Flavored sugar made with fresh herbs adds a natural burst of aroma, color, and taste to your favorite treats any time of year. Whether you grow herbs in your garden or pick up fresh sprigs from the market, these simple blends bring a touch of freshness to homemade cakes, teas, and gifts. Creating flavored sugars is easy; just combine herbs and quality sugar in a blender or jar, and you’ll have a colorful, aromatic sweetener that keeps beautifully for months.
Herbal flavored sugar is super fun to make and perfect for whipping up real-food cakes and confections. All that’s required is a blender or a sharp knife and quality sugar. We usually splurge and use an organic cane sugar so that the color of the herbs comes through.
Flavored sugar will keep for at least a year. The colors of the herbs stay as vibrant as they were the day they were harvested, which is amazing. Sugar is an incredible preservative!
Step 1: Choose Your Herbs for Flavored Sugar
Whenever you have access to fresh herbs—whether from your garden, a market bunch, or a windowsill pot—try making some herbal goodies. Gather a few fresh herbs for your flavored sugar. Mint leaves, lavender buds, rugosa rose petals, hibiscus blooms, basil, and calendula all work beautifully. All are lovely, so let your taste buds be your guide.
Step 2: Prepare Fresh Herbs for Sugar
Clean and section your herbs. If you’ve picked a flower, like lavender, then pull off the flower head or petals to use and compost the stems. If you’ve chosen a leaf herb, like mint, remove the leaf from the stem for use.
Step 3: Blend Herbs with Sugar
Place one part herb and one part sugar in your blender. A 1:1 ratio works well for most herbs, but for stronger flavors such as lavender, reduce the herb amount by half. Experiment with the proportions until you find a flavored sugar that suits your taste.
Blend the herbs and sugar on low until mixed thoroughly. The sugar should slightly turn the color of the herb, and you should still see particles of the herb. You don’t want a fine powder—just a colorful mixture. The color will be more pronounced with herbs like rugosa rose and calendula. With leafy herbs, like mint, there’s a subtle color change, but the more you add, the darker it will be.
Put each flavored sugar into its own bowl and stir it around a bit more to make sure it’s well-blended.
If you’re using a knife only, cut each herb into small particles and mix them into the sugar vigorously. A handheld mixer would be useful if you have one.
Step 4: Use or Store Your Flavored Sugar
You can use the flavored sugar right away. Sprinkle it over baked goods, stir it into tea, or package it for a homemade gift.
Step 5: Infuse Sugar in a Jar for a Gentle Flavor
Another way to make flavored sugar is to fill a pint jar with sugar, then add de-stemmed or lightly chopped herbs. Let the mixture infuse for several days to weeks in a cool, dark place. This method is best suited to sugars for tea and other hot beverages. It won’t adopt any of the herb’s color, but it will be infused with its essential oils for a nice aroma.
Experiment with Flavored Sugar Year-Round
Whatever method you try, keep a few favorite herbs on hand and experiment with new combinations year-round. Fresh sprigs are easy to find in most groceries, so you can enjoy bright, aromatic flavored sugars even in winter. Share your favorite mixes with friends or gift a jar for an easy homemade treat.
This article about making flavored sugar with herbs was written for Hobby Farms magazine. Click here to subscribe.
