A homemade holiday coffee can be as simple as adding caramel syrup to your usual latte—or a small project involving sugar cookie syrup and Christmas sprinkles. Both sound good to me, just not on the same morning.
These five Starbucks-style recipes cover caramel, gingerbread, peppermint mocha, sugar cookie and eggnog. Most use ready-made syrups or eggnog; the sugar cookie latte includes a syrup you make from scratch. Each has its own ingredient list and video, with the relevant segment marked so you can go straight to the drink you want.
Holiday Flavors Without Five Homemade Syrups
I wanted five different holiday flavors without turning every cup into a syrup-making project. The caramel latte uses bottled syrups, the gingerbread latte can use a store-bought one, and the peppermint mocha gives measured syrup amounts for a 12-ounce cup. Eggnog needs no syrup at all. The sugar cookie latte earns its extra saucepan because its recipe spells out the homemade syrup, including the almond and vanilla extracts. Each pick below is one specific drink, even when its video includes others.
Caramel Brulee Latte With Store-Bought Syrups
The caramel brulee latte here is really a caramel latte with a holiday name.
The drink is assembled right in the mug using bottled caramel and vanilla coffee syrups, espresso and steamed milk. It skips the saucepan of homemade syrup, not the hot coffee and milk. Whipped cream and a caramel drizzle finish it off; there is no crunchy burnt-sugar topping here. That’s why I picked this version: it keeps the caramel flavor without asking you to cook sugar first. The whipped cream shown is gloriously generous, and viewers noticed. Keep that flourish if you want the full dessert-coffee effect, or use less topping and let the caramel do the talking.
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons caramel syrup
- 2 tablespoons vanilla coffee syrup
- 2 oz espresso
- 8 oz steamed milk
- whipped cream on top
- caramel drizzle on top
Caramel latte segment: 1:38 to 2:37.
SaveGingerbread Latte With French Press Foam
Real foam without buying a frother is what this gingerbread latte gets you.
The useful trick is what happens to the milk: it’s warmed in the microwave, then frothed in a French press rather than with a separate frother. The drink pairs that milk and foam with espresso or very strong brewed coffee and gingerbread syrup. Store-bought syrup works here, so the French press is the only extra equipment to think about. The creator recommends 2% or whole milk for the foam, with whipped cream optional and nutmeg on top. Viewers liked the French-press idea, and that’s the reason this particular gingerbread latte made my list rather than another recipe that starts with cooking syrup.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup milk (2% or whole foams best)
- 1/3 cup espresso or very strong brewed coffee
- 1 1/2 oz gingerbread syrup (store-bought or homemade)
- whipped cream (optional)
- ground nutmeg on top
Gingerbread latte segment: 1:47 to 3:23.
SavePeppermint Mocha Measured for a 12-Ounce Cup
Made coffee-shop style on an espresso machine, this peppermint mocha is the measured one.
The peppermint mocha is the espresso-machine pick, with the coffee, chocolate syrup and mint syrup measured for one 12-ounce cup. Steamed milk, whipped cream and chocolate pieces finish the mocha. I like having a stated cup size rather than guessing which mug the measurements suit. The creator does not give a milk quantity, though; the cup size is the only guide supplied. Viewers asked about the milk amount too. Follow the first, red-cup build: the smaller blue-cup ristretto version later on has different measurements and is not the recipe listed here.
Ingredients
- 18 g coffee beans, brewed into 2 shots espresso (2 oz / 60 ml)
- 2 tbsp chocolate syrup
- 0.5 oz / 15 ml (1 tbsp) mint syrup
- steamed milk
- whipped cream
- chocolate curls, bits or chips on top
The 12-ounce red-cup recipe: 0:20 to 5:10.
SaveSugar Cookie Almond Milk Latte
A syrup you make from scratch is where this sugar cookie latte starts.
The sugar cookie latte is my pick when the homemade syrup is part of the appeal. White and brown sugar, vanilla and almond extract give the syrup its cookie flavors; butter extract is optional. The syrup takes a saucepan and about 10 minutes of simmering, followed by cooling. Only two tablespoons of the finished batch go into one latte, alongside espresso or strong coffee and hot frothed almond milk. The complete syrup formula is why this version earned its place. There is no need to borrow ingredients from the video’s other four drinks, and the festive sprinkles belong on this sugar cookie latte.
The first six ingredients make the syrup batch. The remaining ingredients make one latte using two tablespoons of that prepared syrup.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1 cup water
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp almond extract
- 1 tsp butter extract (optional)
- 2 tbsp sugar cookie syrup
- 2 shots espresso or 1/2 cup strong coffee
- frothed hot almond milk (or milk of choice)
- whipped cream (optional)
- Christmas sprinkles on top
Sugar cookie syrup and latte segment: 0:54 to 1:34.
SaveThree-Ingredient Eggnog Latte
Of the five, the eggnog latte has the shortest ingredient list.
The three-ingredient name refers to the drink itself: eggnog, milk and coffee or espresso. Whipped cream and a sprinkle of spice are extras on top. The video warms the eggnog and milk in a saucepan before combining them with coffee in the mug, so this is not a no-heating recipe. What it does skip is syrup. The eggnog supplies the sweetness and holiday flavor, while the coffee amount is given as a range from a quarter cup to half a cup. That’s the appeal for me: if you already have a carton of eggnog, there’s no separate flavoring project before your latte.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup eggnog
- 1/4 cup milk
- 1/4 to 1/2 cup coffee or espresso
- whipped cream and sprinkles or a spice on top
Eggnog latte segment: 1:03 to 1:36.
SaveFAQ
Three of these recipes allow brewed coffee; the other two specify espresso.
Do you need an espresso machine?
Not for three of them. The gingerbread latte can use very strong brewed coffee, the sugar cookie latte can use half a cup of strong coffee, and the eggnog latte can use coffee or espresso. If you use brewed coffee, make it stronger than usual. The caramel and peppermint recipes call for espresso as written.
How do you foam milk without a frother?
The gingerbread video uses a French press to froth warmed milk by pumping the plunger. That’s the method demonstrated in this roundup; the French press is frothing the milk, not making espresso.
Can you use dairy-free milk?
The sugar cookie recipe uses almond milk. That alone does not make the finished drink dairy-free: check any optional whipped cream and flavorings too. The other recipes are listed as their creators give them; substituting plant milk does not remove dairy from eggnog, sauces or toppings.
Do they taste like the coffee shop ones?
These are homemade interpretations, not official Starbucks formulas. The caramel version, for example, uses bottled caramel and vanilla syrups without a burnt-sugar topping. Pick the flavor and preparation that appeal to you rather than expecting an exact match to a cafe drink.
Start with the one that fits the kitchen you have tonight. If you have espresso but do not want to use the stove, the caramel latte is made right in the mug. If you have a French press but no frother, try the gingerbread latte.
