Labor Day Cookout? Try Peru's Yacon Syrup Instead of Sugar

September 4, 2026

Labor Day weekend is the unofficial last call for backyard cookouts in the U.S., and if you're the one stocking the cooler, it's worth knowing there's a Peruvian pantry staple that can quietly replace the sugar in half of what you're making. Yacon syrup comes from the yacon root, a tuber that's been grown in the Andes for centuries, and it's thick, dark, and tastes like something between molasses and caramel. We wrote a longer honest look at what it is, and how it stacks up against stevia and monk fruit, before. This time we want to talk about what to actually do with it before Monday.

Yacon has been cultivated in the Andes for roughly as long as potatoes have, prized as much for the sweet, crunchy root you can eat raw as for what can be pulled out of it. Andean farmers traditionally left harvested yacon roots out in the sun for a few days before eating them, since the starches convert to natural sugars and the root gets noticeably sweeter as it dries a little. The syrup is just a more concentrated, shelf-stable version of that same natural sweetness, boiled down the way maple sap gets boiled into syrup.

What actually makes it different from sugar

Yacon syrup is unusually high in fructooligosaccharides, or FOS, a type of fiber your body can't fully digest the way it digests table sugar. That's why yacon syrup runs lower in usable calories than an equivalent amount of honey or maple syrup, roughly a third to a half less by some manufacturer estimates, though independent lab data on the exact number is limited. It still tastes sweet, and it still browns and caramelizes reasonably well on the grill, which is more than you can say for a lot of sugar substitutes.

1. Swap it into your BBQ sauce

Most bottled and homemade barbecue sauces lean on brown sugar or molasses for that sticky-sweet backbone. Yacon syrup does the same job, and its slightly bitter, caramel-like edge stands in nicely for molasses if you're making a Kansas City-style sauce. Start with a 1:1 swap and taste as you go, since yacon syrup's sweetness is a touch milder than white sugar.

2. Use it in a marinade instead of honey

Honey-soy marinades are everywhere on Labor Day grills. Yacon syrup works as a near drop-in replacement, and because it thins out more than honey once it warms up, it actually coats meat and vegetables a little more evenly on the grill.

3. Stir it into pitcher lemonade or iced tea

This is probably the easiest way to use it. A tablespoon or two stirred into a pitcher of lemonade, or into one of our loose-leaf iced teas, dissolves fast and adds a rounder, less sharp sweetness than plain sugar. It's a small swap, but it's the kind that's easy to keep doing after the holiday weekend ends.

4. Drizzle it over grilled fruit for dessert

Grilled peaches, pineapple, or bananas with a drizzle of yacon syrup and a pinch of cinnamon make a genuinely easy end-of-summer dessert, and the syrup holds up better on the grill than a maple drizzle, which tends to burn faster over high heat.

5. Fold it into a potato or pasta salad dressing

A small spoonful in a vinaigrette-style dressing balances out vinegar's sharpness the same way a pinch of sugar would, without leaving the slightly grainy texture plain sugar sometimes leaves in a cold dressing.

An honest note on the health claims

Yacon syrup gets marketed hard as a blood-sugar-friendly sweetener, and there's some real research behind that, mostly small human studies linking yacon syrup to modest improvements in fasting glucose and reduced constipation, thanks to the FOS content acting like a prebiotic fiber. That's genuinely interesting, but it's not the same as saying yacon syrup is calorie-free or that you can use it without limit if you're managing diabetes. FOS in large amounts can also cause bloating or loose stools in some people, so if you're new to it, start with a tablespoon or two rather than swapping out a full cup of sugar in a recipe on your first try.

If you want the deeper comparison against other natural sweeteners, we covered that in an earlier side-by-side, and the full backstory on the syrup itself is in our honest look at yacon syrup. You can find the syrup itself, along with our other Andean powders and liquids, in the General Wellness collection.