John Taylerson asked:


So many types of coffee and cup sizes are available to customers that tastes are getting more and more exotic. With an estimated 77 million cups of coffee being drunk each day in Britain, UK syrup manufacturers have to stay ahead of the trends.

Seasonality: Increasingly, consumers want to buy food and beverages which reflect their mood and well-being. As we know, this changes with the season. Cafes and coffee shops are responding to this with diverse menus that alter every few months. So we have comfort flavours like chocolate, cinnamon, and nutmeg in winter; cherry in spring; the light fruit frappes and berry flavours in summer; and cookies and vanilla in the autumn. These delicious flavours can be used to revamp menus of hot and cold coffees, smoothies, teas and dessert sauces.

The natural world: The trend towards purer and more natural ingredients continues apace. The coffee syrup world has responded, producing syrups made from the finest natural ingredients. UK customers can buy direct from UK producers in the knowledge that ingredients are of the best quality and have been ethically sourced. 

Health matters: With the media full of talk of the dangers of over indulgence (not least the increase in diabetes in the West), consumers are wary of what they eat and drink. However, consumption of coffee syrups is holding steady. Why? Well coffee syrups are nearly all fat free. In addition, new ranges of sugar-free syrups are available in nearly every flavour. So, no compromise on flavour or diet.

The workplace: As they get used to café-style coffee outside the workplace, so workers are increasingly rejecting a cup of weak coffee, straight from the jar. Workplaces are responding, offering espresso and cappuccino machines and flavoured coffee. Syrups next to the coffee machine are making a welcome appearance allowing staff to control how much flavour they need to get through the rest of the day.

Unusual flavours: Maybe it’s due to the worldwide recession but ‘dessert themed’ mixes are much in evidence this year. Flavours reflecting comfort food with fruit notes are appearing on menus everywhere.

Over in the United States, baristas are noting an increase in flavours reflecting Latin American tastes. Here, chilli is the hottest individual coffee flavour this year. It’s a perfect complement to bitter coffee, but users need to get the balance right, making sure to mix it with other subtle flavours to avoid a truly scorching experience. 

It is highly likely that yet more new and novel syrup flavours will soon be on the shelves alongside the old classics. With so much diversity on offer, the shift from tea to coffee looks set to continue.

John Taylerson asked:


So many types of coffee and cup sizes are available to customers that tastes are getting more and more exotic. With an estimated 77 million cups of coffee being drunk each day in Britain, UK syrup manufacturers have to stay ahead of the trends.

Seasonality: Increasingly, consumers want to buy food and beverages which reflect their mood and well-being. As we know, this changes with the season. Cafes and coffee shops are responding to this with diverse menus that alter every few months. So we have comfort flavours like chocolate, cinnamon, and nutmeg in winter; cherry in spring; the light fruit frappes and berry flavours in summer; and cookies and vanilla in the autumn. These delicious flavours can be used to revamp menus of hot and cold coffees, smoothies, teas and dessert sauces.

The natural world: The trend towards purer and more natural ingredients continues apace. The coffee syrup world has responded, producing syrups made from the finest natural ingredients. UK customers can buy direct from UK producers in the knowledge that ingredients are of the best quality and have been ethically sourced. 

Health matters: With the media full of talk of the dangers of over indulgence (not least the increase in diabetes in the West), consumers are wary of what they eat and drink. However, consumption of coffee syrups is holding steady. Why? Well coffee syrups are nearly all fat free. In addition, new ranges of sugar-free syrups are available in nearly every flavour. So, no compromise on flavour or diet.

The workplace: As they get used to café-style coffee outside the workplace, so workers are increasingly rejecting a cup of weak coffee, straight from the jar. Workplaces are responding, offering espresso and cappuccino machines and flavoured coffee. Syrups next to the coffee machine are making a welcome appearance allowing staff to control how much flavour they need to get through the rest of the day.

Unusual flavours: Maybe it’s due to the worldwide recession but ‘dessert themed’ mixes are much in evidence this year. Flavours reflecting comfort food with fruit notes are appearing on menus everywhere.

Over in the United States, baristas are noting an increase in flavours reflecting Latin American tastes. Here, chilli is the hottest individual coffee flavour this year. It’s a perfect complement to bitter coffee, but users need to get the balance right, making sure to mix it with other subtle flavours to avoid a truly scorching experience. 

