Make Great Coffee Drinks with Flavored Coffee Syrups

Flavored coffee remains one of the hottest trends in the world of gourmet coffee. Although most flavored coffee is made by using flavored coffee beans, another equally appealing way exists for coffee lovers to enjoy a wide range of variety in coffee drinks: flavored coffee syrups.

Give credit to the Italians for developing these flavored coffee syrups, mixtures of simple cane sugar syrup and natural or artificial flavor extracts. Although they are now generally referred to as flavored coffee syrups, they were not necessarily originated to enhance a cup of coffee. Rather, flavored coffee syrups had their start as a wonderful source of flavor for other drinks and desserts—to be mixed with soda water, for example, for a refreshing iced soft drink, or to be drizzled over shaved ice or a scoop of ice cream or sorbet to make a great dessert for a hot summer's day.

Endless Creativity Through Flavored Coffee Syrups

But such syrups became an ideal source of variety for today's coffee revolution. Make your favorite cup of coffee, be it freshly brewed with a drip filter, a French press coffee pot, or with an espresso coffee maker; add cream or milk if you wish, whether cold, heated, or frothed with the espresso maker's nozzle for an espresso coffee drink such as cappuccino or a caffè latte. Then, get creative! Drizzle and stir in one or more sweet flavors of your choice: a nut flavored syrup such as hazelnut (one of the leading flavors), almond, or walnut; a fruit flavored syrup such as raspberry, blueberry, passion fruit, or banana; a spice or herb flavored syrup such as cinnamon, mint, or vanilla; or, of course, that old standby, the ever popular chocolate flavored syrup.

Gourmet shops, specialty coffee stores, and many Internet suppliers offer scores of different specialty coffee syrups, making these intense flavor sources readily available to coffee lovers everywhere today. Some of the most popular, high quality brands of gourmet coffee syrup include Torani, Monin, Stirling, Da Vinci, Laurentis, Dolce, and Italia D'Oro. You'll generally find them sold in 750 ml bottles, the size of a standard wine bottle, at prices usually less than $10. Look also for sampler or gift packs of smaller bottles that give you a chance to experiment with some of the most widely loved coffee syrup flavors such as hazelnut, chocolate, peppermint, and raspberry.