Why Does My Honeycomb Taste Bitter?

What it means

• Sugar cooked past a deep amber toward dark brown develops burnt, acrid, bitter notes.
• Excess baking soda, or unsifted lumps of it, tastes soapy and metallic because it is alkaline.
• A faint bitterness balancing the sweetness is normal caramel character; a harsh bitter taste signals one of these errors.

Action steps

1. Pull the syrup off the heat at deep golden amber, before it darkens toward brown.
2. Measure baking soda precisely — usually 1 to 2 teaspoons per cup of sugar — and sift it so it dissolves evenly.
3. Use a heavy-bottomed pan and moderate heat to avoid scorching hot spots.
4. If a batch is clearly burnt, discard it; scorched sugar cannot be fixed.

Risks & deadlines

• Molten sugar burns severely — never taste the hot syrup to check it.