One of my biggest (and I will freely admit, costliest) daily habits is my latte habit. I love them, the warm creamy taste that the coffee takes on when you add warm milk, the mixture of vanilla and hazelnut with my espresso… It is the special way I love to start my day and because of that, I will not give them up!
But, I knew that the money I was spending at Starbucks added up SO quickly. I began to wonder how much I was spending each week. So I did the math on what I spent every week there. I was more than shocked that I was spending about $31.00/week! That is ridiculous when you think about what this means I was spending at Starbucks each year…
A weekly spend of $31 per week equates to $1,600.00/year. That is not chump change and I knew I had to make a change.
Time for a Change
There are many financial advisers/bloggers that may say cutting your latte habit will not yield results in savings. I disagree. In a continual effort to cut out the extra spending that creeps into our every says budget, I am saying NO to my Starbucks latte. Or at least limiting it to a few times a month. Doing this helped us save for our vacation.
Yes, Starbucks coffee is yummy with all the flavors they offer. And lattes are not so easy to make at home….or are they?
You may be wondering how I quit my habit of paying for a latte. Well, one thing I had to figure out is how to recreate my favorite latte at home. The key to getting a perfect latte at home is the coffee syrup. I was surprised to find out how easy, inexpensive, and way tastier homemade syrups are! You will be too. Once I had the formula for my added syrups, I made sure I had an easy way to warm up my milk and a good coffee maker.
Not sure where to start? Don’t worry I will walk you through making your own syrups.
How to Make Your Very Own Homemade Coffee Syrups
Today’s fun and easy DIY is coffee syrups. They are an essential part of Starbucks’ continued success in getting your hard-earned dollars. My personal favorite latte is the Vanilla/Hazelnut latte.
So, in this tutorial, I will focus on how to make those syrups. But the basic recipe is simple to modify to make any syrup your heart desires.
First, you need to make a simple syrup. I have a full post on how to do that. But I put the basics below. If you are looking for more, I would suggest checking out my Simple Syrup post.
Simple Syrup (regular strength)
Ingredients:
1 Cup Water (I used purified from the sink)
1 Cup Sugar (I used organic cane sugar, but I have also used brown sugar, regular sugar, or turbinado. Use what you have on hand)
Directions:
- Place 1 Cup water and 1 Cup sugar of your choice into a small saucepan on medium heat
- Stir and let the sugar water heat up to a slow boil. This process should take about 3 minutes or so.
- Once boiling check that there are no longer any sugar crystals present in the liquid.
- Remove from the heat source to cool.
- Once cool, place into an air-tight jar and put into the fridge. The basic simple syrup should stay fresh for about a month.
Note that if you would like a lighter syrup you can add less sugar per cup of water. I usually only add about 3/4 cup of sugar for every cup of water.
Once you have your simple syrup down, the sky is the limit. I make vanilla, hazelnut, almond, cinnamon, mint, and a host of other flavors. Just note that the flavored simple syrups only last in the refrigerator for about 1 – 2 weeks max.
Vanilla Coffee Syrup
Ingredients:
1 Vanilla Bean OR 1 – 2 Tablespoons real vanilla extract (I use homemade, do not use imitation)
1 Cup Water
1 Cup Sugar
Directions:
- Make simple syrup according to the directions above.
- Once the simple syrup is complete add up to 2 Tablespoons of Vanilla Extract.
- If using a vanilla bean, cut the bean lengthwise and place it into the pot at the same time as the sugar. Let it cook with the sugar and remove once complete. You can then save the bean, dry it out, and use it for vanilla sugar!
Hazelnut Coffee Syrup
Ingredients:
1 cup toasted hazelnuts OR 1/4 Cup hazelnut liquor OR
1 – 2 Tablespoons hazelnut extract (this might be expensive or hard to find, but if you can great!)
1 Cup Water
1 Cup Sugar
Directions:
- Make simple syrup according to the directions above.
- Once the simple syrup is complete add up to 2 Tablespoons of Hazelnut Extract OR 1/4 cup of hazelnut liquor
- If using toasted hazelnuts, place 1 cup into the pot at the same time as the sugar. Let it cook with the sugar and remove once complete. Strain if necessary.
Now you have two absolutely YUMMY syrups to use in your coffee. I place one tablespoon of each into my cup with heated milk, and espresso shots from my favorite coffee maker our ![""]("//ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=saragifmm-20&l=am2&o=1&a=B06XSJLGFH")
These syrups make the coffee SO delicious. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
Make Feeding Your Family Effortless and Painless!
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