Coffee – Will artificial sweeteners work in a coffee syrup recipe

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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?

Best Answer

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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