Caramel Coffee

Make this Starbucks-style Caramel Coffee at home in just minutes! Coffee, milk and caramel come together for this sweet and foamy treat.

One look around my kitchen, and you would immediately realize that I’m coffee obsessed. I have two French presses, a cold brewer, a Chemex, a stovetop espresso maker and a Nespesso machine.

While I normally take my coffee with just a splash of milk or almond milk creamer, every once in awhile I like to make something a little fancier.

And from a look around this blog, you’d know that I’m also caramel obsessed (hello, caramel apple mule and caramel apple mug cake). So, it’s only natural that coffee + caramel is one of my love languages.

With this drink, I was going for something reminiscent of a Starbucks caramel brulee latte (similar to the caramel iced coffee I like to make, but hot).

Just like my salted caramel cream cold brew, this drink comes together in just minutes. The recipe as written below makes one serving, although you can double or quadruple the recipe for more servings, as needed, if you’re hosting a brunch buffet or something (don’t forget the sweet potato breakfast casserole!)

Or, make yourself a caramel coffee and some make ahead egg muffins for a weekday breakfast on the go!

The ingredients for this coffee with caramel sauce are simple and easy to find:

• caramel – You will need EITHER caramel syrup for coffee OR microwave caramel sauce to flavor the drink itself. Then, you may want more caramel sauce to garnish the drink, but this is optional.
• milk – I love a drink made with whole milk (and it’s always in my fridge because I have a growing preschooler). But you can also use a lower fat milk for this recipe.
• coffee – you’ll need 1 cup (8 ounces) of hot brewed coffee. Make a small pot of coffee, or use a Nespresso or Keurig pod. More on choosing a coffee roast below!
• whipped cream – this is optional but highly encouraged for garnishing the drink (and lemon pancakes).

Other options for this caramel coffee recipe:

Don’t want to make homemade caramel syrup or sauce? No worries at all, you can use store-bought ingredients to make this caramel coffee recipe even easier.

Torani and Monin are two well-known brands of flavored syrups for coffeehouse-style drinks, and they both make a caramel-flavored one you can use in this coffee with caramel sauce.

For the caramel sauce, you can usually find something near the ice cream section of the grocery store. Torani makes a fancy one, or Hershey’s makes a not-so-fancy one.

How to make this caramel coffee drink:

First, brew a cup of coffee using your favorite method. While that is brewing, heat some milk and the caramel syrup OR sauce in a small saucepan on the stove, until steaming. Whisk it quite frequently so that it gets nice and foamy.

Combine the brewed java and the foamy, warmed milk in a big mug and top with whipped cream and caramel sauce, if you want!

What coffee roast should I use?

When buying whole bean coffee or even ground coffee or pods, there are usually a lot of options. The ones you’ll see most often include dark, medium and light roasts.

While any of these varieties would work perfectly fine for this caramel coffee recipe, I very much prefer a dark roast.

Dark roast has the most intense flavor, which stands up to sweetness the best. You can still taste the coffee notes without losing them in the sweetness of this coffee with caramel sauce.

Can I make this vegan?

Totally. In this case, I would suggest using the caramel syrup, which is completely vegan, as opposed to the caramel sauce recipe that has butter in it.

Then, you’ll need to choose a vegan milk such as oat milk or almond milk for the base of this caramel coffee drink.

Omit the whipped cream and caramel sauce garnishes or find vegan alternatives, like non-dairy whipped cream and vegan caramel sauce.

Note: This recipe was originally published in 2014. The recipe was updated in 2023 to be even better, the photos were reshot, and the post was revised accordingly. The original photos appear below.