Brown Sugar Coffee Syrup

If you love coffee as much as I do, and especially sweet coffee, you’ll love making your own coffee syrup to add a sweet personal touch to your morning routine.

Homemade coffee syrup works well in regular brewed coffee, lattes, iced coffee, or any way you prefer to get your coffee fix. I’ve been making my own coffee syrup for a few months now, and now I always have some on hand (I even sometimes stick a small jar of it in by book bag in case I want to get coffee at the on-campus coffee shop).

I got the idea for a brown sugar syrup first from Back in the Day Bakery in Savannah, GA, probably the best, and cutest, bakery I’ve ever been to. They had their brown sugar syrup out on the coffee bar and I dumped a ton into my iced coffee, and it was life-changing! I even got to meet one of the owners and bought a signed copy of their cookbook. You could say I’m a bit of a fan!

Fast forward a few months, and after I had tested out a few different syrup recipes (I’ll write about those later, I promise), I went to Richmond’s Lamplighter Coffee Roasters and got their brown sugar latte. So. Good. That’s when I ramped up my brown sugar syrup production, and tried it in homemade lattes.

Every time I make my syrup, I end up changing it a little bit. I’ve found the best ratio of sugar to water is about 1 cup of water to every 1.5 cups of sugar. If you want the syrup a little thicker and stickier, I would suggest 2 cups of sugar for every cup of water, and if you want it thinner, use a 1 to 1 ratio. After you decide on your ratio preference, next decide what flavors you want. My staple is half light, half dark brown sugar with a teaspoon of vanilla. Light brown sugar will give the syrup a slightly more subtle flavor, while dark brown sugar gives a darker, more molasses-y flavor. You can decide whether or not you want vanilla, or other add-ins like salt or molasses. It’s all up to you! The reason I like making my own is because I decide what to put in it, it’s very personal. It gives me a nice sense of control in this crazy world.

So here’s the “official” recipe:

3/4 cup light brown sugar

3/4 cup dark brown sugar

1 cup water

1 teaspoon vanilla

Put the water and both sugars in a pot, heat on medium until bubbling, and stir until homogenous. Put in vanilla and let come to a light boil. *Do not taste the syrup once it’s hot, a sugar burn is the worst* Transfer to a glass or heatproof liquid measuring cup (like a Pyrex) to cool, and once it’s cool slowly pour it into a bottle or jar to store it in.

I usually use about 1 or 2 teaspoons in my coffee, but that is because I use a sweetened creamer (Nestle Natural Bliss Sweet Cream, highly recommended), if you use plain half and half or something else unsweetened, you might use closer to a tablespoon or two.

As a bonus, here’s the recipe for my latest variation:

1 cup light brown sugar

1/2 cup dark brown sugar

1 teaspoon molasses

1 1/4 cup water

1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

dash of sea salt

Very similar to the above procedure- combine both sugars, molasses, and water first, let it come to a light boil, then add the rest and let that come to a boil again. I let it boil for a few minutes this time, just be sure to watch it and stir it or else you’ll end up with hard candy.

This syrup is nice because it is relatively universally loved. I had some friends over a while back and made them all homemade lattes with this syrup and they all loved it. I gave bottles of it as gifts for Christmas this year.