Coffee syrups at home: how much to use and what to make

A coffee syrup is sugar syrup with a flavour dissolved in it, so it sweetens and flavours a drink in one go. If you usually stir sugar into your coffee, the syrup replaces it. It also works in cold drinks, where granulated sugar tends to sit at the bottom of the glass.

How much to use

Start with 20 ml for a mug-sized latte or cappuccino, a little more than a tablespoon. That is the amount Vincenzi use in their own iced cappuccino recipe, and their other recipes run from 15 to 30 ml, so there is room either side. Taste before you add more. You can always add syrup to a drink, but you cannot take it back out.

These syrups are mostly sugar. The labels give 85 to 87 g of sugar in every 100 ml, which means 20 ml adds about 17 g to the cup. If you use a syrup, leave out the sugar you would normally add.

Hot coffee

Syrup is thicker and heavier than coffee, and it sinks if you pour it in last. Put it in the cup first, run the espresso onto it and stir, then add the milk. The same goes for coffee from a moka pot. If you are still getting the coffee itself right, start with How to make espresso at home or How to make coffee with a moka pot.

Vincenzi file Hazelnut, Chocolate, Cinnamon and Irish Cream as coffee syrups. Hazelnut goes with a latte or a cappuccino. Chocolate turns a latte into a mocha. Cinnamon puts the spice into the cup, where a dusting of powder would only sit on the foam. Irish Cream has the taste of the liqueur and none of the alcohol, and it goes into a hot chocolate as easily as into a coffee.

Iced coffee

Vincenzi's iced cappuccino is one espresso or moka coffee, 1.5 cl of milk, 2 cl of syrup and six to eight ice cubes made from frozen coffee. Coffee ice means the drink does not turn watery as the ice melts. Their recipe uses vanilla; any of the coffee flavours can take its place.

For a longer drink, they top 5 cl of coffee up with 30 cl of water and 3 cl of syrup over ice. That makes a bigger glass that is lighter on the coffee, better suited to a hot afternoon than the iced cappuccino.

Chai and long drinks

Chai belongs to Vincenzi's tea syrups. The spiced flavour comes from the syrup, so there is nothing to brew or strain: stir it into steamed milk for a chai latte, or into cold milk over ice.

The labels give one part syrup to six parts water for a long drink, which works out at 30 ml of syrup to 180 ml of water. Vincenzi serve their tea syrups this way, with crushed ice and a slice of lemon, and top their cocktail syrups with tonic water. Coconut is one of the cocktail syrups. It has no caramel colour, so it stays clear in the glass, and it suits an iced latte as well.

Storage and ingredients

The labels ask for room temperature, away from direct sunlight, and the best-before date is printed on each bottle. The bottles are glass with an aluminium screw cap. Wipe the neck before you close it, or the cap can stick to dried syrup.

The Hazelnut syrup contains hazelnut. None of the other five lists a nut among its ingredients, and all six are labelled gluten free. Each product page in the coffee syrups section carries the full ingredient list and the nutrition panel from the label.

Reviewed 25 September 2026.