I’ll be honest, the first time I made my own vanilla simple syrup, it was because I couldn’t get out of my house to get a coffee. I was desperate for an iced vanilla latte and looked up recipes for an easy recipe I could make at home. My mind was blown when I saw it was just three ingredients and I could even use vanilla extract instead of vanilla beans.
Since then, I’ve recreated almost all of my favorite simple syrups that I order in coffeeshop drinks, including: vanilla, cinnamon, brown sugar, peppermint and brown sugar cinnamon. They all use under 5 ingredients are take about 10 minutes to make. The batch is enough to last me a week or two, depending on if my resident taste tester likes that syrup, too.
With these syrups, I’ve been able to recreate my Starbucks and Dutch Bros favorites, like the Starbucks Brown Sugar Shaken Espresso and the perfect Iced Vanilla Latte.
In this post, I’ve rounded up a shortened version of the recipe for all five of these syrups, but you can navigate to their individual pages for even more information and lots of questions answered. I hope you’ll try making your own simple syrups soon. You will love how easy it is, how much money you save to make your coffee at home, and the delicious, fresh taste of the syrups.
5 Best Simple Syrups for Coffee Drinks:
1. Peppermint Simple Syrup:
This is my new favorite, because it’s the holidays! The peppermint mocha and the Dutch Bros Candy Cane Cold Brew are my all-time favorite holiday drinks, so being able to make them at home is amazing. Also, I recently was at Starbucks with my son and wanted to order a peppermint mocha, but they had already run out of peppermint syrup just a couple weeks into the holiday season! Luckily, I had my batch at home, so once I got back, I was able to make myself one in minutes.
Ingredients: You only need three ingredients
- Sugar: Use the sugar you like. If the sugar has a slight flavor, it’ll come through in the simple syrup, so stick to a sugar that adds sweetness without any tinge of flavor.
- Water: Use fresh, filtered water for this.
- Peppermint Extract: The star of the show! I bought the Neilsen Massey peppermint extract, because I absolutely love their extracts and find the flavor to be excellent.
- Bottle – Have a plan for how you’d like to store your syrup. I bought a set of glass syrup bottles that I use. They are tall and narrow and fit really well in the fridge. Without the preservatives of store bought syrups, you don’t want to leave them out all the time.
Directions: How To Make It
When it comes to how much sugar, water and peppermint to use, stick with a ratio of 1:1:1, so one cup of sugar to one cup of water to 1 tsp. peppermint extract. This makes it easy to scale the recipe to have more bottles at a time, for example, if you wanted two bottles of syrup, you would use 2:2:2. If you’re using the bottles I recommend above, the 1:1:1 recipe makes about 1.5 bottles.
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- First, start by adding your ratio of sugar to water in the saucepan. If you’re only making a single batch, that is 1 cup of sugar and 1 cup of water.
- Allow this to dissolve over medium to high heat. It might start simmering or boiling and that’s okay, but you don’t want it to boil too much and start to scald. Turn down the heat if its boiling too vigorously. Stir occasionally, so the sugar doesn’t stick to the pan before it’s dissolved.
- It should only take a few minutes for the sugar to fully dissolve. Now it’s time to add the peppermint extract. You can cover and simmer or leave the cover off, but you don’t want it to boil any more. Let it simmer for a few minutes with the peppermint. I leave it for 5 minutes or so.
- Let it cool before using a funnel to put it in your bottles. Then, store it in the fridge, but feel free to use some of your syrup right away in your drink. It should stay good for a few weeks in the fridge, but ours never lasts that long, so I’m not exactly sure, lol.
Recipes with Peppermint:
Here are a couple of recipes to make with peppermint simple syrup:
I also recently shared this iced peppermint white mocha on Instagram and it was amazing. Check out the video here:
View this post on Instagram
Get more details about the peppermint simple syrup here.
2. Brown Sugar Cinnamon Simple Syrup:
Absolutely obsessed with this sweet and cinnamony syrup. The brown sugar gives the syrup more warmth and a bit of a caramelly flavor compared to plain sugar simple syrup. It plays very well with espresso shots and cold brew.
