Naturopathic Control: Cheong syrup

Unlike many of the other types of ferments I have featured (like sauerkraut and other types of fermented vegetables), cheong is a no-cook Korean fermented sweet syrup. Cheong uses a dry fermentation method, meaning that water is not added. Rather, as it dissolves, the sugar extracts the moisture from fresh fruits, thereby making a fruity syrup. The most common types of cheong are based on the tart flavor of berries. However, other popular surprises include the pungent flavor of onions.

Image above illustrates a ginger cheong, from start to an advanced stage.

Use(s) of cheong syrup

Sweetener for cereals, granola, yogurt, etc. Essentially, cheong can be used as a honey or sugar substitute.
Flavor to water and ice to make a drink
Medicinal additive in tea (as in the case of onion cheong)
I plan to combine it with ginger bug to make a kvass (aka a fermented soda / sweet drink)
Spent solids (of berries or other vegetable source) as garnishes for cocktail drinks

You will need the following to make cheong syrup:

Scrub materials for preparing the fruit

baking soda, non-chlorinated water, absorbent towel

Equal parts of sugar and flavor source

Fruit or other organic material, ideally juicy and fresh. Tart juicy fruits are generally most popular choices. Dry or dehydrated fruit are unsuitable. Leaves alone are unsuitable. However, you can use dry ingredients IF accompanied by something else that allows its moisture to extract the leaves' properties. Example(s)

Berries: strawberries, blue berries, etc
Finely sliced citrus fruits. Keep the skins for a candied orange flavor.
Basil leaves chopped up with mashed tomatoes
apples
pomegranate.

sugar, white cane sugar is typically used

glass fermentation jar -- OR -- firm plastic bag that you can vacuum seal (BTW, vacuum sealing cheong has been reported to accelerate the dissolution of the sugar.)
kitchen scale
Fermentation weight
strainer

Steps for making cheong syrup

Remove seeds from fruits. Wash and scrub the fruits and or skins in a way that maintains the good bacteria as much as possible. After dashing some baking soda over these pieces of ginger, I added only enough water that would help me to scrub the skin without dissolving the baking soda.
Completely dry the fruit. This is important to prevent molding.
Ensure the sugar will be able to easily reach and extract the natural juices. This often means rupturing fruit skins and or massaging the sugar into rougher material. Example(s)

Cut citrus fruits thinly. (remember to remove the ends that can be embittering to the syrup, like seeds)
mash berries
Cut onions into julien slices
green sour plums

Using equal parts by weight of fruit and sugar, pack jars to maximize fermentation and to prevent mold. The goal here is to ensure that the sugar always submerges the fruit, thereby creating a barrier from air. To this end, either;

create alternate layers of the two into the jar, ensuring that the top layer is a thick layer of sugar -- OR --
massage the fruit with 3/4 of the sugar used in the recipe. Place that mixture into the jar and then, using the remaining sugar, create a top layer to cover this mixture.

Leave to stand at room temperature. Climate allowing, do this for up to 3 months. Move to refrigeration if the fermentation occurs too quickly for your liking. After 6 hours in a tropical Summer day, the pictured ginger cheong became liquified.
To avoid mold; compress the fruit down at the bottom of the jar so that it remains submerged below the level of the syrup. To this end, one method may be to use a fermentation weight; mix the fruit into the developing syrup from time to time and or; put the container into the refrigerator (especially if bubbles appear, a sign of fermentation)
Observe the progress. If you see mold, toss the batch.