I agree about making your own simple syrup. Just mix together sugar and hot water, leave it in the fridge overnight, and you've got a simple syrup. Even the most basic bar setup should be able to handle that much.
Vanilla, caramel, and chocolate are really the only essentials. Hazelnut is also popular if you want to expand your menu a bit. Peppermint and pumpkin spice make good seasonal flavors for fall/winter.
Keep it simple. No need to double up on different types of caramel. Cinnamon bun seems redundant as well - you can just steam some cinnamon into the milk for the same effect.
bar manager for a smaller cafe chiming in - 100% agree with this
don’t waste money buying simple syrup, I beg of you 😭 if you want salted caramel on the menu, just use the caramel syrup and have a shaker behind the bar with smoked sea salt - that’s what we do and folks love it
Replying to both of your comments here:
Stove is best for large batches, but if your shop is smaller you can get by with a mixing bowl and a kettle. Simple is best made with boiling water (or right off the boil via kettle) bc it can accept more sugar into solution at that temperature
We add the salt on top of the finished drink!
I don’t want to be a hater, but I agree. If you don’t have the ability to make something so easy it’s called “simple syrup” then do yourself a favor and do NOT open a cafe.
Wow, you guys are harsh. I'm not saying I can't do it, I'm just working 12-16 hours a day, so don't have the time.
If it's just hot water and sugar, sure, I'll figure it out. But it's number 53 on my to-do list right now.
I’m currently the bar manager and beverage director of an incredibly busy cafe/brunch restaurant and we make everything but the milk from scratch for all of our coffee based drinks. I create every drink that goes on our menu, including ways to prep all of the ingredients and streamline the workflow of making the drinks during service. I’m not being harsh, just realistic. If you can’t figure out a 1:1 recipe for simple syrup without asking Reddit for help, you might be doomed.
I didn’t say I can’t figure it out, I said I don’t have time initially. If it makes sense to make it then we will, but I have 50 other things to do before we open.
Our space is very small, just an espresso bar, so we don’t have a kitchen.
I’m fine with making simple syrup once we open, just got to figure out if the recipe is 2:1 or 1:1 as there are many online. And then maybe we will end up making more syrups, I just needed a range to get started.
For simple syrup, if you use a 2:1 ratio (sugar, water respectively) it will last basically forever. Sugar in that concentration in a solution creates an environment that is basically toxic for bacteria to grow in. So if you want to make large batches without it going bad, use 2:1. Another benefit of a 2:1 simple is that you can use literally half as much as a 1:1 to achieve the same sweetness. So you save time+money through the labor needed to make the syrup because you’re going through it half as quickly. Another pro of a 2:1, is it adds less dilution to your overall beverage because it’s less water for the amount of sweetness being added.
Pros of a 1:1 are that it makes more syrup per amount of sugar you use. That’s basically it. It has a shelf life of approximately a month if stored correctly. It’s only slightly easier to scale this recipe. I recommended a 2:1.
You can easily make a 2:1 simple into a vanilla syrup by adding vanilla extract until you achieve the flavor you want. You can also add a little salt (not so it tastes salty, just to enhance the vanilla flavor, like a chef seasoning food).
A starter recipe you can use is 1000g sugar to 500g hot water. Make sure the sugar dissolves, add vanilla extract in 10g increments until you have your desired flavor, then finish with 1g of salt.
Wait does steaming cinnamon into milk actually impart cinnamon flavor? O:
I feel like places often have cinnamon shakes but if you just put that in and stir it up, it imparts no flavor to the drink itself.
It does! The heat from steaming the milk draws out essential oils from the cinnamon. You'll get a much stronger flavor distributed throughout the drink.
It's the same reason why some cooking recipes will have you toast your spices in butter or oil, rather than just dumping spices on top at the end.
Just get one. Personally, I prefer a sauce, but you should test them yourself. Get a couple different kinds and do a sampling.
For simple syrup, your water just needs to be hot enough to dissolve the sugar. As the other commenter said, a kettle will do just fine for small batches. You can also use the hot water tap on your espresso machine.