Ingredients: You only need 3-4 ingredients
- Brown Sugar – The star of this sweet syrup is light brown sugar. I used this kind of light brown sugar, which I love, and it has a slightly molasses-y flavor. It gives the syrup a rich, warm sugar taste. Y
- Cinnamon Sticks – I love cinnamon. For this, you need just two cinnamon sticks. You really don’t need to use any more of them than that if you’re only making one batch, because the time you steep determines how much cinnamon flavor you get. Plus, you can put the sticks in the bottle when you store it, which will slowly release even more cinnamon flavor over time.
- Vanilla Extract – (OPTIONAL) A little dash of vanilla extract rounds out the flavor. I used my favorite vanilla extract, but you can use whatever you have. You don’t need to add this if you don’t have it on hand and it won’t change the flavor that much.
- Water – Make sure to use filtered water here.
- Bottle – Have a plan for how you’d like to store your syrup. I bought a set of glass syrup bottles that I use. They are tall and narrow and fit really well in the fridge. Without the preservatives of store bought syrups, you don’t want to leave them out all the time.
Directions: How To Make It
- First, start by adding your ratio of brown sugar to water in the saucepan. I used one cup of brown sugar and one cup of water.
- Allow this to dissolve over medium to high heat. It might start simmering or boiling and that’s okay, but you don’t want it to boil too much and start to scald. Turn down the heat if its boiling too vigorously. Stir occasionally, so the sugar doesn’t stick to the pan before it’s dissolved. It should only take a few minutes for the sugar to fully dissolve.
- Now it’s time to add the cinnamon sticks. You can cover and simmer or leave the cover off, but you don’t want it to boil any more. Turn down the heat if it is boiling, because it’ll reduce the syrup too much and be too thick. You only want it to lightly thicken. If it’s already starting to thicken, you can turn the heat down to low. Let it sit with the cinnamon for about 10 minutes.
- After it’s a little thicker, nice and dark, and you can smell that aromatic cinnamon, add a teaspoon of vanilla syrup, if you’re using it, stir it in.
- Now it’s time to pour it in your bottle. A funnel is an easy way to make sure you don’t waste any. Mine came with my bottle set.
Recipes with Brown Sugar Cinnamon:
Get more details about the brown sugar cinnamon syrup here.
3. Cinnamon Simple Syrup:
Cinnamon syrup might be my actual favorite ever. Drinks with cinnamon, like the Cinnamon Dolce Latte, and Iced Horchata Latte at Peet’s are my jam. I like my own version at home even more.
Ingredients: You only need three ingredients
- Cinnamon Sticks – I love cinnamon. For this, you need just two cinnamon sticks. You really don’t need to use any more of them than that if you’re only making one batch, because the time you steep determines how much cinnamon flavor you get. Plus, you can put the sticks in the bottle when you store it, which will slowly release even more cinnamon flavor over time.
- Sugar: Use any white granuled sugar you like. If the sugar has a slight flavor, it’ll come through in the simple syrup, so stick to a sugar that adds sweetness without any tinge of flavor (avoid brown sugar).
- Water – Make sure to use filtered water here.
- Bottle – Have a plan for how you’d like to store your syrup. I bought a set of glass syrup bottles that I use. They are tall and narrow and fit really well in the fridge. Without the preservatives of store bought syrups, you don’t want to leave them out all the time.
Directions: How To Make It
- Simmer one cup of water and one cup of sugar until the sugar starts dissolving. This happens pretty quickly.
- After you see the sugar starting to dissolve, add 2 cinnamon sticks.
- Once sugar is fully dissolved, cover and simmer on medium to low for about 10-15 minutes. You can do longer, but the simple syrup will start to slowly thicken and evaporate, so don’t forget about it.
- You do not need to boil, but a low simmer/boil is fine.
- Pour into a glass syrup container. I like these ones, because they come in a set and have labels with a chalkboard marker.
- Store in the fridge.
