Transcript: Citrus Sugar (Alberta Essential)

Cocktails on the Fly
Episode “Citrus Sugar”

Alberta Straub: Hi, Flighty here I am going to show you how to make a really yummy sweetener for your cocktails it is great add to margaritas or to my Tuaca Collins, or to a Lemon Drop, to pretty much anything. It just adds a nice citrusy, bright, orangy flavor to cocktails. It is really simple to make so if you watch one of my old episodes you can learn how to make simple syrup, it is simple truly, 1 to 1 or 2 to 1 depending on however you like to do it. This is a simple little additional step which adds some bright flavor to your cocktails.
It is my Flighty citrus sugar and it is really, really good, so all you have got to do it is really simple you take five or so or any of the amount the you want to make it is just proportional to ask me to do the math OK people? I’m going to put in about five oranges, whatever type you like you want to use some tangy oranges you want to make sure they have good flavor, the more tang the better. Sometimes I throw in a couple of tangerines and a tangelo or maybe some blood oranges.
So what you’ve got to do is you toss in some rounds like this you see them, you need about 5 but we have got a lot here because we’re doing it for display but you guys understand that right? So you take your oranges and you start off and peel them, and get them all peeled, so you do three or four peels like this and then you take a couple and you slice them into rounds like that because you want some of the peel in there.
You know why? We have got some of this peeled but you want some of the peel and some of the pulp in there it adds flavor and a little bitterness when you cook it. And then we will throw in some of these, Doo, Doo, Doo, Da, Da, Da. Then once they are all peel that is going to look like this, you see that? That is a peeled orange add that you have never seen that before, right, just kidding.
So you save these, you have got the rounds and you have got some peels right here and then you go 1 to 1 sugar to water. I have got 2 cups of sugar here and then I’m going to add 2 cups of water, there is one and some, and that is two. OK so that is about 2 cups and then you stir, and so you wanna put this in a nice pot on the stove on very, very low and you just cook it on low for about 2 hours.
Be careful to keep watching it and make sure that it does not burn, you do not want it to get too hot, you do not want it to caramelize at all, and you just want to keep it nice and low. You just want enough of the flavors to come out and that this is clear, you don’t want to see it with the sugar in there. Obviously even if you cook it in a short amount of time it is going to get clear. But what you want is some nice citrusy flavors to merge and some of the nice bitterness in the peels to come out and then so you just cook it, it is very simple.
Then after it cools you squeeze all of the orange juice out of the citrus halves that you have and then you just add it like so, there we go. This is the finished product, this is what it is going to look like and that is the citrus sugar, really good it, great edition especially for margaritas, very, very tasty. Tuaca Collins it is good try it, cheers.
Flighty Citrus Sugar:
1. Add peel from three oranges, tangelos, or tangerines
2. Juice the citrus and set it aside
3. 2 oranges sliced
4. 2 cups of sugar
5. 2 cups of water
6. Simmer very low for 2 hours
7. Chill and add juice
8. Perfect for sweetening citrusy cocktails
9. Very delicious