Vegan Pumpkin Spice Simple Syrup (Starbucks Copycat)

Nothing screams fall more than pumpkin spice! This Vegan Pumpkin Spice Simple Syrup is the perfect addition to your morning coffee but works great when drizzled over french toast, pancakes, and oatmeal as well! 

This vegan pumpkin sauce is spiced perfectly with subtle flavors of pumpkin and rich, caramel flavor from the brown sugar.

So, you might be wondering if the pumpkin spice lattes are vegan at Starbucks. And unfortunately, the answer is no.

A lot of Starbucks drinks can be made vegan by simply switching out the dairy milk for one of the plant-based milk options but that doesn’t work for the pumpkin spice latte.

The pumpkin spice sauce that they use contains condensed milk.

This vegan recipe is easy to make with real spices, brown sugar, pumpkin purée, and vanilla extract. It's simple yet incredibly delicious!

Jump to:

• Ingredients
• How to Make This Recipe
• Tips & Tricks
• Substitutions & Additions
• Serving Ideas
• Storage
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Coffee Recipes You’ll Love
• Recipe
• Reviews

Ingredients

This homemade Starbucks copycat pumpkin spice syrup is completely dairy-free. It’s made with light brown sugar, water, canned pumpkin, and fragrant fall spices. 

Packed Brown Sugar: Brown sugar adds a deep caramel-like flavor from the molasses- it's a must in this spiced pumpkin syrup.

Pumpkin Purée: You want to make sure you are getting real pumpkin purée without any added ingredients- avoid pumpkin pie filling. The pumpkin purée adds a subtle pumpkin flavor but isn't overwhelming in the slightest.

Vanilla Extract: Just a splash but adds so much delicious flavor.

Pumpkin Pie Spices:  You can use a store-bought pumpkin pie spice blend. I used cinnamon, nutmeg, ground ginger, allspice, and cloves because I always have those in my spice cabinet.

Salt: Just a tiny pinch to bring the flavors together.

How to Make This Recipe

This homemade pumpkin spice sauce is completely dairy-free, gluten-free, and is made from minimal ingredients.

Whisk together the water, brown sugar, pumpkin purée, vanilla extract, and all the spices in a small saucepan.

Bring to a simmer over medium heat. Then, reduce the heat to low and simmer for 3 minutes or until the sugar has dissolved and the syrup has slightly thickened. It's a simple syrup so it won't be thick like caramel.

Strain the mixture through a fine mesh strainer— this will improve the texture.

Allow the simple syrup to cool before adding it to chilled drinks to avoid it from crystallizing.

Make a drink of your choice and add whipped cream and a sprinkle of cinnamon on top to be extra festive. Enjoy!

Tips & Tricks

Allow the syrup to cool completely at room temperature before transferring it to the fridge. This will prevent it from crystallizing. It can be immediately added to a hot drink but please allow it to cool to room temperature before adding it to iced drinks.

Don't overcook the simple syrup. You only want to simmer it on low for 4-6 minutes. If you overcook or boil it, it will become more of a caramel-like consistency and we don't want that.

The syrup will continue to thicken as it cools so keep an eye on it, don't allow the mixture to boil, and remove as soon as it has slightly thickened and the sugar has dissolved.

Substitutions & Additions

Brown Sugar: Brown sugar is best but coconut sugar is a wonderful substitute. If you don't have brown sugar or coconut sugar but you have cane sugar and molasses, make your own brown sugar.

Spices: Sometimes I don't add the allspice or cloves and it is still spiced well and is tasty. The only spices that I definitely don't recommend omitting are cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger. If you have pumpkin pie spice, you can use that instead. I would add 1 to 1 ½ teaspoons.

Pumpkin Purée: It's pumpkin syrup, so you gotta have pumpkin! I used canned pumpkin purée— avoid pumpkin pie filling.

Can I make sugar-free pumpkin spice syrup? I haven't attempted to make this particular recipe sugar-free but I would recommend using Swerve's Brown Sugar or Truvia's Brown Sugar.

Serving Ideas

This vegan pumpkin spice syrup recipe is a fall classic! It’s most famous for making a pumpkin-spiced latte but can be used in a few different ways.

• Make a vegan pumpkin spice latte, pumpkin cream cold foam, replace the chai syrup with this pumpkin spiced syrup in my shaken espresso recipe, or use it to sweeten your morning coffee- iced, hot, or homemade lattes! You could even add this to hot chocolate.
• Drizzle it over a stack of pancakes, waffles, or french toast.
• Drizzle it over vanilla ice cream or even better would be to drizzle it over ice cream that's on top of a warm pie.
• I'm a coffee lover but this would be delicious mixed into a cup of tea.
• Fall-inspired oatmeal perhaps? This would be great on top of a yogurt granola bowl, chia pudding, or on a bowl of oatmeal.
• Fall cocktails? I could see this being incredible in many different types of cocktails. I'll have to experiment with some!

Storage

Storage: Store in an airtight jar in the fridge for up to 2 weeks. Simply, shake the jar before using it since the spices will settle a bit at the bottom of the jar.

Frequently Asked Questions

Coffee Recipes You’ll Love

Recipe

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