It is highly likely that yet more new and novel syrup flavours will soon be on the shelves alongside the old classics. With so much diversity on offer, the shift from tea to coffee looks set to continue.

Jennifer Bailey asked:


Many natural foods have some form of sugar in them, almost all plant-based foods have at least a little sugar, and fruits, of course, have quite a bit. While it may be virtually impossible completely eliminate sugar from your diet there are many ways to marginalize your sugar intake and significantly reduce the amount of sugar you use when cooking.

However, it is definitely possible, and tasty, to eliminate added sugar. This is very much a health advantage, because reducing your overall sugar intake is not only an excellent way of markedly reducing your risk of diabetes, stabilizing your blood sugar, and managing your weight. It is also a good way of reducing the amount of processed food you eat.

Many processed foods contain added sugar, simply because adding sugar makes food taste sweeter and more palatable. However, many so-called diet foods have added sugar to mask the fact that eliminating fat from food reduces its appeal. Many “diet” foods have reduced fat, but are high in sugar and that is definitely not healthy.

Health Benefits of Sugar-Free Cooking

Cooking sugar-free has a number of health benefits, all of which are excellent reasons to start cutting the added sugar out of your life. If you reduce your sugar consumption, and in particular cut out foods with added sugar, you can look forward to some of the following health improvements:

• Stabilization of blood sugar levels

When you routinely eat lots of added sugar (particularly as part of a low-fiber diet that includes lots of processed food), your blood sugar levels are constantly up and down, peaking right after you eat, and then quickly dipping to low levels as insulin floods your system to prompt your body to store the excess sugar. This is why you typically feel hungry soon after eating a high-sugar meal, insulin has cleared the sugar from your system, leaving your blood sugar levels very low.

The problem is, over time this constant peaking and dipping of blood sugar levels leads to insulin resistance and eventually, the development of diabetes. Eliminating excess sugar helps stabilize blood sugar levels, reduce insulin resistance, and prevent or delay the onset of this chronic disease.

• Weight management benefits

With excess sugar gone from your diet, improved blood sugar control can help stabilize your weight, too. Insulin helps your body store blood sugar as fat, and when you eat a high-sugar meal, the excess sugar is converted into fat quickly, due to the spike in insulin levels. In addition, those constant blood sugar highs and lows actually mean you end up eating more overall, because low blood sugar promotes binging. This means eliminating added sugar can actually help you reduce your weight (but remember that added sugar is not the only factor contributing to being overweight, so it is important to examine other factors of your diet too, such as lack of exercise, etc.).

• Nutrition benefits

If you eliminate from your diet the foods that contain added sugar, it is likely that you are eliminating processed foods that do not contain much in the way of essential nutrients. Replace those foods with high-fiber fruits and vegetables, and healthy complex carbohydrates, and you will find that you not only improve your health by eliminating sugar, but also because your diet now includes lots of tasty, nutritious natural foods.

• Oral health

Oral health is a benefit of a sugar-free diet that is often overlooked. A diet high in sugar promotes tooth decay by providing oral bacteria with plenty of the food they need to grow on teeth and gums. Tooth decay, gum disease, and cavities are problems that can arise very quickly on a sugar-rich diet, even with regular tooth-brushing. Eliminate the added sugar, keep up with a good oral care regime, and you will definitely benefit.

How to Cook Delicious Sugar-Free Food

Successfully cooking sugar-free, especially baking, simply was not possible two or three decades ago, but with the advent of products such as Splenda, it can be a breeze. The following are some quick tips for cooking with artificial sweeteners.

• Don’t fully replace sugar with artificial sweetener in recipes that use a large amount of sugar. In these recipes, using 100% artificial sweetener can be problematic, as the sugar is not only providing sweetness; it’s also helping improve the texture of the food. In recipes such as fudge and angel food cake, for example, replace no more than half the sugar with artificial sweetener.

• If you’re adding yeast, you need to add sugar. The yeast will not activate unless you add sugar, so yeast breads will not work unless you add some sugar. A good way of achieving this is to activate the yeast with sugar before adding it to the recipe. Up to half the remaining sugar in the recipe can be replaced with artificial sweetener.

• Using artificial sweetener can affect baking times, so check your baked goods at least fifteen minutes early, and check cookies about five minutes early.