What is infused sugar, and what do you do with it?

What infused sugar is

Sugar with real flavor built into the crystal instead of dusted onto it. Spirits, vanilla, spices, depending on the jar. Done right you can taste it in the first pinch and the last one.

Done wrong it's sugar with a faint smell.

Contact infusion versus the real thing

Most flavored sugar on the market is contact infused. A vanilla pod goes in a jar, the lid goes on, and it sits. Flavor transfers slowly and unevenly, some crystals get it and most don't, and you end up shaking the jar looking for it. It's cheap to make, and it's why most people's experience of flavored sugar is underwhelming.

We reduce first, then infuse in layers, so it goes all the way through. Same process we use on the salts. It takes hours instead of minutes, and it's the only reason any of this is worth writing about.

Bourbon Sugar is where to start

Bourbon, vanilla bean and orange in a raw sugar base. Sweet, a little smoky, with a warmth that stays after the sweetness leaves. James tasted it on its own and immediately started listing recipes at us, which is the reaction we get most often.

The full breakdown lives here if you want the cocktail specifics.

What to do with any infused sugar

The rules hold whichever jar you have.

Rims. Wet the glass, dip, build the drink inside. The sugar gives up a little with each sip instead of all at once.

Anything torched or caramelized. Creme brulee is the classic case. The sugar caramelizes with its flavor still attached, which plain sugar obviously can't do.

Baking. Swap it one for one in the dough, or sprinkle on top before it goes in the oven. Both survive the heat.

Anything you'd already sweeten. Coffee, tea, oatmeal, yogurt, whipped cream. Least glamorous, most used.

We make a floral one too

If bourbon isn't your thing, Bluebird Dandelion Sugar goes somewhere else entirely. Organic cane sugar with dandelion flowers, rosehips, raspberries and lemon peel. Floral, citrusy, light, and built for tea, lemonade, pastry and coupe glass rims rather than anything smoky.

Sweetening versus flavoring

Plain sugar sweetens. Infused sugar sweetens and does the job of an ingredient you'd otherwise have to go buy. That's why these end up in regular rotation instead of in the cabinet with the good olive oil.

Bourbon Sugar is here, and if you try one thing off this list, make it the creme brulee.