Vanilla-Coconut Simple Syrup For Coffee.

"Bean Bar?"

That was the question from one of the guys on my team. He was going to walk to the neighborhood coffee place, which is top-notch. 

Many people in our office love Starbucks. And I do too. But the Bean Bar is a simple place with a limited menu. And it's always excellent. So I suggested we use this time as his "1-to-1" meeting for the week with me, which means we would be talking about work as we walked and grabbed coffee.  Which meant we could log the time in our time sheets. SUCCESS!

We gabbed about the local SEO efforts he has going for one of his clients. (The guy is one of the best at local SEO out there.) But he found time to recommend I try to the Iced Vanilla Coffee in between the conversation about which local SEO vendors we should be exploring.

Now... I don't do iced coffee or iced teas. I think that is the work of the devil. Tea and coffee should always be hot. But it was sweltering outside. And an iced coffee with vanilla sounded more like a dessert anyway... So I went with it.

We got our coffees...  And I was in love after the first sip. The vanilla in it was a homemade simple syrup that tasted like it was burnt caramel. It was delicious. And as with all delicious things I have tried in my life... I wanted to try to replicate it myself, from scratch.

Now the weekend is here, and I spent probably a good 30 minutes yesterday researching recipes for vanilla simple syrup. There are many. But I knew I wanted to put a twist on mine. So I adapted one to include coconut extract, so that I could have a Vanilla-Coconut coffee.

It's super easy to make. 

Ingredients:
1 3/4 cups of water
1 1/2 cup of granulated sugar
1/2 cup of brown sugar (I used dark, but you can use light)
2 teaspoons of coconut extract
1 vanilla bean split open, and scraped a little

You put everything except the extract into a pan, whisk it and let it come to a boil. As soon as it does, lower the heat and let it simmer for five minutes, occasionally whisking it.  All of the sugar should be dissolved.  Once it is, pull it off of the heat and pour the extract in and whisk it. Then let it cool for about 10 minutes.

After that, it's ready to be poured into some pretty storage vessel. I put mine into one of my carafes, and even kept the bean in it.

Into the fridge it will be stored. But I poured a little into my coffee this morning with some half-n-half...

The Britney Bitch mug is delighted! But she's easily delighted at anything. (I really think it's time I upgraded to a Beyonce mug. Now I just need to find one.)

Love the little specs of the vanilla in the coffee. Gorgeous. The whole thing is a yummy coffee experience this morning.