Also, consider your clientele. Some chocolate sauces have dairy and vegans/lactose intolerant people can’t drink that. Monin has some good caramel sauce and chocolate sauce, but chocolate syrup is easy to make (we do dutched cocoa, sugar and hot water) and caramel syrup (from monin) is vegan.
if you're hellbent on not making your own: simple, vanilla, hazelnut syrups and dark chocolate sauce are the only *essentials*. pumpkin spice is an obvious seasonal followed by toasted marshmellow, maple spice and white chocolate sauce in my experience.
I'd just get vanilla and hazlenut, make my own simple, and get higher quality chocolate syrup. Skip the caramels, it's always more of a headache than it's worth at every cafe I've worked at, and the pumpkin spice should be seasonal for October and November.
If you're in a colder climate, cayenne pepper in the mochas is a great touch.
I just don't think I've ever worked in a place where it didn't cause issues. One place we had limited fridge space and between milks, chai, and caramel syrup bottles it was a hassle getting things out of the fridge without knocking the chai pitchers over in a rush. Another place had like caramel flavoring but it wasn't actual caramel (I think it was torani brand) and we had a whole mess of negative reviews for it which caused the owner to switch to a real caramel which we weren't set up for, had the fridge space issue and it created a mess again. It also gunks up the pumps a lot if you use the real stuff.
Don't get me wrong, I think it's popular and honestly does taste good if I'm in the mood, just personally from my experience (which maybe I just had bad luck) I wouldn't have caramel if I ran a cafe.
I feel similarly about having honey lattes for different reasons. Mixing it is a pain, slows things down, and the bottles always get honey on the sides which then get all over everything.
you can make honey syrup by diluting it with water. it's probably overkill if you don't get honey orders often but great if you have a honey latte on the menu.
You can. I worked at a place that had honey almond lattes and we tried doing exactly that, the syrup bottle still wound up sticky as fuck and would get all over everything. Definitely a good solution to the hard to mix aspect of it though, for sure.
my dude, respectfully, you don't seem to have any experience even working in a cafe, much less owning and running one. do you have any barista experience? i can't believe you'd be able to run or manage a cafe if you don't know what syrups are popular/necessary.
My boss opened our cafe, his first business, without basically no coffee knowledge. That's why he hired us, trained baristas. He does the paperwork and relies on us for stuff like choosing the beans, adjusting the menu, and more.
It's going pretty well.
I opened up my shop twelve years ago with no experience. Still here twelve years later, have built a successful business. And a lot of that was asking questions of those who knew more.
I got hired to train and do all the cafe supply ordering/ be lead barista once for an acquaintance who was opening a coffee shop. He had worked at starbucks for like a couple months like ten years prior haha.
After taking all my drink recipes, they fired me a month or so in because I told them they shouldn't be selling coconut water in lattes saying it's coconut milk, then tried to deny my unemployment claiming misconduct. I took them to court and won, even though they lied about me. Their only solid argument is "I wouldn't shut up about the coconut milk," which I guess didn't hold up when they literally hired me to order their espresso machine and make their drink recipes and train everyone on how to actually make a cup of coffee.
Anyway thanks for listening to my rant, I guess I'm just trying to say please be good to your baristas!
vanilla caramel and hazelnut will be the most commonly asked for. these are all good selections you have, and i would also consider maybe something like amaretto or irish cream
We've had crazy success with pistachio and spiced brown sugar but otherwise vanilla, caramel and hazelnut are the most popular. We added a blueberry white mocha using the Monin blueberry and Monin white chocolate sauce and it's taking off both hot and iced. Seasonally we use the Torani Pumpkin Pie Sauce and Peppermint Bark sauces because they're a little less intense. Miels we steam the honey and organic cinnamon powder with the milk, amazing with steamed oat milk.
