New here! Not sure where to post this, so I'll start here.

My tastes seem to fall on either end of the spectrum. I either want a bold, full-bodied espresso or basically a dessert (latte with flavored sweeteners).

I have used Holy Kakow syrups, their cardamom syrup is really good! But I wonder if anyone has good recommendations for flavored syrups/sweeteners. I'd also appreciate any interesting recipes to make at home.

Abby,

First off, welcome to the forum!!!

Our search a while back was focused on chocolate sauce for my wife's mochas; prior to investing in a good DB espresso machine, she was a starbucks junkie... At least one visit a day so we were on the hunt to find something made at home that she consistently liked better than anything Starbucks could make.

We tried Ghirardelli, Torani, Monin and even good old Hershey's from the grocery store. After lots of testing it was decided that Monin was the best of those we tried. We also tried a couple of their fruit syrups as well. My wife uses a couple pumps of their raspberry in her go-to drink and now complains anytime she gets a drink from Starbucks... "It's not as good as mine!"

She's a creature of habit so she doesn't vary her recipe much meaning we haven't tried any other fruit flavors yet so I'm not much help there. I've tried their salted caramel syrup and the toasted marshmallow. They were quite good but flavored coffee drinks are just not my thing...

Her basic mocha recipe is a double shot of espresso, 3 pumps of chocolate sauce, 2 pumps of raspberry, about 8 oz of steamed milk and a big dollop of whipped cream on top. One interesting twist is that when I make it for her, I put the raspberry pumps into the milk prior to steaming so the foam is laced with raspberry flavor. I've also put a couple of pumps of chocolate sauce in the milk and steamed it up as hot chocolate for the kids and they love it.

Good luck on your search!

Josh

Thanks for your reply, I'll definitely try the Monin!

I've actually begun making cold foam for iced americanos which has been really popular with my husband! I just put a bit of syrup and milk in a cup and use my hand frother to make it all creamy and foamy and pour it over. So good!!!

I often keep a homemade simple syrup in the refrigerator. Currently it's lavender which involved 2 cups of your basic simple syrup cooking method and about five sprigs of fresh lavender cooked about 15 minutes and steeped for a day then lavender buds removed. Before I toss those I pour cold milk over and let that sit a bit then have myself a rare sweet treat, lavender milk.

Oh my, this is such a good idea! I love the idea of infusing a simple syrup like that!

Plus 1 on Monin syrups.
We have tried a bunch of different brands and just found Monin to be the best for our liking.
The three Monin syrups I keep at my coffee island are "Roasted Hazelnut", "Irish Cream" & "Organic Chocolate"
Also have either Ghiradelli Dark Chocolate sauce or Monin Dark Chocolate sauce in the fridge.
One tip on the syrups, less is better than more. Too much of any of the syrups can make for a terrible drink.

Monin hands down for syrups.
I prefer ghirardeli black label for mochas though.

It's pretty easy to I make simple syrups and so I will make ones that are not made. My habanero infused syrup is so much better than any other I have found