Orange Jasmine Cold Brew with Rock Sugar Syrup | A Four-Layer Iced Drink

Layered iced drinks usually look better than they taste. The layers hold for the photograph, then the first stir turns them into something muddy. This one is built to survive the stir. Orange at the bottom, jasmine green tea above it, overnight cold brew through the middle, a cream cap on top.

The cream cap is where the sugar goes. Rock sugar syrup is whipped into the cream, sweetening it without stiffening it, so the cap stays loose enough to pour and heavy enough to float.

The sugar

Rock sugar syrup, 冰糖漿, is traditional Chinese rock sugar slow-cooked into a clear amber syrup. Whipping cream with granulated sugar thickens it faster and can push it past the soft, pourable stage you want for a cap. Because the syrup is already liquid, it sweetens the cream on contact and keeps it loose. The flavour is rounder than refined sugar, a clean caramel note that sits under the cream rather than on top of it.

Made with Ship Brand Rock Sugar Syrup 冰糖漿 380g. Clean, round sweetness from traditional Chinese rock sugar. Shop it here.

Recipe

Serves: 1 tall glass Prep: 10 minutes, plus overnight cold brewing Cook: none Total: overnight, plus 10 minutes

Ingredients

Cold brew

• 30g ground coffee
• 300g ice water

To build

• Loose jasmine green tea, brewed and cooled
• Fresh orange juice
• Ice cubes
• 1 dried orange wheel, to finish

Cream cap

• 60g cold whipping cream
• 10g Ship Brand Rock Sugar Syrup 冰糖漿

Directions

1. The night before, combine the 30g ground coffee with 300g ice water and refrigerate overnight.
2. Filter the cold brew slowly. Forcing it through pulls bitterness with it.
3. Brew the jasmine green tea and leave it to cool completely, or the ice will melt and thin the layers.
4. Fill a tall glass to the top with ice.
5. Pour fresh orange juice in until the glass is half full. It is the heaviest liquid and stays at the bottom.
6. Pour the cooled jasmine tea in slowly until the glass is eighty percent full, then stir gently to let the orange and tea meet.
7. Pour the cold brew slowly over the back of a bar spoon so it threads down and forms a gradient layer.
8. Whip the 60g cold cream with the 10g rock sugar syrup until it pours thickly. Spoon it over the top and finish with the dried orange wheel.

Notes

• All the sweetening in this drink is in the cream cap. The orange juice carries the lower layers, so taste it before you build and add more orange if you want it sweeter.
• Only the cold brew and the cream are weighed. The orange and tea are poured to fill, exactly as shown in the video.

To finish

Bring it to the table layered, then stir it once from the bottom before drinking. The orange, jasmine, coffee and cream are meant to meet. Rock sugar syrup is the sugar to reach for whenever you whip cream, since it sweetens without firming, from a coffee cap to a dessert topping.

Ship Brand (帆船牌) is the retail line of Yuen Tung Sugar Factory Industrial Company Limited. Sugar refined in Hong Kong since 1987. Shop the collection.