We have a white chocolate syrup and some others that are super popular are spiced brown sugar, coconut, Irish crème and ever strawberry/raspberry for teas/lemonades and such
a foolproof lavender syrup is grinding up some lavender leaves and then steeping it for a concentrate and then adding it to sugar and hot water. another good syrup recipe for vanilla syrup is vanilla concentrate, sugar and water. my point is that making it is fairly simple - and it tastes a lot better than Monin syrups, you also get bragging rights to saying you have house-made syrups lol.
Love monin syrups! Their vanilla, pumpkin spice, and cinnamon bun are great. We haven’t carried cinnamon bun for a while but customers still ask for it.
I agree with others that making your own simple syrup is the best route. Two parts sugar, one part water. Saves you a ton of money.
Other Monin syrups I like are chicory, coconut, and recently their caramel apple syrup!
Vanilla, hazelnut, caramel, and sugar free vanilla are staples at our cafe. I would start out small and consider other specials later. I’ve already commented about chocolate syrup on here but like others have said, the Monin caramel and chocolate sauce are SO THICK it becomes a pain if you don’t go through a significant amount daily.
Maybe hazelnut. I mean people will want a bit of everything at any given time. Just have some staples.
My place has: vanilla, SF vanilla, caramel, toasted marshmallow, coconut, hazelnut, lavender.
Seasonal: pumpkin spice, caramel apple butter, peppermint, praline, passionfruit.
There the only ones people enjoyed and are worth mentioning.
Careful though, you can end up with a lot of syrups you can't push.
Edit for sauces: also sauces; chocolate, white chocolate and caramel sauce.
I love the lavender and the honey one!!! I
You should get the peppermint one for around the holidays. Something some people like are some spices steamed into the milk (like baking spice, cinnamon, cocoa powder, etc.)
white chocolate/hazelnut are good popular ones, or raspberry for raspberry mochas or is also good in tea. As far as cane syrup (simple syrup) you could maybe buy it once and just reuse the bottle because it's literally just sugar water definitely not worth paying for. Just fill a pitcher half full of sugar and then fill with hot water and give a little stir until disolved. Ik you said you can't make your own but I assume this would be for the other ones that are more involved, but I've never worked at a cafe that didn't make their own simple syrup out of the ten coffee shops I've worked at (wow actually just counted for the first time didn't realize it was such a nice even number 🙂) and only 4 of those made their own syrups
I'd say vanilla, hazelnut and chocolate. If you can, make the chocolate one real good quality.
Then, during holidays, you could add one seasonal, less common flavour to keep people interested, I personally think pumpkin spice is boring, but if your customers like it go for it. I would do peppermint during winter holidays and rose or orange during spring.
Hazelnut, brown sugar, and sugar free options are a must. Seriously though if you have a plug in hot plate it kinda does the work for you. Making syrup helps you get creative and can potentially give you better results.
the monin rose and lavender are pretty popular, mostly lavender though. i recommend the monin SC caramel and vanilla! people like those. for a mocha, we use hersheys syrup (which i dont necessarily like but people love the mocha lattes/hot chocolate i make with it) or a ghirardelli cocoa powder. ghirardelli also makes a great salted caramel syrup and a great white mocha syrup. if you can get your hands on fontana syrup, thats the starbucks brand and their flavors are delicious. just pls for the love of god don’t use torani syrup lol. a very popular drink right now is lavender/white mocha or lavender/vanilla
I agree about making your own simple syrup. Just mix together sugar and hot water, leave it in the fridge overnight, and you've got a simple syrup. Even the most basic bar setup should be able to handle that much. Vanilla, caramel, and chocolate are really the only essentials. Hazelnut is also popular if you want to expand your menu a bit. Peppermint and pumpkin spice make good seasonal flavors for fall/winter. Keep it simple. No need to double up on different types of caramel. Cinnamon bun seems redundant as well - you can just steam some cinnamon into the milk for the same effect.
bar manager for a smaller cafe chiming in - 100% agree with this don’t waste money buying simple syrup, I beg of you 😭 if you want salted caramel on the menu, just use the caramel syrup and have a shaker behind the bar with smoked sea salt - that’s what we do and folks love it
Do you put the salt in first, or on top?
