Drinking black coffee might be healthy but too boring to have every day. Something fancy, sugary —and maybe even salty— should be fine once in a while. Let’s make your coffee more lively today with this 7-step easy homemade salted caramel syrup for coffee!
All you need to make salted caramel syrup is 1 cup of white sugar, 2 cups of water, and ½ teaspoon of sea salt. You can also use 1 teaspoon of caramel flavor if you want extra flavor.
Salted caramel sauce vs syrup: What’s better in coffee?
Fancy? Sweet? Flavor-rich? A perfect, popular treat that ticks all these boxes: salted caramel coffee. ✅
Coffee might be the healthiest on its own. But drinking just regular black coffee might be too much to drink day…after day…after day.
Fun fact: Salted caramel is in the 85th percentile among all food and flavors. This means that consumers prefer salted caramel over 85% of all other items.
Both salted caramel sauce and salted caramel syrup are good in coffee. Now when do you choose one over the other? It all depends if you want your coffee hot or cold.
If you prefer your coffee cold, it’s better to use salted caramel syrup. It is not as thick as sauce, which works perfectly with colder beverages. Its runny consistency keeps it from clumping at the bottom of the glass and leaving an inconsistent taste.
If you like hot caffeinated drinks more, you can use either sauce or syrup, but using salted caramel sauce works better.
Syrup might be the versatile option among the two, but the high temperature of the beverage works perfectly in evenly dissolving sauce despite its thicker consistency.
How to make salted caramel coffee
I am pretty sure you’ve heard of salted caramel coffee before. And if for some reason, you haven’t tried it ever, you’re probably pretty curious that you want to try it for yourself at home.
…Or maybe you always have salted caramel coffee but your local grocery doesn’t have this syrup on the shelves.
Well, I’m here to give you these seven simple steps you can take to make your very own homemade salted caramel syrup. 😋 You can easily make one at home using basic ingredients that are typically found even in every household pantry.
The steps listed below for homemade salted caramel syrup are actually as simple as the ingredients needed for this recipe. A word of caution though: they require careful execution for the best results.
For example, you can end up stirring the sugar unnecessarily and splash up onto the sides of the pan. When this happens your mixture quickly loses its moisture content and forms back into crystals.
When it starts to crystalize, it could set off a chain reaction and your caramel could seize up and ruin the entire batch.
What You Need
Here are the 4 easy-to-find ingredients for salted caramel syrup:
- 1 cup white granulated sugar
- 2 cups of water
- 1 teaspoon caramel flavor (optional)
- ½ teaspoon of sea salt
When you have all the ingredients, you can start making the syrup. Here’s a helpful video 👇
Before jumping into the cooking process, you need to be aware of the many things that could go wrong when making salted caramel syrup.
- Wrong pot. You're using the incorrect pot. You need to use a rather deep saucepan to keep the mixture from boiling over especially if you plan to mix in milk.
- Crystallization. Your sugar has crystallized. This already creates a domino-like effect and ruins the entire batch. This can be due to impurities in the sugar.
- Unnecessary stirring. You probably see some sugar crystals at the sides. You want to give in to the urge to stir and speed things up. But this recipe needs patience, you’ll have to wait until the mixture is at the right color.
- Burning. We're dealing with a pretty hot mixture here that takes some time to turn golden. It’s easy to be impatient and leave the saucepan to get a beer or do something else.
Not paying attention to the pot while making caramel is a big mistake. Towards the end, there is this really short window of time before the syrup turns too dark.
- Not keeping ice water. Caramel is VERY hot and could cause more damage when this sticky substance touches your skin. Make sure to keep ice water on hand to provide immediate cooling.
Step 1. Mix the sugar & water
Put 1 cup of water and 1 cup of white sugar into the saucepan.
Give the mixture a little bit of a stir to incorporate everything into the mixture.
Step 2. Boil your mixture
When you’ve mixed the sugar and water, it’s time to heat it up. Make sure to turn the heat to medium once the mixture starts to boil.
Important note: It could take a little while for the sugar and water to boil down to the caramel sauce. Be patient and just make sure your mixture won’t burn.
Step 3. Wait for the sugar mixture to turn golden
Without stirring the mixture, wait for the sugar to completely dissolve and turn golden brown. Remember not to stir at all during this time, or else the sugar will crystallize.
