as some of you may know, santa brought me an expresso machine and i am absolutely obsessed to say the least. it’s been so much fun playing around, but more importantly, just having REAL lattes at home. the latte art is really tricky and i’m far from nailing it, however, in a couple weeks i’ve learned a lot. practiced as much as possible… it’s SO ADDICTING! haha

personally, i like plain lattes- expresso and milk. as i’m trying to learn the art, whole milk is what i use for the creaminess and thickness because it froths the easiest. plus- i love me some dairy! 😉 a few days into it, i made a mocha with hershey’s chocolate syrup… YUM. then i thought, ‘these can’t be hard to make from scratch’, so tried it out and got a little carried away! my first one to make was the honey lavender. the herbal/floral taste it gives is amazing, probably my favorite.

after making the honey lavender, i made a salted caramel. again, amazing! plain lattes are great but jazzing them up with some flavor was even better. for this post, i chose five syrups to make and share for any of you who want to add to your coffees, or ice cream, other drinks, etc. they are each simple and quick. sooo let’s get right to it!

TOP 5 SYRUP GO-TO’S

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MOCHA

3/4 cup cocoa powder

1 cup sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup boiling water

1 tsp vanilla

1.) boil water. mix cocoa, sugar and salt in a small saucepan. once a paste forms, stir in remaining water

2.) simmer a few minutes over medium/low heat, stirring frequently.

3.) remove from heat, add vanilla, let cool.

4.) store in the refrigerator for 4 weeks.

HONEY LAVENDER

1/2 cup honey

1/2 cup water

2 tbsp dried lavender (i used organic lavender flowers)

1.) heat water in a small saucepan, but don’t boil. add honey and lavender and stir until honey dissolves.

2.) remove from heat and let steep for an hour, stirring every 10-20 minutes

3.) strain the syrup into the jar or container you are using them discard the lavender leaves/buds. keep in refrigerator up to 2 weeks.

SALTED CARAMEL

1 cup sugar

2 cups water

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp sea salt

1.) combine sugar and ONE cup of the water in a medium saucepan, stirring occasionally.

2.) when sugar dissolves, stop stirring and leave on medium heat until the caramel turns a ‘light amber’ color. for this, you have to be patient (took about 15 minutes)

3.) as soon as it it nice and amber (a gold tint), remove from heat immediately and stir in the other cup of water as you stir. (careful, it may splatter)

4.) stir in vanilla and sea salt

5.) store in a jar or glass bottle in the refrigerator up to 8 weeks

CINNAMON DOLCE

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

1 tbsp ground cinnamon

1 cup water

1.) combine sugars in a saucepan

2.) add water and bring to a slow boil, stirring well

3.) remove from heat, add cinnamon, stir well

4.) store in the refrigerator up to 8 weeks

VANILLA

1 cup water

1 cup sugar

1 tbsp pure vanilla extract

1.) combine water and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring until dissolved

2.) turn off heat, stir in vanilla. let cool. store in the refrigerator up to 4 weeks

STORAGE + EXTRAS

for the sake of the first project of making syrups, i doubled each of the recipes… just wanted to make sure the bottles would be full lol. moving forward, i’ll stick to making the one batch recipe because there was too much discarded. the glass 12 oz bottles i used are great! they also work perfectly for other kinds of sauces, salad dressings etc. depending on the syrup, you should definitely get 3/4 full bottles if you choose the same ones.

for my mochas, i sprinkle in some ghirardelli chocolate powder RIGHT before i pour into the milk… why? just to be extra 🙂 the powder kinda gives the latte a cocoa/homemade appearance and a touch more chocolate! the shakers i found work well and have lids! there are so many other things to sprinkle on a latte and anything really goes, whatever you’re feeling! another example is chai spice over a cinnamon latte… or white mocha powder, OR just a simple cinnamon/nutmeg blend.

of course i had to label these pretty syrups, so i grabbed a cheap old school label maker for that with some black tape.

normally, i probably won’t keep this many syrup options but definitely at least two! with two or more flavors, you can create combos like vanilla cinnamon… or (one of my go-to’s) sea salt caramel mocha… SO SO YUM.

and one more cute idea- GIFTING! make and bottle up one of these simple recipes, pair with some yummy coffee beans- i used any from our locally roasted spaceship earth. can also add a cute mug, handwritten note, etc.

i hope you all find one you love and if so, let me know your favorite!

xo