I tried 4 vanilla syrups in my coffee to find the best one, and there was a clear winner

It’s possible to save money by making coffee at home — but if it’s not very good, what’s the point?

Fortunately, the right syrup can help make even a novice-made drink taste like it’s from a café.

To figure out which belong in my at-home coffee bar, I picked up vanilla syrups from Monin, DaVinci Gourmet, Torani, and Portland Syrups.

I tested them by stirring half the serving size of each into 8 ounces of cold-brew coffee. (A full serving can be too sweet for my liking.)

Here’s how the vanilla syrups compared.

Monin’s vanilla syrup seemed promising.

Although the Monin syrup bottle was plastic, the elegant-looking label made it feel more high-end to me.

I paid $18.69 for the 33.8-ounce bottle, or $0.55 an ounce.

The ingredients list is short: pure cane sugar, water, natural flavors, natural vanilla extract, and fruit/vegetable juice for coloring.

Of the syrups I tried, this one had the highest calories (100) and sugar (23 grams) per serving, which was 1 ounce, or 2 tablespoons.

The Monin syrup had a rich flavor and a nice level of sweetness.

The syrup had a thin consistency and a nice, natural vanilla scent.

When I added it to the coffee, the vanilla flavor wasn’t as strong as it had smelled in the bottle, but it still came through.

Because of the higher sugar content, I expected this syrup to be too sweet. Instead, I found it was the perfect level of sweetness with a more complex, rich aftertaste that kind of reminded me of caramel.

The DaVinci Gourmet brand was new to me.

Although I was familiar with brands like Monin or Torani, I had never come across DaVinci Gourmet in stores or online before.

This 25.4-ounce bottle of syrup cost me $6.88. It had the lowest cost per ounce at $0.27.

The ingredients list includes water, cane sugar, citric acid, preservatives, natural flavors, and added caramel color. Each 2-tablespoon serving contains 18 grams of sugar and 70 calories.

This syrup tasted a bit too artificial for my liking.

The syrup was very thin, and it had an alcohol scent that reminded me of opening a bottle of vanilla extract. It was quite dark from the added coloring.

As for flavor, this tasted very sweet with a really faint vanilla flavor. I didn’t love the aftertaste, which seemed somewhat bitter and artificial to me.

To me, Torani is the most recognizable brand of the bunch.

I was the most familiar with Torani, which is oftentimes the only coffee syrup I see on shelves at my local grocery stores.

The 25.4-ounce bottle I purchased came with a pump for convenience and cost me $14.99, or $0.59 an ounce.

The ingredients include pure cane sugar, water, citric acid, preservatives, and natural flavors, but no additives for color.

Each 2-tablespoon serving contains 20 grams of sugar and 80 calories.

The syrup’s flavor was more subtle than I expected.

The syrup was very light in color and slightly thicker in consistency than the others (although still thin enough to stir easily into cold coffee).

I didn’t smell much of anything when I opened the bottle.

Although I’ve used Torani syrups before, I was surprised by how subtle the vanilla flavor seemed when comparing this side-by-side with other options.

The sweetness level was ideal, but I wished the vanilla flavor were stronger.

Portland Syrups is a smaller and new-to-me business.

The next syrup I tried is from Portland Syrups, a small business based in Portland, Oregon.

I loved that it came in a chic glass bottle with a metal cap. Notably, it was the only syrup to require refrigeration after opening.

This 12-fluid-ounce bottle cost $14.99, or $1.25 an ounce.

Despite the higher price, this syrup still contains the same number of servings as the others I tried, since it’s more concentrated. The serving size is 1 tablespoon (half of the others).

The ingredients seemed simple — filtered water, organic cane sugar, brown sugar, vanilla extract, vanilla concentrate, lactic acid, and organic vanilla fleck.

It has 25 calories and 6 grams of sugar per serving.

I was impressed by the complex flavors in this syrup.

Upon opening this syrup, I strangely thought it smelled like vanilla and bananas.

Given the simple ingredient list, I expected a really strong vanilla flavor. In reality, I only got a hint of vanilla, and instead got a lot more richness and depth from the brown sugar.

This syrup was delicious with coffee, but it tasted much different from how I’d expect a vanilla syrup to taste.

My favorite syrup offered the most traditional vanilla flavor.

All in all, I think Monin’s syrup gave my coffee the best classic vanilla flavor.

I felt it had the strongest vanilla taste and I appreciated its fairly simple list of ingredients — even though it was a bit higher in sugar than I’d typically like.

The Portland Syrups option was a close second for me. It fell short because it didn’t have the classic vanilla taste I expected, but the deeper, more complex flavor notes made it enjoyable.

I wasn’t wowed by the Torani syrup, but I’d buy it again in the future simply because it’s the easiest for me to find in grocery stores. I liked the level of sweetness in it, but I wanted a stronger vanilla flavor.

Torani also sells French-vanilla and vanilla-bean syrups, so I may try those in the future to see if the vanilla flavor is more prominent.

Although the DaVinci syrup was technically the cheapest per ounce, I’d rather pay a little more for a different syrup on this list.

The good thing about all of these, though, is that you can use as much of each as you want to create your perfect cup of coffee.

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