Thanks to my new coffee machine. I’ve almost got the perfect barrista coffee at home but one thing is missing for me. A plain latte will never come close to its flavoured equivalent, I need vanilla syrup.
Flavoured coffee syrups have been around for a long time but the demand for them has grown massively over the past few years. It’s an easy way to personalise your drink and a relatively new tradition for coffee shop goers.
Today’s little achievement was to make a bottle of my own rather than paying extortionate amounts for a bottle elsewhere (sorry Starbuck’s). This recipe yields enough for around 50 vanilla lattes and costs about 45 pence to make ( less than a penny per serving).
Starbuck’s vanilla syrup also has a pretty shocking ingredients list for something so simple: sugar syrup, water, flavouring, E150d, E202, E330. What’s with all the E numbers?! They’re totally not needed. My recipe is super simple:
250ml water 250g sugar 2 Tbsp natural vanilla extractSome of you might be wondering why I’m choosing to cook with extract, well there are two reasons. Firstly, vanilla beans are expensive, and second, they’re fiddly. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with having a bottle of extract in your cupboard; it’s just natural vanilla stored in alcohol. Essence or flavouring however, are a totally different story and you should try to steer clear. These tend to have lots of nasties and preservatives in so make sure you check the labels when you’re buying.
Ready for a two line recipe?
Heat the water and sugar in a sauce pan on a medium heat, whisking until all the sugar has dissolved and the liquid is clear. Take off the heat and stir in the vanilla extract. Pour in to sterilised jars and seal.
I’ll be honest, I didn’t seal mine, it was in a coffee straight away.
It tastes so good that you’ll want to put it in everything. Drizzle over pancakes, waffles or ice cream. Pour over soda water for your own homemade cream soda. Make a vanilla milkshake. Add to greek yoghurt and fruit. Use to glaze a cake. Create a vanilla vodka and lemonade.
You can take this recipe and make any flavour syrup you like. Amazon are pretty handy for unusual essences or try your local health food shop. For a real Wimbledon treat, swap the vanilla for strawberry essence and top your latte with whipped cream. This would be a delicious way to transform a plain cheese cake too, just drizzle over the top.
If you fancy barrista level coffee at home, make sure you head over to the Lavazza-Wimbledon website and enter their competition to win a machine like mine. You can follow them on twitter and facebook too for coffee making tips.
Let me know if you give the syrup a go. Which flavour will be your #newtradition?
Other posts in this series:
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Holly says
Fab idea, absolutely trying this. Even buying Monin syrups by the bottle is incredibly expensive.
Vicki Higham says
Awesome, thanks for leaving the comment Holly 🙂 I hope you enjoy using it!
Sandra says
I am definitely trying this tomorrow.
Vicki Higham says
I hope you enjoy it. I can see my flying through this batch!
Lyndsay says
Wow! I am so jealous you can make these at home! I spend a fortune on coffee’s I really must invest in something like this. This syrup looks lovely, bit of a shocker Starbucks is so full of E numbers etc. Will remember that next time for sure!
Thanks for sharing this with us
Lyndsay xx
Lemonade Budget says
I’ve been meaning to try making my own syrups for ages, this post was so helpful. My husband is the big coffee drinker and he’s just discovered a vanilla coffe (Carte Noir I think), I reckon this is going to be way cheaper in the long run. Thanks x
sophielola says
i tried making this once before – it ended awfully! thank you for encouraging me to try again 🙂 x
Kevin says
Love the blog Vicki. Great post and pics. Just goes to show how easy it is to make some great tasting coffee syrups!
Vicki Higham says
Thank you Kevin! I fly through this syrup
Colleen says
hello
This is similar to a recipe we tried. We made 4 – 750 ml bottles.
I had cleaned the bottles well, they are the tall syrup type bottles you get syrup in, glass.
We used one bottle right away. We used vanilla beans and left half of the bean in each bottle. When we got to the second bottle there was “something” in it. At first it looked like mold on the top, did not smell like mildew. Then it looked like crystilized sugar. We got it out of the bottle and it looked the a “mass” kind of gel like, about the size of a pencil eraser, maybe a little larger. Do you think this was from leaving the vanilla bean in?
We got it out, re heated and when we reheated the vanilla bean and any little parts went to the middle of the pot and we scooped them out. I was just wondering if you had any ideas and how did you sterilize your bottles and if you make large batches how do you “seal” a bottle? Some of the botttles we use are the kind with the ceramic top that has a rubber seal and they have a hing type setup…so I need to try to lay the bottles down in a roaster pan and boil them? Do you think the type of cap I am referring to would work ok?
thank you in advance
Colleen
Terri kikke says
Just made this, it smells delicious but very watery, should it be thick?
Vicki says
The syrup should thicken a little as it cools down. Thicker shop bought syrups are a just a little bit more concentrated. You can achieve that extra thickness by heating it a little longer so some more water evaporates.
Norma says
Is it 2 tablespoons of vanilla extract and not 2 teaspoons. Compared to other recipes it seems a lot. It looks so simple to do, I can’t wait to try it.