You might notice some spots that are turning brown around the saucepan. Remove them with a brush to avoid getting burnt. These can possibly ruin the syrup.
Here’s a simple guide 👇
Source: https://ahealthymakeover.com/salted-caramel-coffee-syrup/
Step 4. Cool your caramel mixture
After approximately ten minutes the mixture turns golden brown, you can now turn off the heat.
Add the remaining water and be very careful in pouring it over the hot mixture. Give it a stir so that the sugar doesn’t crystallize.
Note: Use add warm or hot water to avoid any splatter. This will also keep the caramel sauce from hardening.
If the sauce hardens when you add the water, simply return it to a low heat and stir until it dissolves back into liquid.
Step 5. Add the caramel flavor (or not)
You may add caramel flavoring at this point to enhance the salted caramel syrup’s aroma.
Note: This step is optional and the recipe works fine even if you skip it. You can even use vanilla flavoring instead.
Step 6. Add the salt
The final step is to add the sea salt and stir until completely dissolved.
Your caramel mixture should have a runny consistency and a nice amber color. When it’s ready, let it cool for around 30 min on the stovetop.
Step 7. Time for coffee!
Pour your coffee into a mug or tall glass, then drizzle with salted caramel syrup.
Now that you have your salted caramel syrup, Pour a generous amount of your homemade salted caramel syrup into your coffee. And since syrups are versatile, you can use it for either hot or cold coffee.
Stir the syrup in your coffee to incorporate the taste. You can also use it for aesthetic purposes and drizzle it around the inner walls of a tall glass.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlWXmh_VKSs
This recipe will yield 500ml of salted caramel coffee syrup. Store the rest in a glass jar or a squeeze bottle for convenience, and store in a cool dry place.
Best Salted Caramel Syrups for Coffee
The huge appeal of the sweet and salty combination of salted caramel syrup is pretty straightforward. Combining the two flavors doubles the taste sensation.
On one hand, people are naturally drawn to sweet stuff because it provides pleasure and comfort. On the other, salt is just simply enjoyable (as long as you don’t go crazy with it) because it enhances the flavor of almost anything edible.
If you don’t trust yourself in the kitchen…or just can’t be bothered to pick up a pan, you could definitely opt to buy ready-made salted caramel syrup instead.
A quick search on Amazon will include several popular pastry and beverage flavoring brands. Let’s give a quick review of two brands that show up in the results:
1. Torani Puremade Salted Caramel Syrup
Torani is one of the first brands that comes to mind whenever someone mentions flavored syrup, and of course, they also have Salted Caramel among their flavor options.
This syrup has no artificial flavors, color, or preservatives. Yet. it still delivers the buttery smoothness of caramel, which is even elevated by the tinge of salt.
Packaging-wise, Torani Puremade Salted Caramel Syrup comes in a shatterproof plastic bottle which is both convenient and ideal for storage.
Torani Puremade Salted Caramel Syrup is overall a reliable choice for salted caramel coffee recipes.
2. Jordan’s Skinny Syrup Salted Caramel
Just like Torani’s, Jordan’s Skinny Salted Caramel Syrup boasts its exquisite caramel flavor with a smooth salt accent. All this while offering zero calories.
If you’re keeping a keto diet, I recommend this syrup. This way, you can still enjoy salted caramel coffee and other drinks guilt-free.
As for its packaging, it’s in big bottles that are worth its price. It’s also easy to store and doesn’t have to be refrigerated.
Convenient enough for whenever you feel like whipping up a salted caramel coffee, right? ☕
Elevating your simple black coffee with salted caramel syrup
I’m pretty convinced in these 7 easy steps to make homemade salted caramel coffee syrup. Now you can be confident enough to prepare your own salted caramel coffee. All you need to do is make sure you have sugar, salt and probable flavor in the pantry.
If you’re feeling more adventurous, you can try adding milk or cream to elevate the sweet and salty combination of the syrup. You can even use it on other treats like ice cream or cakes! Salted caramel syrup might just be your new special ingredient from now on.
No time to cook? Well, you can always turn towards popular brands like Torani and Jordan’s for their salted caramel syrup. I mean not everyone has the time, right?
Do you want to learn how to make other syrups at home? Check out our white chocolate syrup recipe or tell us the syrup you’d like to learn about in the comments below! 💻
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