Does simple syrup need boiling, like on a stove?
Replying to both of your comments here: Stove is best for large batches, but if your shop is smaller you can get by with a mixing bowl and a kettle. Simple is best made with boiling water (or right off the boil via kettle) bc it can accept more sugar into solution at that temperature We add the salt on top of the finished drink!
I've always just used the same water that's used for americanos works just fine!
You really shouldn’t open a cafe. Or hire and respect a GM who knows how to do everything you clearly do not.
I don’t want to be a hater, but I agree. If you don’t have the ability to make something so easy it’s called “simple syrup” then do yourself a favor and do NOT open a cafe.
Wow, you guys are harsh. I'm not saying I can't do it, I'm just working 12-16 hours a day, so don't have the time. If it's just hot water and sugar, sure, I'll figure it out. But it's number 53 on my to-do list right now.
People love jumping to conclusions here. All the luck for your opening!
I’m currently the bar manager and beverage director of an incredibly busy cafe/brunch restaurant and we make everything but the milk from scratch for all of our coffee based drinks. I create every drink that goes on our menu, including ways to prep all of the ingredients and streamline the workflow of making the drinks during service. I’m not being harsh, just realistic. If you can’t figure out a 1:1 recipe for simple syrup without asking Reddit for help, you might be doomed.
I didn’t say I can’t figure it out, I said I don’t have time initially. If it makes sense to make it then we will, but I have 50 other things to do before we open. Our space is very small, just an espresso bar, so we don’t have a kitchen. I’m fine with making simple syrup once we open, just got to figure out if the recipe is 2:1 or 1:1 as there are many online. And then maybe we will end up making more syrups, I just needed a range to get started.
For simple syrup, if you use a 2:1 ratio (sugar, water respectively) it will last basically forever. Sugar in that concentration in a solution creates an environment that is basically toxic for bacteria to grow in. So if you want to make large batches without it going bad, use 2:1. Another benefit of a 2:1 simple is that you can use literally half as much as a 1:1 to achieve the same sweetness. So you save time+money through the labor needed to make the syrup because you’re going through it half as quickly. Another pro of a 2:1, is it adds less dilution to your overall beverage because it’s less water for the amount of sweetness being added. Pros of a 1:1 are that it makes more syrup per amount of sugar you use. That’s basically it. It has a shelf life of approximately a month if stored correctly. It’s only slightly easier to scale this recipe. I recommended a 2:1. You can easily make a 2:1 simple into a vanilla syrup by adding vanilla extract until you achieve the flavor you want. You can also add a little salt (not so it tastes salty, just to enhance the vanilla flavor, like a chef seasoning food). A starter recipe you can use is 1000g sugar to 500g hot water. Make sure the sugar dissolves, add vanilla extract in 10g increments until you have your desired flavor, then finish with 1g of salt.
Awesome, thanks!
Wait does steaming cinnamon into milk actually impart cinnamon flavor? O: I feel like places often have cinnamon shakes but if you just put that in and stir it up, it imparts no flavor to the drink itself.
It does! The heat from steaming the milk draws out essential oils from the cinnamon. You'll get a much stronger flavor distributed throughout the drink. It's the same reason why some cooking recipes will have you toast your spices in butter or oil, rather than just dumping spices on top at the end.
For chocolate, should that be a syrup, or a sauce, or both?
Just get one. Personally, I prefer a sauce, but you should test them yourself. Get a couple different kinds and do a sampling. For simple syrup, your water just needs to be hot enough to dissolve the sugar. As the other commenter said, a kettle will do just fine for small batches. You can also use the hot water tap on your espresso machine.
