You Can Buy Syrups At Starbucks, But There's A Catch

Some of us like our coffees neat or with milk, others prefer to have our caffeine dressed up with all the bells and whistles — and that includes whipped cream, possibly chocolate chips, and flavored syrups. If you like making coffees at home, you'd know some ingredients like whipped cream and chocolate chips are easy to replicate. 

However other things, like flavored syrups, are not as easy. While you can make flavored syrups yourself, they never leave your coffee tasting the way you might have enjoyed it at Starbucks. Because of this, fans will be excited to know it is possible to recreate your favorite flavored lattes at home by purchasing syrups directly at the Starbucks counter. 

These are no ordinary retail-sized bottles. Because they are packaged to be used in-store, these vanilla, brown sugar, caramel, cinnamon dolce, and hazelnut syrups come in 33.8 fluid ounce-sized bottles. While it might not sound like plenty, bear in mind that under normal circumstances, you'd be using three pumps of syrup for a 12 ounce drink (tall), four pumps in a 16 ounce drink ("grande"), and five in a 20 ounce drink ("venti") — which means you're getting enough syrup to last a while. When you're asking your barista about syrup availability, inquire about getting a pump too — they are handy, and make dispensing syrups much less challenging.

Before you celebrate, there is a catch: Syrup purchases are subject to availability, which means you can only get your hands on them if there is enough to last until a restock (after all, Starbucks is a coffee house, and it still has to be able to sell flavored lattes). This also means that certain syrups can't be sold at all, especially because they are only available for a limited time and during a certain season — meaning the thicker syrups like pumpkin spice and creme-brulee.

The best way to find out which syrups your Starbucks can sell you is to ask your barista. If they're out of stock, it may be best to wait until their next shipment: syrups available through the Starbucks retail chain (both in-store and online) come in smaller containers and aren't the syrups you are looking for. These aren't the same as the ones Starbucks uses to make its drinks in-store, and spending the cash to pick up a bottle elsewhere could leave you disappointed in the end.