A natural sweetener made from a filtered, evaporated mash of ground corn and sprouted barley. Found in health-food stores, malt syrup has an earthy, full-bodied flavor and is 75 to 80 percent as sweet as honey. Plain malt syrup is sweeter than the hop-flavored style, which has a bitter edge. Malt syrup may be substituted for other syrupy sweeteners. It's also referred to as malt extract.