GOLDEN SYRUP
and
CORN SYRUP

Many authors of cookbooks include a list of equivalents.   But nuances of meaning are often lost.   Nowhere is this more true than when they suggest that the equivalent to the British golden syrup is the North American corn syrup.
      The British have two common varieties of cane syrup.   Golden syrup got its name because of its colour.   It is fairly heavily refined, with most of the impurities taken out.  In North America, cane syrup is called “molasses”.   But the molasses most readily available in North America is dark brown.   It has been refined only slightly, and tastes very different from golden syrup.
      What does this mean to a cook?   Equivalent lists usually suggest that golden syrup is the same as corn syrup.   Certainly, they are fairly similar in colour.

But they have very different flavours—as different as syrup and honey.

Corn syrup is fairly bland.   Because of its chemical composition, it doesn't even taste all that sweet.

Golden syrup is intensely sweet.
It tastes like liquid sunshine.

There is no culinary substitute for golden syrup.  To get the right flavour, you will have to buy the real thing—either at a supermarket or a specialty shop.

In Britain they sell two types of cane syrup, which are very different.   Both can be called “treacle”; and recipes that refer to “treacle” without specifying which may actually be referring to golden syrup.   (Treacle tart, for example, is a sort of syrup pie.)   So it is important not to get golden syrup confused with black treacle, which is unrefined cane syrup.