Homemade vanilla flavored syrup — cafe-style for pennies
4
Units:
Prep: 2 min Cook: 8 min
Ingredients
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup water
- 1 tbsp pure vanilla extract
Cafes charge premium prices for flavored syrups that cost pennies per ounce to make at home. This vanilla base recipe is the foundation — swap in other flavorings for caramel, lavender, cinnamon, or any seasonal syrup.
Instructions
- Combine: Add sugar and water to a small saucepan.
- Dissolve: Heat over medium, stirring, until the sugar fully dissolves and the liquid turns clear. Do not boil.
- Cool briefly: Remove from heat and let cool 2 min off the burner.
- Flavor: Stir in the vanilla extract (or other flavoring).
- Bottle: Pour into a clean glass bottle, seal, and chill.
Tips
- Variants (substitute for vanilla extract): caramel — cook sugar alone to amber before adding the water. Lavender — steep 2 tbsp dried lavender in the hot syrup 10 min, strain. Cinnamon — simmer 2 cinnamon sticks in the syrup 10 min, strain. Pumpkin spice — 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice + 1 tbsp molasses.
- Keeps 2-4 weeks in a sealed glass bottle in the fridge.
- 1-2 tbsp of syrup per drink is equivalent to 1-2 pumps at a coffee shop.
- For sugar-free syrups, substitute allulose or monk-fruit sweetener (not stevia — it can crystallize).
Created: 3/23/2026, 2:38:02 AM diyfreelow cost
Small saucepan, glass bottle for storage, wooden spoon