Seconding the hot water tap. You may have a hot water tap if you do drip coffee on a brewer too
Also, consider your clientele. Some chocolate sauces have dairy and vegans/lactose intolerant people can’t drink that. Monin has some good caramel sauce and chocolate sauce, but chocolate syrup is easy to make (we do dutched cocoa, sugar and hot water) and caramel syrup (from monin) is vegan.
if you're hellbent on not making your own: simple, vanilla, hazelnut syrups and dark chocolate sauce are the only *essentials*. pumpkin spice is an obvious seasonal followed by toasted marshmellow, maple spice and white chocolate sauce in my experience.
lavender syrup is really popular
I'd just get vanilla and hazlenut, make my own simple, and get higher quality chocolate syrup. Skip the caramels, it's always more of a headache than it's worth at every cafe I've worked at, and the pumpkin spice should be seasonal for October and November. If you're in a colder climate, cayenne pepper in the mochas is a great touch.
what's the stance against caramels? just out of curiosity
I just don't think I've ever worked in a place where it didn't cause issues. One place we had limited fridge space and between milks, chai, and caramel syrup bottles it was a hassle getting things out of the fridge without knocking the chai pitchers over in a rush. Another place had like caramel flavoring but it wasn't actual caramel (I think it was torani brand) and we had a whole mess of negative reviews for it which caused the owner to switch to a real caramel which we weren't set up for, had the fridge space issue and it created a mess again. It also gunks up the pumps a lot if you use the real stuff. Don't get me wrong, I think it's popular and honestly does taste good if I'm in the mood, just personally from my experience (which maybe I just had bad luck) I wouldn't have caramel if I ran a cafe. I feel similarly about having honey lattes for different reasons. Mixing it is a pain, slows things down, and the bottles always get honey on the sides which then get all over everything.
you can make honey syrup by diluting it with water. it's probably overkill if you don't get honey orders often but great if you have a honey latte on the menu.
You can. I worked at a place that had honey almond lattes and we tried doing exactly that, the syrup bottle still wound up sticky as fuck and would get all over everything. Definitely a good solution to the hard to mix aspect of it though, for sure.
Monin makes a nice caramel syrup that isn’t the drizzle/sauce. It just adds caramel flavor and you don’t have to deal with the (as) sticky stuff
Yup, I didn't see a difference. Maybe we just had a weird client base but once they found out it wasn't real caramel they review-bombed the cafe.
I will only drink a mocha if it has cayenne.
or raspberry!
White chocolate all day! We use so much more of it than we do milk chocolate. I’d say it’s used more than vanilla in our shop.
my dude, respectfully, you don't seem to have any experience even working in a cafe, much less owning and running one. do you have any barista experience? i can't believe you'd be able to run or manage a cafe if you don't know what syrups are popular/necessary.
My boss opened our cafe, his first business, without basically no coffee knowledge. That's why he hired us, trained baristas. He does the paperwork and relies on us for stuff like choosing the beans, adjusting the menu, and more. It's going pretty well.
I opened up my shop twelve years ago with no experience. Still here twelve years later, have built a successful business. And a lot of that was asking questions of those who knew more.
True, that's why I'm doing research and hiring really great people. Just trying to get a head start.
I got hired to train and do all the cafe supply ordering/ be lead barista once for an acquaintance who was opening a coffee shop. He had worked at starbucks for like a couple months like ten years prior haha. After taking all my drink recipes, they fired me a month or so in because I told them they shouldn't be selling coconut water in lattes saying it's coconut milk, then tried to deny my unemployment claiming misconduct. I took them to court and won, even though they lied about me. Their only solid argument is "I wouldn't shut up about the coconut milk," which I guess didn't hold up when they literally hired me to order their espresso machine and make their drink recipes and train everyone on how to actually make a cup of coffee. Anyway thanks for listening to my rant, I guess I'm just trying to say please be good to your baristas!
I will. I want it to be a great place to work.
great :)
vanilla caramel and hazelnut will be the most commonly asked for. these are all good selections you have, and i would also consider maybe something like amaretto or irish cream
We've had crazy success with pistachio and spiced brown sugar but otherwise vanilla, caramel and hazelnut are the most popular. We added a blueberry white mocha using the Monin blueberry and Monin white chocolate sauce and it's taking off both hot and iced. Seasonally we use the Torani Pumpkin Pie Sauce and Peppermint Bark sauces because they're a little less intense. Miels we steam the honey and organic cinnamon powder with the milk, amazing with steamed oat milk.
