My coffee journey began when I was 20 years old and living in Madrid. I remember when my friends and I first arrived there for our study abroad semester, we thought it was so weird that lunch was two hours long. What do you do for two hours on your lunch break? Drink cafe con leche, that’s what. I learned to drink coffee in Europe, which just felt appropriate. Thus began my dream of the daily latte.

Every morning for the past three years, I have woken up with a delicious homemade vanilla latte. I heart vanilla lattes. Last weekend, as we were bragging about having an espresso machine and attempting to convince yet another guest to our house that it is the best purchase you’ll ever make (EVER), our friend calculated that we’ve saved over $7,000 in coffee by making our own lattes every day. Needless to say, we’re fans.

I eventually progressed from flavored creamers (ingredients you can’t pronounce) to the DaVinci syrups you buy at the grocery store (corn syrup)… but when I got sick of paying $5 bucks for a bottle of sugar water, I decided to figure out how to make it myself. One of the best things I’ve ever done. These are so ridiculously easy to make you’ll be embarrassed you’ve never done this before. And for pennies on the dollar.

Vanilla Syrup

1 cup Sugar (Regular White or Raw)
3/4 Cup Water
1 1/2 tsp. Vanilla Extract

Combine water and sugar in small saucepan and heat over medium-low. Stir occasionally until all of the sugar is melted. Let cool. Stir in vanilla extract.

When you mix this into your coffee, you use it instead of sweetener. I like to use raw sugar when I make it. Plus, the added bonus of making a syrup is that the raw sugar is already melted when you add it and instantly sweet. This recipe can also be used with Hazelnut or Peppermint extract, just experiment with the ratio of extract to simple syrup!

Advertisement