One of the big differences between the sweetened coffee drinks that you get at coffee shops and the somewhat underwhelming versions that you make at home is that the coffee shops use syrup in their drinks.
Here are three syrup recipes you can make at home to recreate that coffee shop flavor for the fraction of the price.
1. Simple Syrup
Ingredients
This will make about enough syrup to sweeten ten coffee drinks.
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0.5 cups of water
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3.5 oz of granulated sugar
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1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
How to Make it
Step 1: Put all ingredients together in a saucepan
2. Caramel Syrup
Ingredients
This will make enough for five caramel frappuccinos.
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7 oz of white sugar
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1.2 cups of water
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Pinch of salt
How to Make It
Step 1: Put the sugar in a cold saucepan and heat it up on as low a heat as possible. It should take at least a few minutes for the sugar to just start changing color.
Step 2: When you start to see the sugar change from white to golden brown, start stirring it. Stir it until the sugar is golden brown all over. You want this color to be as even as possible.
Step 3: When the sugar is golden brown add your water. Stir until all the sugar is dissolved in the water.
Step 4: Once the sugar has dissolved, turn the heat up until the syrup is gently bubbling (one or two bubbles at a time) and stir until it has reduced by about 20%. Add the salt while stirring.
Step 5: Let cool and decant into a jar. Store at room temperature.
3. Pumpkin Spice Syrup
This one is a bit more complicated, but is essential for a proper pumpkin spice latte. I’d recommend using it with our pumpkin spice coffee.
If you try to make a pumpkin spice latte without making the syrup then the raw spice flavor will overpower everything else in the drink.
Ingredients
This will make enough for about five pumpkin spice lattes.
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2.4 cups of water
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12 oz of sugar
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A quarter of a small pumpkin (you want around 2.6 oz of pumpkin flesh)
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1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
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2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon (or 6 cinnamon sticks)
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2 teaspoons of ground ginger
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½ teaspoon of ground clove
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½ teaspoon of ground nutmeg
You will also need a piece of cheesecloth to strain the syrup.
How to Make It
Step 1: Roast your pumpkin in the oven skin side down on 350℉ for around half an hour. It should be very soft at this point.
Remove the pumpkin flesh from its skin and blend it in a food processor. If you do not have a food processor then you can mash it with a fork.
Step 2: Put the water and the granulated sugar in a saucepan and simmer it on the lowest heat for about five minutes.
You know it’s done when all the sugar has dissolved and the syrup is noticeably thicker than water but still very runny.
Step 3: Put the pureed pumpkin, spices and vanilla extract in the syrup, simmer for another ten minutes while stirring every now and then. The syrup will be quite thick, bright orange and very gritty at this point.
Step 4: Let the syrup cool to the point where you will not burn yourself if it spills on you and then pour it through your cheesecloth into a bowl.
Only about a quarter of the thick, gritty syrup will not pass through the cheesecloth, leaving you with a thin, glossy and beautifully orange-brown syrup at the end.