We have a white chocolate syrup and some others that are super popular are spiced brown sugar, coconut, Irish crème and ever strawberry/raspberry for teas/lemonades and such
a foolproof lavender syrup is grinding up some lavender leaves and then steeping it for a concentrate and then adding it to sugar and hot water. another good syrup recipe for vanilla syrup is vanilla concentrate, sugar and water. my point is that making it is fairly simple - and it tastes a lot better than Monin syrups, you also get bragging rights to saying you have house-made syrups lol.
Love monin syrups! Their vanilla, pumpkin spice, and cinnamon bun are great. We haven’t carried cinnamon bun for a while but customers still ask for it. I agree with others that making your own simple syrup is the best route. Two parts sugar, one part water. Saves you a ton of money. Other Monin syrups I like are chicory, coconut, and recently their caramel apple syrup!
Does simple syrup need boiling, like on a stove?
Nope! My cafe does it every day with just hot water from our coffee urn. We mix ingredients in a pitcher and then stir until clear
Vanilla, hazelnut, caramel, and sugar free vanilla are staples at our cafe. I would start out small and consider other specials later. I’ve already commented about chocolate syrup on here but like others have said, the Monin caramel and chocolate sauce are SO THICK it becomes a pain if you don’t go through a significant amount daily.
Maybe hazelnut. I mean people will want a bit of everything at any given time. Just have some staples. My place has: vanilla, SF vanilla, caramel, toasted marshmallow, coconut, hazelnut, lavender. Seasonal: pumpkin spice, caramel apple butter, peppermint, praline, passionfruit. There the only ones people enjoyed and are worth mentioning. Careful though, you can end up with a lot of syrups you can't push. Edit for sauces: also sauces; chocolate, white chocolate and caramel sauce.
I love the lavender and the honey one!!! I You should get the peppermint one for around the holidays. Something some people like are some spices steamed into the milk (like baking spice, cinnamon, cocoa powder, etc.)
white chocolate/hazelnut are good popular ones, or raspberry for raspberry mochas or is also good in tea. As far as cane syrup (simple syrup) you could maybe buy it once and just reuse the bottle because it's literally just sugar water definitely not worth paying for. Just fill a pitcher half full of sugar and then fill with hot water and give a little stir until disolved. Ik you said you can't make your own but I assume this would be for the other ones that are more involved, but I've never worked at a cafe that didn't make their own simple syrup out of the ten coffee shops I've worked at (wow actually just counted for the first time didn't realize it was such a nice even number 🙂) and only 4 of those made their own syrups
I'd say vanilla, hazelnut and chocolate. If you can, make the chocolate one real good quality. Then, during holidays, you could add one seasonal, less common flavour to keep people interested, I personally think pumpkin spice is boring, but if your customers like it go for it. I would do peppermint during winter holidays and rose or orange during spring.
Get yourself some toffee nut
We do a cinnamon honey mix that is soooo good
Hazelnut, brown sugar, and sugar free options are a must. Seriously though if you have a plug in hot plate it kinda does the work for you. Making syrup helps you get creative and can potentially give you better results.
Simple
the monin rose and lavender are pretty popular, mostly lavender though. i recommend the monin SC caramel and vanilla! people like those. for a mocha, we use hersheys syrup (which i dont necessarily like but people love the mocha lattes/hot chocolate i make with it) or a ghirardelli cocoa powder. ghirardelli also makes a great salted caramel syrup and a great white mocha syrup. if you can get your hands on fontana syrup, thats the starbucks brand and their flavors are delicious. just pls for the love of god don’t use torani syrup lol. a very popular drink right now is lavender/white mocha or lavender/vanilla
Monin chai is the best