Starbucks Sauce vs. Syrup: What’s the Difference?

After reading the article, you can determine whether Starbucks syrup or sauce is the best option to capture your favorite Starbucks coffee flavor at home.
By
Samanta Fryer
Samanta Fryer
Writer
Samanta Fryer is our senior editor and content writer, at CoffeeVibe. Apart from writing and reading, she’s fond of the coffee brewing process and enjoys tasting new coffe read more
reviewed
Reviewed By
Ryan Hendricks
Ryan Hendricks
Expert
Ryan Hendricks is our tester, who puts products through their paces. He used to be a barista and is now a full-time coffee enthusiast. He’s always testing out new gadgets, read more
Last updated: August 29, 2023
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Coffee shops offer a variety of drinks, flavors, styles, and temperatures. The wide range of options can create a source of anxiety. Once you find a coffee drink you love, most coffee-goers do not stray from their favorite choice. But how do you find the perfect beverage? How do you know what the different ingredients are and mean? And more importantly, how do you perfect the same tasting drink at home? For the new or experienced coffee drinker, you can read up on all of the flavors and how coffee is made, but the true test will be the taste test. 

After reading about the best coffee syrups and the types of coffees, you can feel more confident walking into any coffee shop. You will be able to make an educated guess on what tastes best Trusted Source Coffee: Who grows, drinks and pays the most? How do you like your coffee in the morning? From an Italian espresso to the Vietnamese ca phe trung, made with egg yolks and condensed milk, a lot depends on where you wake up. www.bbc.com . There are common coffee plants to exotic ones. There are basic flavor syrups to rich hot Starbucks sauces. The choices are endless. Lucky for you, you can ask a Starbucks employee what the popular choices are for your preferences. 

Starbucks has made it possible for you to capture the flavor of your favorite drinks in the comfort of your own home. They sell Starbucks coffee, sauce, and syrup. It is important to understand how unique and special Starbucks sauces and syrups are as well as their differences. 

What is Special about Starbucks Sauce

Starbucks Sauce vs. Syrup: What's the Difference?
They are much thicker than syrup and often made with dairy products.

Starbucks sauces add evenly distributed flavor to your favorite coffee drink. If you are vegan or lactose intolerant, Starbucks baristas will suggest using a vegan-friendly or diary-free syrup. The only vegan option is the Mocha Starbucks mocha sauce. 

Starbucks sauces come available in three main flavors: dark caramel sauce, white chocolate mocha sauce, and mocha sauce. Depending on the season, Starbucks may offer seasonal flavors such as pumpkin spice. If you are looking to purchase Starbucks sauces, the availability is dependent on each store. You should call your local store to see if they have any available to purchase. They most likely will have the more popular flavors available as they will have a larger stock on site. Third-party vendors also will sell Starbucks sauces. There is not any available directly on the Starbucks website like there are syrups. 

How It Is Used

Starbucks sauce is crafted with rich ingredients to make every sip of your coffee robust and flavorful. There are some sauces like seasonal pumpkin spice sauce that you can pump. These sauces are thick and require you to squeeze the sauce directly into the drink. However, if you have been to a Starbucks, you will see that nearly all sauces require you to squeeze the thick flavor into your favorite beverage. 

Where It Is Used

Starbucks sauces are used in both hot and cold drinks but are favored in mocha-flavored lattes, cappuccinos, Frappuccinos, and macchiatos. Hot drinks encourage the proper osmosis for the sauce to evenly distribute through the liquid. In cold drinks, consumers often complain that the sauce collects on the bottom. 

What is Special about Starbucks Syrup 

Starbucks Sauce vs. Syrup: What's the Difference?
Starbucks offers 11 main syrup flavors.

Starbucks will introduce special syrup flavors like pumpkin spice, depending on the season. For example, pumpkin spice is limited for sale during the fall. These limited seasonal flavors are extremely special. If you love the taste of pumpkin spice all year long, you will want to make a note to purchase the syrup during the fall season.  Starbucks syrup is created using a special Starbucks patented formula. You may have tried to recreate the flavors at home using off-brand syrup flavorings but have been unsuccessful. Starbucks syrup is the only syrup to give you that fresh Starbucks taste right in your home. 

How It Is Used

Starbucks syrup is most commonly used to sweeten your drink. The rich flavors will give you the coffee store taste without having to make a stop on your morning commute. Starbucks syrup is also used to replace sugar.  Starbucks offers three unflavored liquid sweeteners: classic syrup, honey blend, and cane sugar syrup. These liquid sweeteners have grown extremely popular, replacing sugar in iced coffee. Consumers appreciate a liquid sweetener syrup over granulated sugar because it does not sink to the bottom of your coffee cup. 

