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Here’s the recipe for coffee syrup

Ingredients for 1 cup of coffee syrup

2 cups sugar
1 cup strong coffee

Directions
Mix sugar with the coffee
Boil mixture down to the consistency of thick syrup

To use put 1-2 teaspoons in a cup of hot water and stir it around a few minutes.

Would sugar substitute work with this recipe as written?

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    This is supposed to be the civil war equilibent of instant coffee if it helps. Jul 14, 2018 at 4:33

2 Answers 2

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So, according to a website called A Bar Above, you can make a simple syrup (or "rich simple" apparently) using artificial sweetener, but you won't get the same end result. They tested 3 sweeteners they found, and would recommend sweet'n'low over splenda or equal sweeteners. The taste and aftertaste will be different, and it will depend on the sweetener.

That said, I would NOT expect an artificial sweetener based syrup to thicken like sugar would. You would just need to boil it for a set time and make sure it doesn't boil off or burn. Speaking of burning-- If it's an option, I would recommend getting a jar of instant coffee and mixing that in with the finished syrup instead of making it with actual brewed coffee. Boiling brewed coffee may well give you a bitter, scorched flavor.

My other big concern would just be shelf-life. Sugar actually acts as a preservative in high enough concentrations. (Have you ever accidentally eater years-old hard candy with no ill effect? Thank sugar, lol.) Looking around I don't see any information on how long a simple syrup made with artificial sweetener would last. Although if you use it everyday, you'd go through it pretty quickly...

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    Trouble is, if you're using a sugar substitute, you'll never get the water activity down to the point where mold and bacteria won't grow. Adding alcohol to 20% on the final product would cure the problem, and let you use concentrated Stevia to boot, but 40 proof coffee is probably not the waker upper you are looking for. Apr 20, 2019 at 23:16
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    @WayfaringStranger unless it really really is.
    – Summer
    May 27, 2019 at 20:16
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** WARNING : First find out if it is safe to heat Splenda-like sweeteners! **

I would rather try using honey + a little of lemon juice + instant coffee if you are looking for a syrup result...

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