The success of coffee syrups

If you had suggested to someone a few years ago that they should add syrup to their coffee they would have looked at you blankly and wondered what on earth you were talking about. The closest people came to syrup was probably a tin of golden or even black treacle in the kitchen cupboard!

Syrup in coffee was something a few people on the Continent indulged in when they had the time to sit outside their favourite café or bar, putting the world to rights with their companions and asking the barista to “just add a shot of vanilla”, or perhaps amaretto, to their espresso to give it a bit of a twist.

But not any more. Because if you haven’t heard of coffee syrups then you really are in the minority, and missing out.

Even here in the UK, where we can be a bit slow to embrace new culinary ideas from abroad, the idea of adding syrup to coffee is becoming more and more popular.

Coffee shops – both chains and independents – are taking advantage of this new popularity and stocking a wide range of flavours. They have realised that people want to add a dash of something new to their espresso, they want to liven up their latte, makeover their macchiato, and ring the changes with their cappuccino.

For coffee shops, it makes commercial sense. Each bottle of syrup contains a number of shots, the cost of which can be passed on to the customer with a small mark-up. A slight increase in price for the customer, but a big profit for the coffee shop.

For coffee lovers, syrups really ring the changes and add a new interest and more choice for both the coffee aficionado and the occasional coffee drinker alike. And they make only a small difference in price to your usual drink.

So, where did the practice of adding syrup to coffee come from? It is thought to have started as a syrup flavoured with actual coffee, and originated from New England. It was created in the 1930s, when drug stores started mixing leftover coffee grounds with sugar and milk, and marketing the drink at children, whose parents were in the store having ‘proper’ coffee. Bit different to a cola with a straw!

Some coffee shops in the States also started making simple sugar syrups, by dissolving sugar in water, then using the syrup as a coffee sweetener.

At some point, someone thought of bottling this syrup and it was marketed.

But all this was a far cry from the syrups we enjoy nowadays, with their very wide range of flavours – vanilla, cinnamon, amaretto, ginger, and caramel to name but a few.

You can add them to coffee in your local coffee shop, you can enjoy them at home, and they are so versatile you can even use them in cooking.