Flavor and sweeten your coffee and tea with this homemade vanilla syrup that’s simple to make at home.
CONTENTS
About This Vanilla Syrup
- Vanilla syrup is a simple syrup with vanilla extract. There’s only three ingredients: sugar, water, and vanilla extract.
- This recipes makes a cup of vanilla syrup which can be used to flavor and sweeten your coffee or tea. It’s an easy way to instantly turn your latte (or coffee), into a vanilla latte. Because it’s a liquid, the syrup is the best way to sweeten iced drinks.
- So simple to make at home for a fraction of the cost of store-bought, you’ll wonder why you haven’t made it at home before.
To make more simple syrups at home that are just as simple, try my mint syrup, pumpkin spice syrup, and chocolate syrup. It’s how you can make Peppermint Mocha Lattes and Pumpkin Spice Lattes at home easily. See them all here.
Ingredient Notes
- Vanilla extract
Not all brands are the same when it comes to vanilla extract. The pricier, the better it’ll taste. The low cost options taste like chemicals so you should splurge if you can. A little goes a long way so a bottle will last you a while. - Sugar
Use regular white sugar or cane sugar. You can use brown sugar but it’s a little slower to dissolve. - Water
Filtered water is best for a better tasting syrup.
Photo Credit: williams-sonoma.com
Step-by-Step Instructions
Here’s a quick overview of the steps to make this syrup. For full ingredients and instructions, scroll down to the recipe.
- Put sugar and water in a saucepan and simmer.
Stir to make sure sugar dissolves completely. - Take off heat and add vanilla extract.
- Pour vanilla syrup into an airtight container.
Expert Tips
- Don’t cook the vanilla extract since it can lose flavor. Only add it at the end after the dissolved sugar and water is off the heat.
- Vanilla syrup can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks in an airtight container like this one.
- Use 1-2 tablespoons of syrup to your coffee or latte.
Questions You May Have
Stir 1-2 tablespoons of vanilla syrup into a cup of warm milk.
Add some syrup to sparkling water to make your own vanilla soda! Add it to hot tea (Earl Grey and vanilla are great together), iced tea or hot chocolate.
It’ll keep it in the refrigerator in an airtight container for about 3 weeks.
You can use any sweetener you prefer. Replace the white sugar in the recipe with brown sugar, honey, maple syrup, or date sugar.
More Simple Syrup Recipes
Simple Vanilla Syrup
INGREDIENTS
- ¾ cup water
- ¾ cup sugar
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
INSTRUCTIONS
- Put sugar and water in a saucepan and simmer.Stir to make sure sugar dissolves completely.
- Take off heat and add vanilla extract.
- Pour syrup into an airtight container.The syrup will keep for up to 2 weeks in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
EQUIPMENT
NOTES
- Recipe makes 1 cup (16 tablespoons) of mint syrup.
- To flavor and sweeten coffee, use 1-2 tablespoons of syrup per 1 cup serving.
NUTRITION
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Love it!!
This is a great way to use every penny, and that’s a lot of pennies, out of that expensive bean after a long soak in alcohol when making extract. I put my used beans in sugar to infuse and use granually or simmer with sugar and water for a simple syrup like your recipe. I can see why folks are upset consuming vanilla flavoring (contents of the glands in the ass of a beaver (castor oil) used to flavor and scent many things in the day) when companies use misleading labeling and advertising marketing products as “vanilla”, even “real vanilla”, rather than vanilla flavored. I buy beans by the pound from Madagascar and have bottles, barrels, jars and jugs of beans extracting throughout my home. The smell on days I give them all a good stir is absolutely delicious and the taste it gives your baked goods is even better, beyond compare. 2nd to saffron as most expensive spice, he vanilla orchid is hand pollinated during a very short window of time and was done by only one guy once upon a time not so long ago. The history of vanilla is an interesting read. Knowledge and technology are increasing and improving the geologically and reproductivly challenged plant’s survival and expansion rates. If Mother Nature would cooperate in the few tropical places it does thrive and supply and demand would stabilize, then prices would come down. Consumer Tip: Real vanilla is gonna cost you, dearly.