Coffee Syrup (Rhode Island Style, Homemade)

The Rhode Island kind of coffee syrup: strong coffee and sugar boiled down to a thick, dark syrup that is stirred into cold milk to make coffee milk, the state drink. It is not a café flavouring syrup that goes into coffee; it is coffee made into a syrup.

Two methods. The quick one brews strong drip coffee and reduces it with sugar, the version printed by Taste of Home and copied widely. The slow one follows the method Dave’s Coffee of Rhode Island describes for its own syrup: cold-brew the coffee for 18 hours, then simmer it with cane sugar. The cold brew gives a smoother, less bitter syrup.

Untested: not yet made in this kitchen. It is here for the Coffee Milk and Coffee Syrup page.

Ingredients

Quick method (drip)

• ½ cup (about 40 g) finely ground medium or dark roast coffee
• 2 cups (475 ml) cold water
• 1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar

Cold-brew method (after Dave’s Coffee)

• 1 cup (about 85 g) coarsely ground dark roast coffee
• 3 cups (710 ml) cold water
• 1 cup (200 g) cane sugar
• 1 tablespoon light corn syrup, optional, to stop crystals forming

Directions

Quick method

1. Brew the coffee and water in a drip coffee maker. You should have a little under 2 cups of very strong coffee.
2. Pour it into a small heavy saucepan, stir in the sugar and bring to a boil, stirring until the sugar dissolves.
3. Turn the heat down and simmer, uncovered, until the liquid is reduced by about half, roughly 30 minutes. It will still look thin while hot; it thickens as it cools. Stop when it coats a spoon. Cool, pour into a clean jar, cap and refrigerate.

Cold-brew method

4. Stir the coffee into the cold water in a jar, cover and leave on the counter 12 hours, or in the refrigerator 18 hours.
5. Strain through a fine sieve lined with a paper filter. You will have about 2 cups of concentrate.
6. Bring the concentrate, sugar and corn syrup (if using) to a boil in a heavy saucepan, then simmer gently until reduced to about 1 cup, 20 to 30 minutes. Do not let it boil hard at the end or it can scorch and turn bitter. Cool, jar, cap and refrigerate.

To use

7. For coffee milk, stir 2 tablespoons into 8 ounces (1 cup) of cold milk. Add more to taste.

Notes

Where this recipe came from The quick method is the Taste of Home “Coffee Syrup” recipe (½ cup finely ground coffee, 2 cups cold water, 1 cup sugar, reduced by half, about 1 cup yield), which What’s Cooking America prints word for word. The cold-brew method follows what Dave’s Coffee has said about its own syrup in Edible Rhody and the Boston Globe: a Brazilian coffee rested two days after roasting, cold-brewed 18 hours, then simmered with cane sugar for about 45 minutes and bottled hot. Dave’s publishes no ratios, so the quantities here are this kitchen’s starting point. Keeping it Refrigerate in a clean, closed jar and use within about two weeks, the figure both published recipes give. It is not a tested shelf life. Autocrat’s label says “Refrigerate after opening” even though it contains a preservative. Throw it out if it grows mould, fizzes or smells sour. There is no tested home-canning process for coffee syrup, so do not water-bath it for the shelf. Why it is safe in the fridge The simmer pasteurises the coffee and the sugar ties up its water. Cold brew’s botulism worry (Cornell, 2017) concerns unsweetened, unheated coffee sealed in low-oxygen packaging such as nitro cans, not a boiled syrup. Thickness The commercial syrups are corn syrup and coffee extract; homemade cane-sugar syrup is thinner and less sweet per spoonful. If it crystallises in the fridge, warm the jar in hot water. The spoon of corn syrup prevents that. Variations Use decaf for a children’s coffee milk. Add a split vanilla bean to the simmer. A tablespoon of instant espresso stirred in at the end makes it stronger without more boiling. The photo A batch of cold brew being started: coffee ground straight into a jar for steeping. It is the first stage of the slow method, not the finished syrup.