Post #424225 by 57 Chevy on Tue, Dec 16, 2008 8:57 AM

Simple syrup is chemically different from just sugar dissolved in water and much more stable if you simmer it for a period of time. It not only becomes sweeter than the original sugar, it doesn't crystallize with time. What you are looking for is "invert sugar". Simple syrup can be sugar water, or it can be invert sugar water. Sugar water will become rock candy syrup in short order. Invert sugar is liquid simple syrup, period. Search Google for it. There is a Tiki, I mean Wiki =) about it that is pretty thorough although the reference to how long it takes to make is wrong. A reference to Sugar.org is at the end of this post which corrects the sweetness argument too.

"Sweet Tea" commonly served in the south US is not table sugar dissolved in tea. It is invert sugar dissolved in tea.

Here's the difference in what you are making, or buying. There are two things that can change dissolved sugar into invert sugar. Time and acid. One teaspoon of lemon juice per pound (about 3 cups) is enough to break sucrose(cane sugar) into fructose and glucose. At this point you can use less sugar to sweeten to the same degree because the end product is sweeter than the original. If you want to supersaturate it, then it will just have more sugar to water ratio, and be less diluted. It will also take more time, heat, and and patience, and you have to be careful you don't make candy by heating it too hot. You will turn it into caramel colored goo if you heat it long enough. The good part is, a dash of water and you are back where you started except for the color. Sugar is sugar is sucrose off the shelf anyway. I should say usually, not always. What is most different about them is the impurities. Molasses, or the stuff not refined out of the sugar is what makes it dark. Honey is a form of inverted sugar, hence the ability to stay liquid for as long as it does. My recipe is 1.5 L water and 3 lbs plain sugar. Either simmer it for 20 minutes or longer, or add three tsp. lemon juice and simmer less than half the time. You still have to give the sucrose time to break down. Rock candy syrup is just sugar water that has not been completely inverted. A stray crystal or surface imperfection will give the crystals a place to grow (string). Boil that rock candy syrup for 20 minutes and guess what? It isn't Rock candy syrup anymore! It is a marketing thing so they can produce more, faster, cheaper. Make invert sugar out of any type of sugar you wish. If you want simple syrup to stay liquid, spend the time to make it invert, or add acid. At 3 tsp. citric acid, or lemon juice, you can't taste it, even straight. It is so much easier than trying to get crystallized sugar water to run through a bottle pourer too. All my cordials and mixes use it.

From sugar.org - Invert sugar
Sucrose can be split into its two component sugars (glucose and fructose). This process is called inversion, and the product is called invert sugar. Commercial invert sugar is a liquid product that contains equal amounts of glucose and fructose. Because fructose is sweeter than either glucose or sucrose, invert sugar is sweeter than white sugar. Commercial liquid invert sugars are prepared as different mixtures of sucrose and invert sugar. For example total invert sugar is half glucose and half fructose, while 50% invert sugar (half of the sucrose has been inverted) is one-half sucrose, one-quarter glucose and one-quarter fructose. Invert sugar is used mainly by food manufacturers to retard the crystallization of sugar and to retain moisture in the packaged food. Which particular invert sugar is used is determined by which function – retarding crystallization or retaining moisture – is required.

I hope this clears up why your simple syrup is making rock candy. While worthless for the recipe, maybe your customers like to look at the pretty crystals in the bottom of the bottle. =)