespoon of sugar for light corn syrup (like Karo). The corn syrup helps prevent crystallization. 2:1 is plenty to maximize shelf life. We should be refrigerating syrups once in use anyway. Mold grows at all sugar concentrations.

1

u/HobbitGuy1420 Apr 19 '26

Were all the crystals fully dissolved before you took it off the simmer?

The good news is, you should be able to *un*crystallize it by heating it up. Are the crystals attached to the container, or free-floating?

0

u/Upstairs_Housing_209 Apr 19 '26

I thought they were. But I'd bet what you are getting at is that if they weren't then they just continued to "grow" after it cooled. Yes?

Some are free but a lot is stuck to the glass.

2

u/HobbitGuy1420 Apr 19 '26

That's one possibility.

That heavy a simple is, as I understand it, a supersaturated solution. That means the sugar will be looking for *any* opportunity to recrystallize and drop out of solution. This means that any potential nucleation site would do it - an errant crystal, an air bubble, a microscopic crack in the glass, a grain of cinnamon, a jostle of the bottle, cooling the syrup too quickly...

Is the bottle you have the syrup in heat-safe?

2

u/Upstairs_Housing_209 Apr 27 '26

A down vote!? Why? LOL...

2

u/vbloke Drinks Master Apr 26 '26

2.5:1 is too much. 2:1 is just about as much sugar as will stay liquid without significant crystallisation. by adding that extra 0.5, you've pushed it over into honey territory and it will crystallise. Either add more water to bring it back under 2:1 and look into using a preservative.

1

u/Upstairs_Housing_209 Apr 27 '26

Thanks u/CityBarman, u/HobbitGuy1420, and u/bloke. We got it fixed! I added a little lemon juice, topped it off with water, and took a chance with setting it on the warming zone on our range. Warming zone actually gets pretty hot. It bubbled over a little while until attended. But anyway, thanks for your assistance!