I was inspired by Jenny's chai tea hack in her November coffee date post to ask you all for your favorite Starbucks order customizations, tips, and tricks.
I love Starbcuks, and I have decided to just collect my points like the basic b I am even though Madison is full of brilliant local coffee shops with excellent coffee. And to be clear-- when I just want a cup of coffee, I DO go to a local place because I think Starbucks drip coffee is awful. But I WILL use my points for an Americano or a Cafe Misto in a pinch.
Even though I am a huge fan of fancy coffee (since the very first Barnes and Noble opened in Peoria, and my dad ordered us both EXpresso LOL LOL LOL), I don't like to make a huge calorie investment in my beverages as a general rule, so I am always looking for ways to make my coffee order more, um, macro friendly (in the healthiest body-image way possible, of course).
My favorite PSL is actually an Americano with a slash of oat milk and 2 pumps of pumpkin sauce and cinnamon (so delicious with none of the cough syrup aftertaste).
I usually choose nonfat milk in any drink that has steamed milk, and I ask for the milk extra hot. I generally use fewer pumps of syrup than come standard (1 pump is usually PLENTY) or I use the sugar-free versions (but they're kind of yucky). And! I generally get tall drunks, adding an extra shot of espresso if I need to, because I would rather be more indulgent in a smaller quantity than drink a big-gulp of fake sugar.
What about you? What's your usual Starbucks order, and do you have any Starbucks life hacks to share?
Alas I have no hacks; I only just got myself a Starbucks app this past summer. Plus my favorite thing to order is super sugary: chai latte, iced or hot per the season. And in the thick of our move, when Starbucks was my main source of food, I looooved their baked apple croissant. But I think it’s seasonal and haven’t seen one since September.
ReplyDeleteLOL at Starbucks as the main source of food— great for your app points
DeleteI've only ever had tea at Starbucks, so this whole post went way over my head. lol
ReplyDeleteHow IS their tea?
DeleteOk... but then tea is so basic anyway. lol
DeleteThere are places here that are Very Into Tea and would DIE at the thought of being basic 🤣🤣
DeleteLisa here. I love Starbucks. I do not drink drip coffee black so I only order lattes and specialty drinks. I tend to only get one Starbucks drink/week and I brew coffee for the other days and use SF vanilla creamer from Aldi. The exception is when I travel for work. Then I get one every single day since it’s on the company. My drink is a triple venti skinny vanilla latte which uses SF vanilla syrup. Starbucks is the only SF vanilla syrup I like. In other places, it takes so over the top sweet. I usually order on the Starbucks ap so I can say no foam and reduce the number of pumps of syrup to 2-3.
ReplyDeleteI do not HATE their SF syrup
DeleteI am so boring! Oat milk cappuccino. I don’t like sweet drinks but love this mild concoction :)
ReplyDeleteThis was SHU :)
DeleteI have no hacks because I maaaaybe go to SB four or five times a year. There just isn't one close to me. (Okay, I'm lying. There is one in the business school on campus, but I try not to go in that building if I can help it. The crass capitalism makes me break out into hives.) So I always order the same thing because I know it tastes fine.
ReplyDeleteBut I recently was out our local cafe and one of their machines was down, so they suggested to me their hot apple cider with chai and it was amazing. So maybe I should experiment more?
Definitely experiment! Also I teach in the business school and wowza. (But the lecture hall is gorgeous)
DeleteI don't get Starbucks very often, but when I do I order a Grande blonde latte with Splenda. I never use my points, I haven't figured out how, and they expire before I could use them for something I would want, like a breakfast sandwich.
ReplyDeleteI am in a points cycle— over spending on coffee for points, then coasting on points, then right back to overspending.
DeleteCheck out the Macro Barista on IG. He’s a former Starbucks barista who started making lower calorie/macro friendly versions of their drinks.
ReplyDeleteFollowed— this account is a dream!
DeleteOkay, I'm zero help on this. Know why? Better sit down for this...I HAVE NEVER BEEN TO STARBUCKS. And yes, we have Starbucks in Canada (but not in the town where I live). A goal for 2024, perhaps? To try Starbucks for the first time. Because, seriously, what rock am I living under to never have been to Starbucks?!
