COOK: Homemade Chocolate Mocha Syrup
- Chocolate Mocha Syrup Ingredients
- Kitchen Equipment Needed
- How to Make Chocolate Mocha Syrup
- Storage & Serving Ideas
- Homemade Chocolate Mocha Syrup
This chocolate mocha syrup is dark, rich, and bittersweet, and so easy to make. It’s a perfect simple dessert sauce to drizzle over a scoop of ice cream, a brownie sundae, delicate rolled crepes, or a slice of cheesecake.
It’s better than the bland, insipid store-bought chocolate syrup, and makes a perfect iced or hot chocolate mocha or chocolate milk with a kick (this is a great workout recovery drink). And your homemade chocolate syrup has no corn syrup, preservatives, or fillers!
Blend it with iced coffee or espresso and a handful of ice or a scoop of ice cream to make a quick homemade frappe, drizzle it over fresh fruit, or add a spoonful to your hot cocoa for an intense chocolate mocha flavor boost… the possibilities are pretty much limited only by your imagination!
Chocolate Mocha Syrup Ingredients
Sugar:
I usually use white granulated sugar, though you could also use turbinado, demerara, or raw sugar. These will add warmer caramel or molasses notes to your chocolate mocha syrup. I like my chocolate on the dark and bittersweet side, so there’s a fairly high percentage of cocoa powder to sugar in this recipe. If you want a sweeter syrup, you can increase the sugar slightly or by up to an additional half cup.
Cocoa Powder:
Use a good quality flavorful cocoa powder. I use a fairly high ratio of cocoa powder to sugar for a bittersweet syrup, as I find most commercial chocolate syrups too cloyingly sweet. You can adjust accordingly for your taste if you want a sweeter syrup or a less intense chocolate flavor.
Coffee:
You could try making this syrup with coffee instead of water, but I find that after the boiling needed to make the syrup, coffee takes on a bitter, overcooked flavor and loses a lot of the aromatic character and aroma notes.
I prefer to use water to dissolve the sugar and boil the syrup and then add instant coffee or espresso granules to the syrup at the end of cooking. This will give a much fresher, cleaner coffee flavor.
You could also reduce the water slightly and add freshly brewed espresso or strong moka pot coffee at the end of the boil instead of the coffee granules. If you go this route, measure the volume of your espresso and reduce the water by the same amount (I’d recommend using no more than about 4 oz, which would be very strong indeed).
Seasoning:
Use a good quality vanilla extract, and a pinch of sea salt. These will amplify, round, and balance the cocoa and coffee flavors. Don’t skip these or your syrup will be flat and one-note!
Kitchen Equipment Needed
2 quart saucepan:
You can use any small saucepan, as long as it has room for all of the ingredients at a simmer, and a heavy bottom so the syrup doesn’t scorch.
squeeze bottle or pint glass jar:
You can use a clean (ideally sanitized/boiled) glass jar, or a plastic squeeze bottle to refrigerate your chocolate mocha syrup.
If you are using a plastic bottle, make sure the chocolate syrup is mostly cooled before using a funnel to pour the syrup into the bottle, or you will melt or deform your plastic bottle!
How to Make Chocolate Mocha Syrup
make a simple syrup:
- In the saucepan over medium-low heat, bring the water and sugar to a boil, whisking to dissolve the sugar as you heat it to make a simple syrup.
- Bring the syrup up to a low simmer.
add cocoa:
- If the cocoa powder is very lumpy, you may want to sift the cocoa powder before adding it to the simple syrup.
- Add the cocoa powder and salt, whisking until well incorporated and simmer the chocolate syrup for three minutes.
add flavorings:
- Whisk in the vanilla and instant espresso or coffee powder (or the espresso) and bring the mixture just up to a simmer again, then immediately remove from the heat.
cool & store:
- Cover, and let the mixture cool slightly for a few minutes.
- If you are storing your syrup in a clean or sterilized canning jar, you can transfer the hot syrup into a preheated jar.
- If you are using a plastic squeeze bottle, wait until the syrup is cooled to lukewarm before transferring it to the bottle using a funnel.
Storage & Serving Ideas
Store your homemade mocha syrup in a clean jar or squeeze bottle in the refrigerator for up to six weeks. Discard the syrup if it shows any signs of spoilage or off flavors, and if you are storing it in a jar, always use a clean spoon to prevent contamination.
You can also freeze the syrup in an airtight, freezer-safe container for several months (use within six months for best flavor and quality, though the syrup will be safe to consume for much longer).
You can NOT safely can homemade chocolate syrup in a water-bath canner (yes, even if you saw someone do it online). The pH of cocoa and chocolate syrup is way too high to be safely canned at home this way, and there are no recommended safe & tested processing instructions for a pressure canner. But it’s really easy to make up a batch when you need it, and keeps for a very long time in the fridge or freezer, so there’s really no need to risk it anyway!
Homemade Chocolate Mocha Syrup
Ingredients
- 2 cups water
- 1 ⅓ cups cocoa powder
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 tbsp instant espresso powder
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ tsp kosher salt
Instructions
- In the saucepan, bring the water and sugar to a boil, whisking to dissolve the sugar as you heat it.
- Add the cocoa powder and salt, whisking until well incorporated and simmer for three minutes. If the cocoa powder is very lumpy, you may want to sift the cocoa powder.
- Whisk in the vanilla and instant espresso or coffee powder (or the espresso) and bring the mixture just up to a simmer again, then immediately remove from the heat.
- Cover, and let the mixture cool slightly for a few minutes.
- If you are storing your syrup in a clean or sterilized canning jar, you can transfer the hot syrup into a preheated jar.
- If you are using a plastic squeeze bottle, wait until the syrup is cooled to lukewarm before transferring it to the bottle using a funnel.
Hi. I would like to try your chocolate mocha syrup recipe but make chocolate chips out of it. Do you have any ideas on how to do this? Thanks!
Hi Shirlee! Making solid chocolate is a much different process that has different ingredients, and unfortunately quite a bit more complicated to do well and temper properly than just making a syrup, so you can’t modify this recipe to do that. There are some commercially available espresso-flavored chocolate chips. I would look for those, or research techniques for how to melt, flavor and re-temper solid chocolate, then chop it into chips (I guess you could pipe them out but that sounds extremely tedious and time-consuming!).
Hi, I LOVE this recipe for my morning latte/mocha. Looking at the ingredients, it seems like this is something that would be shelf stable. Is it ok for me to store it in a cupboard or does it need to be refrigerated?
Hi Dakota! While the individual ingredients are shelf-stable, once they’re combined to make the syrup, they should be stored in the fridge so they don’t ferment or spoil… no one wants a moldy mocha in the morning (yuck). I’m glad you enjoy the recipe, and thanks for your comment! -Carla
For how long is this syrup good in the fridge?
You can find this information in the post in the “storage & serving ideas” section just before the recipe card… there’s a quick link in the index at the top of the article! :)