Do any of you fellow coffee drinkers out there ever add flavored syrup to your coffee? It’s one of those many condiments and ingredients that you can ask for at the local cafe or coffee house nowadays. No longer do we need to settle for a regular cup of Joe with just cream and sugar.
Of course – I’m not talking to the “black coffee” drinkers – who take their coffee straight black with nothing else in it.
Flavored Syrup is one of those extra additives that you can add to for additional flavor in your coffee that you normally wouldn’t get straight from the roast, and ever since I tried my first shot of flavor many years ago, I’ve been hooked on it. Particularly on the occasions that I’m out at my local cafe.
But is this extra additive in our coffee good for us?
Coffee Flavored Syrup – What is it?
Coffee flavored syrup is one of those delicious additions that can be added in any number of ways to your cup of coffee – hot or cold.
It’s usually designed though to be added to warm coffee drinks, for adding that extra kick of flavor that you wouldn’t normally get from just adding milk or creamer.
But just how much should one add? Well – this would depend on your personal taste. If you only want, say – a hint of vanilla in your coffee – then one pump should do. This is equal to about one fluid ounce.
But say it’s the holidays, or you just want to go on the sweeter end of the spectrum – then you could go as high as four pumps, which will really wake up your taste buds.
I’ve always tried different flavored syrups in the past, from peppermint, white chocolate mocha, chocolate mocha, caramel brulee and others. I can easily tell when four pumps have been added because I can clearly taste the difference. Anything beyond four pumps is just really saturating the flavor of the coffee. Just my preference.
Is Flavored syrup the same thing as adding milk?
Now this is an interesting question that I even pose to myself sometimes. One thing that I noticed over time is that not all flavored syrups are created equal. Some are sweeter than others, and some are richer and thicker too.
Whenever I add white chocolate mocha to my black coffee and stir it, I notice that it dissolves into the light brown texture that I normally get from adding milk and creamer. And since the taste is to my personal liking – I normally don’t add any milk/creamer when using this particular syrup.
But when adding a different flavor, like vanilla – the coffee is still black – or at least a dark brown in texture – and I still need to add milk to achieve that light brown coffee texture that I crave.
In some cases – depending on the flavor – I can do without milk, depending on the flavor. But since I change up my coffee syrups now and then, I’ve never given this much thought as to the milk and creamer content in my coffee.
What about the calories in Flavored Syrup?
Now this is an interesting category for me because the one metric that I try to monitor when enjoying coffee is my calorie intake.
On average, I normally drink between three to five cups of coffee a day – and mind you – most of these cups are small. I literally have a few personal coffee mugs at home that are almost smaller than an eight-ounce Styrofoam cup. I find that this not only helps me to drink coffee in moderation, but to enjoy every cup without going overboard.
After all – why make a giant 12-ounce cup of coffee if you’re not going to finish it in time? But that’s a discussion for another day – concerning drinking lukewarm coffee!
Now back to the calories. I usually only have my flavored syrup during the occasional time when I venture out to the coffeehouse, to either get away, meet up with friends, or do some quiet reading.
When I’m there, it’s usually a tall coffee that I’m ordering on most days. If I plan on sitting there any longer than a half-hour and I’m hoping to stay awake a little longer – maybe I’ll make it a Grande size coffee. These are the few times that I add flavor syrup to my coffee. For a 12 to 16 ounce cup of coffee, that can come to about 36g of calories and around 5 grams of sugar in a pump, depending on the flavor of course.
So just do the math and multiply this by four pumps and you can see how this can REALLY add up. So I try to be careful and not go overboard. One – I skip the sugar all together when asking for any type of syrup in my coffee. The flavor’s that I get are sweet enough for my taste buds, so why add the extra sugar or sweet n low?
Second – It’s not a rule of thumb that you get four pumps in your coffee. Perhaps only two pumps is sweet enough for your coffee and you can manage to cut those extra calories and sugar in half.
Conclusion
What are your thoughts? Do any of you add flavored syrup to your coffee? If so, which are your favorite flavors?
