Starbucks has been making coffee for years, but its drinks menu has grown! It’s not just about the coffee anymore! You can supplement the flavor of your drinks with some tasty Starbucks syrup! One great all-rounder is this copycat Starbucks vanilla syrup recipe, and the good news is you can make it at home. Read on to find out how to do it.
How to Make Starbucks Vanilla Syrup
Making Starbucks Vanilla Syrup couldn’t be easier. It’s a 3-step process.
You don’t need any specialized equipment, and you’ll be able to find everything you need to make it in your local food store. A pan, a spoon, a few store-bought ingredients, and a little patience? Sounds like our kind of recipe.
We begin by stewing down a mixture of sugar and water. While simple, this is actually a crucial step. You want your Starbucks vanilla syrup to be just the right consistency, not too thick and not too fluid.
Once we get the correct consistency, we infuse it with the vanilla. If you’ve ever tasted the syrup at Starbucks, you’ll know that it is pretty strong and intense. So, we don’t rely on one means to make sure it’s jam-packed full of vanilla flavor.
First, we add a fair helping of vanilla extract. This absolutely ensures that you’ll have a syrup full of sweet vanilla goodness. We then infuse it with even more vanilla, in the form of a fresh vanilla bean (and seeds!)
From there, it’s simply a case of bottling it. When it comes to bottling, there are a few key things that you need to know. We cover it in our tips and tricks section.
Ingredients
The best thing about it is that with a little time and effort, you can make enough to last you a long while. With the high sugar content and a few extra steps, you can make sure that it keeps for absolutely ages!
- Water: Forms the base of the syrup, dissolving the sugar to create a sweet liquid.
- Sugar: Provides sweetness and, when dissolved in water, creates the syrupy consistency.
- Vanilla Extract: Infuses the syrup with a strong vanilla flavor, essential for replicating the Starbucks vanilla taste.
- Vanilla Pod: Adds an additional layer of natural vanilla flavor and aroma, enhancing the depth and richness of the syrup.
The process involves dissolving sugar in water, adding vanilla extract for flavor, and then infusing the syrup with a vanilla pod for an extra vanilla boost. This combination creates a sweet and flavorful syrup perfect for adding a vanilla touch to various beverages.
Follow my 3 step process to recreating Starbuck’s vanilla syrup.
Laura Ritterman
Starbucks Vanilla Syrup
Course: DrinksCuisine: AmericanDifficulty: Easy4
servings5
minutes5
minutes70
kcalThis 3 step process will have you successfully making a copycat version of Starbuck’s vanilla syrup. Vanilla latte anyone? Don’t just take my word for it, make this yourself.
Ingredients
1 cup 1 water
1 cup 1 sugar
1 tablespoon 1 vanilla extract
1 vanilla pod
Directions
- Take a small saucepan and place it over medium heat. Add your sugar and water and stir until combined. Let the sugar dissolve and keep stirring until it begins to gently simmer.
- Add your vanilla extra. Stir for one minute until fully combined. Then remove from the heat
- With a sharp knife, slice the vanilla pod down the middle. With the blade at a 90° angle, scrape the powdery seeds out of each cut side of the vanilla pod. Then drop the seeds and the vanilla pod into the syrup.
- Stir the syrup until the seeds are completely incorporated. Return to the heat and bring back to a very gentle simmer for a couple of minutes. Then remove from the heat.
- Allow the syrup to cool for around 10 minutes. Once it is cool, remove the vanilla pod.
- Take a sterilized bottle and a funnel. Decant your syrup into the bottle and allow it to cool completely before adding the lid.
- Use your syrup in a range of drinks. Delicious!
Notes
- When removing the vanilla bean, be careful not to burn yourself. Cooked sugar stays hot for a long time, so be sure to let it cool completely before touching or handling it.
- Once the cooking process has finished and you want to bottle your Starbucks vanilla syrup, make sure that you remove and discard the vanilla bean. This will make your syrup last longer, plus nobody wants to accidentally drink a vanilla bean!
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Tips and Tricks
Here’s an important tip. Cooked sugar can be really sticky… It can also be extremely hot. This isn’t an ideal combination, so be really careful. This isn’t one to make with your kids around!
When making your vanilla bean syrup, don’t overcook the sugar and the water. If you notice your pan turning a pale yellow or golden color, you’ve overdone it and have actually made caramel. Delicious, but not what we are after!
Don’t be fooled by the syrup being too ‘thin’. Warm sugar is pretty ‘loose’, but it thickens up as it cools. Get it wrong, and you’ll end up with a bottle full of syrup that won’t pour.
Check out our delicious Starbucks Vanilla Latte where you can use this syrup to your heart’s content.
How Long Does The Vanilla Syrup Last?
Storing in the refrigerator will mean your vanilla syrup can last up to 1 month for best taste. After that the flavor could be materially reduced. Since it’s so simple to make, there’s really no need to keep it for long periods of time since you can make a cup of it in under 10 minutes. Remember how we said this syrup can be stored for ages? This depends on one thing. Pouring it into a sterile bottle. Any bugs and germs will grow if fed by the sugar, which will spoil your syrup. It’s really easy to sterilize a bottle, fill it with boiling water, and then tip it out! Mind your fingers!
Provided you have used a sterilized bottle, there is no need to refrigerate your syrup.
Conclusion
The best thing about our homemade Starbucks vanilla syrup recipe is that you can use it in loads of ways. It is great when you want to make your favorites like a vanilla caramel macchiato, a London fog tea latte, or maybe the occasional naughty adults cocktail! Provided you use a sterile bottle, it will pretty much last until you’ve used it up! Bearing in mind the cost of a Starbucks coffee, we think that is pretty great value.
What’s your favorite drink to make with vanilla syrup? Let us know in the comments.