Where It Is Used

Starbucks syrup is most commonly used in cold beverages. Syrup is more fluid than Starbucks sauces. Unlike Starbucks sauces, you can achieve even flavor osmosis using a Starbucks syrup. For example, if you love the flavor of Starbucks vanilla iced coffee, you will want to purchase a Starbucks vanilla syrup. The syrup will not sink to the bottom of your cup and accumulate. Instead, you will be left with an enriched vanilla flavor with every sip. 

What to Choose: Starbucks Sauce or Syrup

Starbucks Sauce vs. Syrup: What's the Difference?
Starbucks sauces are thicker and usually made with nonfat milk (except for the Mocha Sauce). Starbucks syrups are thinner and more watery, which makes them easier to mix into drinks, and usually don’t contain any dairy.

Starbucks coffee tastes fresh and is one of the most popular coffee chains in the United States. CNN Trusted Source Why Starbucks coffee tastes like travel There are over 15,000 Starbucks across the United States. The foam is too foamy for latte art, but the coffee is fresh and the Wi-Fi always works. Along the highways and byways of my travels, which involve more gas stations than airports, the green mermaid has become a dependable marker of having made it another long way. edition.cnn.com paints a beautiful image. They state Starbucks coffee reminds them of travel and meaningful friendships. Perfecting the Starbucks taste at home requires you to purchase Starbucks sauce or syrup. The difference between sauce and syrup, Starbucks employees, will tell you is its consistency and flavor. 

For example, if you would like to recreate a caramel macchiato, you may have difficulty choosing between a Starbucks caramel sauce and syrup. Caramel sauce adds thickness and consistency to a hot beverage. Coffee shops use a caramel sauce in a caramel macchiato in order to achieve even flavor distribution. Caramel syrup is more fluid, added to products like iced coffee. The fluidity in syrup outranks flavor distribution than a sauce in a cold beverage. A Starbucks syrup will accumulate on the bottom of a cold coffee like granulated sugar. The same reasoning applies to mocha flavored drinks like a white chocolate mocha beverage. Starbucks recipes require a sauce, not a syrup. 

If you are lactose intolerant, typically a Starbucks syrups do not have any dairy products. You should carefully read the label before purchasing any product if you have an intolerance or allergy. There are many dairy-free Trusted Source Dairy Free Starbucks Guide: Complete with Beverages, Food & Vegan Info From warm lattes to cool frappuccinos, pre-packaged snacks to prepared meals and baked goods, dairy free Starbucks option are available and included here. www.godairyfree.org Starbucks options to add flavor to your beverage without the negative health side effects. 

Additional Recipes

If you are still unsure of what Starbucks flavored coffee to drink, here are four of our favorite easy recipes:

Ferrero Rocher

Base: Double chocolate chip or java chip Frappuccino 

Add: 2 pumps mocha syrup and 1 pump hazelnut syrup

Blend: **optional** nutmeg or mocha for a richer flavor

Top: Whipped cream and hazelnut drizzle

Cotton Candy

Base: Vanilla bean Frappuccino 

Add: 1 pump Raspberry syrup

Cake Batter

Base: Vanilla bean Frappuccino 

Add: 1 pump hazelnut syrup

Blend: **optional** birthday cake pop

Red Velvet

Base: Half which chocolate mocha sauce and regular mocha sauce Frappuccino

Add: 1 pump Raspberry syrup

Blend: Whip cream

Top: Whipped cream

Final thoughts

Starbucks coffee can be made in the comfort of your own home. You can experience the fresh and robust coffee flavors without having to travel to your local coffee shop. The possibilities of coffee-flavored drinks are endless with the help of Starbucks syrups and sauces. If you are unsure whether to purchase a syrup or a sauce, you can easily determine which is best depending on what type of Starbucks drink you enjoy most. 

References

1.
Coffee: Who grows, drinks and pays the most?
How do you like your coffee in the morning? From an Italian espresso to the Vietnamese ca phe trung, made with egg yolks and condensed milk, a lot depends on where you wake up.
2.
edition.cnn.com
There are over 15,000 Starbucks across the United States. The foam is too foamy for latte art, but the coffee is fresh and the Wi-Fi always works. Along the highways and byways of my travels, which involve more gas stations than airports, the green mermaid has become a dependable marker of having made it another long way.
3.
Dairy Free Starbucks Guide: Complete with Beverages, Food & Vegan Info
From warm lattes to cool frappuccinos, pre-packaged snacks to prepared meals and baked goods, dairy free Starbucks option are available and included here.

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