Recipes with Cinnamon:
- Cinnamon Toast Crunch Cold Brew
- Cinnamon Pumpkin Cream Cold Brew
- Iced Cinnamon Oatmilk Latte
- Sweet Cinnamon Iced Coffee Recipe – Starbucks Cinnamon Dolce Copycat
- Cinnamon Vanilla Cold Brew with Cinnamon Cold Foam – only shared on my Instagram. See video below:
View this post on Instagram
Get more details about the cinnamon syrup here.
4. Vanilla Simple Syrup:
The vanilla latte or iced vanilla latte is the most popular coffee drink of all time. Pretty much anything with vanilla syrup is going to be a win with a wide variety of people. I have quite a few vanilla based coffee recipes on the blog and they taste even better with homemade syrup.
Ingredients: You only need three ingredients
- Vanilla: 3 teaspoons vanilla extract- we love this one
- Sugar: Use any white granuled sugar you like. If the sugar has a slight flavor, it’ll come through in the simple syrup, so stick to a sugar that adds sweetness without any tinge of flavor (avoid brown sugar).
- Water – Make sure to use filtered water here.
- Bottle – Have a plan for how you’d like to store your syrup. I bought a set of glass syrup bottles that I use. They are tall and narrow and fit really well in the fridge. Without the preservatives of store bought syrups, you don’t want to leave them out all the time.
Directions: How To Make It
Use a 1:1:3 ratio, so one cup water, one cup sugar, 3 tsp. vanilla extract and scale as needed.
- Add sugar and water to a small saucepan.
- Then, just star occasionally until the sugar is fully dissolved and it’s gently simmering.
- Add 3 tsp of vanilla extract and let it fully mix in.
- Remove from heat and let it cool a bit before putting it in the bottle.
- Use a bottle that seals. We bought a set of these glass bottles with chalkboard stickers, but you could use any kind of container with a seal to keep it fresh.
Recipes with Vanilla:
- Vanilla coffee cream soda
- Nespresso iced coffee with vanilla sweet cream
- Jot vanilla sweet cream iced coffee
- Starbucks vanilla sweet cream cold brew copycat
Get more details about the vanilla syrup here.
5. Brown Sugar Simple Syrup:
There are people who do not like cinnamon or are even allergic to it. The brown sugar syrup can be made without the cinnamon, making it even easier to make and still delicious.
Ingredients: You only need three ingredients
- Brown Sugar – The star of this sweet syrup is light brown sugar. I used this kind of light brown sugar, which I love, and it has a slightly molasses-y flavor. It gives the syrup a rich, warm sugar taste. Y
- Vanilla Extract – (OPTIONAL) A little dash of vanilla extract rounds out the flavor. I used my favorite vanilla extract, but you can use whatever you have. You don’t need to add this if you don’t have it on hand and it won’t change the flavor that much.
- Water – Make sure to use filtered water here.
- Bottle – Have a plan for how you’d like to store your syrup. I bought a set of glass syrup bottles that I use. They are tall and narrow and fit really well in the fridge. Without the preservatives of store bought syrups, you don’t want to leave them out all the time.
Directions: How To Make It
- Simmer one cup of water and one cup of brown sugar, lightly packed, until the sugar starts dissolving. This happens pretty quickly.
- After you see the sugar dissolved, add the tsp of vanilla extract – or don’t. Up to you.
- Cover and simmer on medium to low for about 5 minutes. You can do longer, but the simple syrup will start to slowly thicken and evaporate, so don’t forget about it.
- You do not need to boil, but a low simmer/boil is fine.
- Take off heat and let it cool a bit.
- Pour into a glass syrup container. I like these ones, because they come in a set and have labels with a chalkboard marker. Plus, it comes with a funnel that fits perfectly
- Store in the fridge for up to 3 weeks
Recipes with Brown Sugar:
Get more details about the brown sugar syrup here.
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I hope these easy recipes inspire you to make your own syrups at home and whip up delicious coffee drinks. Save time, save money and get it exactly how you want it every time.
Check out the blog or my Instagram for lots more recipes.
Get roasted,
A
