Demerara
A dark, molasses-rich raw cane sugar from Guyana’s Demerara River region—and the rum tradition that grew up around it. In the exotic-cocktail vocabulary, *demerara* usually means one of three things: the sugar, a rich simple syrup made from it, or a Guyanese pot-still rum.
The Demerara region of Guyana, on South America’s northern coast, has produced raw cane sugar and rum continuously since the seventeenth century. The sugar is partially refined, retaining significant molasses content; it tastes deeper, richer, and more burnt-toffee than refined white sugar. The rum is made primarily in wooden pot stills—some of them still in use date to the eighteenth century—and carries the same dark, deeply caramelized character.
In exotic-cocktail recipes, demerara usually refers to one of three things:
- Demerara sugar The raw sugar, used to make demerara syrup or sometimes muddled directly into a build. Sugar in the Raw is a widely available U.S. brand approximating Demerara.
- Demerara syrup A rich simple syrup made by dissolving demerara sugar in water at a 2:1 sugar-to-water ratio rather than the 1:1 of standard simple syrup. The result is thicker, sweeter per volume, and far more flavor-forward. Most serious exotic-cocktail recipes that specify rich simple or demerara syrup mean this. See rich simple syrup.
- Demerara rum Pot-still Guyanese rum, traditionally aged in oak. El Dorado (12-year is the workhorse, 15-year is the upgrade) and Lemon Hart (the 151 in particular—see 151-proof) are the canonical brands. The Pernod-and-151-demerara combination is one of Donn Beach’s signature build patterns and shows up in the Zombie, Navy Grog, and dozens of other classics.
When a recipe says demerara without specifying, default to the syrup. When in doubt, look at the build—if it’s listed in the ingredient list with a fluid measurement, it’s syrup; if it’s a base spirit, it’s rum.