No, Not Every Bottle Of Agave Syrup Is The Same

If you've ever gotten into making cocktails, you've probably heard of agave syrup. It's a sweetener produced exclusively in Mexico from agave plants, and the blue agave plant is famously used to make tequila. However, agave syrup is also sold as a regular sweetener, perfect for cocktails and cold drinks since it mixes in much better than granulated sugar. If you're picking up agave for your recipes, though, you should know that it comes in different styles; the four main varieties are light, amber, dark, and raw.

Light agave, as its name would imply, has a light taste that sweetens dishes without adding too much flavor. For this reason, it's the syrup you'll most commonly see added to drinks or desserts like cookies, which often just need to be sweetened without masking the present flavors. Dark agave has strong notes of caramel, which makes it a rich and delicious addition to meats or even as a caramel-flavored topping for sweet pastries like waffles.

Amber agave is kind of a middle ground between light and dark agave, offering caramel notes but without the strong flavor of dark agave. It's used as a sauce even more frequently than dark agave, and could even be used as a beverage syrup if you wanted to add notes of caramel to, say, an iced coffee.

Traditional light, amber, and dark agave are all made by heating the agave plant's leaves at high temperatures so that the juice is readily flowing when the leaves are chopped and put in a centrifuge. However, this cooking process destroys some of the natural enzymes found within the plant, which aid in digestion and other bodily processes. To counter this problem, raw agave was made, which cooks the leaves at a lower temperature (under 118 degrees Fahrenheit) over a longer period of time. Like light agave, it has a fairly neutral flavor, though there are still notes of caramel. If you're someone who tries to eat foods with minimal processing, raw agave is definitely the type for you. Best of all, there isn't really a price difference between raw and light agave, with each Great Value branded syrup retailing for $5.82 for a 23.5 ounce bottle.

If you aren't worried about raw versus processed, though, the agave variety you choose is really up to you. Each is typically better suited to different things, but there's nothing saying you can't use dark agave in your coffee or amber agave in your next seafood boil sauce. It's all about the flavors you like, so just keep each one's tasting notes in mind while shopping. Do note, however, that if you're swapping sugar for agave syrup, you might need to adjust your ratios and cooking temperatures.