What happens if you cook coconut water

like maple syrup? Not much. Unless you

cheat and then the magic happens. When

you cook maple sap, you get the mayard

reaction which is responsible for that

deep toasty marshmallow flavor. It

happens when sugar and amino acids meet

heat. The thing is coconut water has

almost no amino acid. But when there's a

will, there's a way. And the way is

called lysine. a basic amino acid you

can safely eat, often used as a

supplement. So, here's how you can make

a Mayard coconut syrup. Before we jump

into the recipe though, let's answer a

couple of questions I received when I

share the real on Instagram. In order to

develop the Mayard reaction, we need to

bring the temperature of our syrup to

about 115 120 Celsius. This kind of

temperature is only achievable when the

sugar concentration of our syrup is

quite high. The thing is, coconut water

like maple sap has a very low sugar

concentration. But unlike maple sap, the

flavor profile of coconut water mainly

comes from volatile compounds. So if you

cook it for long enough to concentrate

the sugar enough to develop the mayag

reaction, you will lose most of the

coconut flavor, if not all of it. So we

need to find a way to reach that

temperature quite fast. And the best way

is simply to add some sugar to the

coconut water, which will reduce

considerably the cooking time. Also,

lysine is super reactive to the Mayard

reaction, which is good for our recipe,

but it also means we can push the

reaction too far if we cook it for too

long. And pushing the Mayard reaction

too far means a very off-putting flavor.

I've tried it for the sake of science.

So, I started my reduction with coconut

water and lysine alone. And the result

was tasting like a very weird sweet and

funky soy sauce, but not in a good way.

So, believe me when I'm telling you that

this is not a path to follow. With that

out of the way, now let's make the

Mayard coconut syrup. To make the syrup,

I highly recommend you use a thermometer

and a refractometer, which will give you

more precision and also more liberty in

case you want to experiment with a

lighter or stronger mayard reaction. You

can get away without those two pieces of

equipment, but I can guarantee

precision. That being said, if that's

the route you want to take, I highly

recommend you refer to the show notes

for a couple of tips. Now, like I said,

coconut water has a very low sugar

content. Usually between five to six

bricks, which means between 5 to 6% of

sugar by weight. So, we need to bring

this up to speed up the cooking process.

So, in a saucepan, start by adding 500

mls of coconut water, 400 g of sugar,

and just 75 g of lysine. Then, you're

going to cook this, stirring constantly,

until your syrup reaches 115 C. For

stronger mayard, you can hold it until

it reaches 120 C, but it will get very

thick. So, add a splash of hot coconut

water to loosen it up without reducing

too much of the sugar concentration.

When done, remove from heat and add 150

mls of hot coconut water while stirring.

Wait until it cools down to room

temperature. And using your

refratometer, dilute it with coconut

water to reach 50 bricks. For those of

you who don't have it, it's going to be

about 250 mls. And this is how you make

a mayard coconut syrup packed with that

delicious tropical coconut goodness, but

also [music] that deep, rich, toasty

marshmallow flavor we all love. So my

friends, this is it for me today. Thank

you very much for watching. I hope you

like this video. Leave a thumbs up if

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Bye.