ReplyDeleteYOU WILL PROBABLY BE DISAPPOINTED.
DeleteSo I listened to a podcast (guessing you may also heard the same one) and they said in summary that Sbucks is a genius with their app/star program. As they have all our $/as we all pay in advance to keep our account maxed with $ to make sure we accumulate stars (and keeping adding funds religiously as they sit on our $ and net the benefits). They are the largest bank out there full of $. If the app goes down or hacked we are all screwed and can never get our $ back as they get richer!
ReplyDeleteGENIUS. One day, I tried to use stars, and the system was down, so the cashier told me it’s fine, I could use them anyway and if I didn’t have enough I would just go into star debt, so I did, and I WAS in star debt— it was also a huge motivator to drink more and watch my stars break even.
DeleteI love this-- I read the comments mostly see what great ideas people had. Because I thought I had little to add. But HERE ARE MY PEOPLE! :)
ReplyDeleteNo hacks. But thanks for creating a community validating my limited knowledge on my quarterly Starbucks drink.
I, too, am fascinated by these great replies
DeleteLike Elisabeth, I've never been to Starbucks. Well, I might have been in one to use the WIFI while waiting for kids at Irish dancing, but I didn't order anything . . . BECAUSE I don't drink coffee. Like never. I don't ever have a cup of coffee. I don't honestly think I've ever even tried a cup of it. Oh, wait. I've ordered a milk at a Starbucks in a hotel lobby before, because I needed it for my oatmeal. But not coffee. This makes me hard to shop for, when I teach religious ed and stuff, the most common Christmas gift I get is a Starbucks gift card. Coach gets to enjoy them on my behalf.
ReplyDeleteOh my gooooosh how did you make it through college and early motherhood without it????
DeleteI agree Starbucks drip coffee is terrible. Starbucks is my airport go-to. I ask for a cold brew with pumpkin cream cold foam on top, minus the pumpkin syrup they normally put in the pumpkin cream cold brew. Saves a lot of sugar/calories. A drink with that many calories and grams of sugar needs to be made of ice cream or booze for me, lol.
ReplyDeleteOh good idea! The cream cold foam is delicious, but the syrup is overkill
DeleteI don't go to Starbucks often and I also don't like to invest my calories into drinks, but I will go every once in a while and my favorite drink is their Pike Place Roast with extra hot steamed milk. (All their plant milks are sweetened, so I usually forgo those and instead opt for the creaminess of whole milk).
ReplyDeleteOh, also: they won't charge you extra for the hot, steamed milk and you basically get a latte for the price of a drip coffee.
DeleteOk, this is basically a cafe misto, but a misto DOES cost more, so this a great hack!
DeleteYes, right! I usually don't get 50/50 but I ask for about 70/30 coffee/milk ratio.
DeleteWell, I'm a day late in commenting but that's okay because I got to read all the previous comments! I don't know why it's so fun for me- I don't even drink coffee! Yes. I love Starbucks but I don't drink coffee. I know, I'm a total weirdo. My usual favorite thing to order at Starbucks is a grande earl grey tea. I know- you can get earl grey anywhere or make it easily at home. I've tried ALL DIFFERENT KINDS of earl grey teas, and none of them taste as good as Starbucks. I also go in once a week to get a fancy drink for my daughter, and while I'm waiting I LOVE to watch them make all the drinks. In my alternate reality I'm the type of person who goes in and orders a PSL and loves it.
ReplyDeleteIn my alternate reality, I am a barista— it really does look fun and the assembly line zen really appeals to me.
DeleteI'm so very basic with my Starbucks order, mainly because I'm intimidated by the process of making substitutions. The one time I did it, I did it through the app so I could try something new without failing in front of someone, HA.
ReplyDeleteI do a lot of their specialty coffees - peppermint mochas, PSLs, caramel macchiatos, etc. I only like HOT peppermint mochas - their iced version is too sweet for me (which is really saying something).
I used to go to Starbucks often but at some point it was just too sugary for me and i opted for other things.
ReplyDeleteSo today I rarely go. If I do I probably get a chai latte (one pump) or a Vanilla Latte. During xmas Season I enjoy a Toffee Nut Latte. Maybe I need to order that one with only one pump and no cream.