In the world of flowers, osmanthus means love and romance and is known as a wedding flower in Taiwan. The intense buttery scent is fascinating and the flower has earned a position in China’s 10 national flowers rank. In this article, we’re going to show you step by step how to make an osmanthus sugar (糖桂花), also known as osmanthus syrup. Before we dive into the ingredients and the procedures, let’s first discuss why you should make it yourself.
Why Make Osmanthus Sugar?
Well first of all, making a sugar out of these flowers will increase the storability of both fresh and dried osmanthus. Besides this, osmanthus sugar has two additional uses:
- You can make a sweet tea from the sugar by simply dissolving it in hot water. Optionally, you can add ice cubes afterwards to create an ice tea, ideal for hot summers.
- You can use it to sweeten desserts instead of using normal sugar.
Ingredients
Here's a list of ingredients you need to make 200 grams of either osmanthus sugar or syrup:
- 100 grams of white sugar (to make osmanthus sugar) or 100 grams of honey (to make osmanthus syrup)
- 70 grams of dried osmanthus flowers
- 30 grams of (additional) honey
Notes:
- Go for white sugar as it's the most neutral in taste and color compared to for instance cane and brown sugar.
- Honey is optional. There are also recipes out there that don't include honey. Feel free to experiment with and without it yourself. Of course, if you want to go for a more liquid osmanthus syrup. Go for 130 of honey, instead of 100 gram sugar and 30 gram honey.
Tools required: In addition, you’ll need a jar with lid for storage. The size of the jar will depend on how much you want to make.
How To Make Osmanthus Sugar
The below steps are for making the sugar version:
- Soak the osmanthus flowers in cold water for 10 minutes, then strain.
- Add one layer of sugar. About 1 cm / 0.4 inch per layer is suitable.
- Then add a layer of osmanthus flowers.
- Sprinkle some honey on top of the osmanthus.
- You repeat the previous steps until you’ve used up all sugar, honey and osmanthus flowers. Try to distribute the ingredients evenly among the different layers and make sure the last layer is sugar.
- Press to make the content in the jar more compact.
- Now close the jar and store it in normal room temperature for 1 week and you'll find that the content has become more liquid. Your osmanthus sugar is ready!
What about Syrup?
If you want to make syrup instead, that's even easier. You simply add all the honey into the jar and then mix in the flowers. That's it!
Further storage
Store your osmanthus sugar in the fridge and you’ll be able to enjoy it for many years to come!