When You're Sick Of Pumpkin Spice Lattes, Reach For Rosemary – Just Trust Us

Rosemary in your coffee — yes, that rosemary, the one you stick on steak for aroma, which smells like a Mediterranean hillside when you crush it between your fingers. If you've been getting sick of your DIY classic pumpkin spice lattes, trust us on this one and add this fragrant herb to your rotation of cozy fall drinks. It might actually give your PSL a run for its money — but, you can't just throw raw sprigs into your cup. To make a rosemary coffee or latte, the key is an infused simple syrup.

To make rosemary simple syrup, simply add three to four fresh rosemary sprigs to a large saucepan along with 1 cup of water and 1 cup of brown or white sugar. After simmering and stirring the mixture for a couple of minutes, the liquid will turn dark, fragrant, and almost resinous in the best possible way. Once reduced, remove the mixture from the heat and allow it to cool completely before pouring it through a sieve and bottling it. 

From there, your latte gets made the usual way. Feel free to follow Miriam Hahn's homemade cafe latte recipe and, at the end, add a tablespoon of the rosemary syrup at a time, adjusting to your preferred taste and level of sweetness. Top the finished product with a fresh rosemary sprig, and ta-da — if you're into sophisticated, slightly savory-sweet flavor profiles, this might just replace your PSL habit entirely.

Rosemary syrup doesn't discriminate. Iced coffees, cold brews, and cappuccinos are all fair game — you can even blend the syrup with other flavors, such as cinnamon, vanilla, mint, lavender, or mocha, depending on your mood or cravings. Tea works beautifully with it too, whether that's a green tea variety such as hojicha or a black tea. Simply brew it normally, add a tablespoon of the rosemary syrup, and suddenly you've got this piney-sweet complexity that's infinitely more interesting than a rehash of chai spices. 

Hot chocolate works well with rosemary too — surprisingly well, actually. Rather than making a rosemary-infused milk –- i.e. crushing two to three fresh sprigs, steeping them in a cup of warm milk, straining, and then using that fragrant milk to build your drink – the easiest route will be to add rosemary syrup straight to your store-bought or homemade hot chocolate and calling it a day. It'll be perfect for those late nights when coffee would keep you wired until dawn, but you still want something gentle to ease you toward a good night's sleep.

If it's the opposite of sleep you're aiming for, cocktails and mocktails are another arena where rosemary syrup really shines. Take an apple cider hot toddy, already warm and spiced and bourbon-forward, and add that herbaceous element –- it cuts through the sweetness while somehow making everything taste more intentional and cohesive (just skip adding sugar in the hot toddy recipe since the syrup covers the sweetening duties).