After watching the employees at one of the Starbucks locations a few years ago, my wife decided to do an experiment to see if she could make coffee that tasted as good as Starbucks coffee. More specifically, she wanted to reproduce the taste of their lattes. To this day, I basically do what she did when I want something other than lightly sweetened black coffee. I'll get to the routine in a minute.
Latte is Italian for Milk
Coffee lattes were invented in the United States. In Italy, latte means milk. It's probably okay to order a cafe latte in Italy now, after all the publicity of the drink, but years ago it would have fetched you a glass of milk.
In the US, a latte is quite simply a cup of coffee made with milk instead of water. Starbucks, however, starts every coffee drink with espresso.
Starbucks has machines which produce espresso, a concentrated coffee beverage brewed by forcing very hot water under high pressure through coffee that has been ground to a consistency between extremely fine and powder. Espresso, which was invented in Italy, is used as the base for lattes, cappuccinos and mochas.
My wife noticed that two shots of espresso were added to the large drinks at Starbucks, while they added only one shot to the smaller drinks.
How to Mimic a Latte
It's easy to do if you have your own personal espresso machine. What if you don't? Here's how my wife did it:
She filled a coffee cup with milk (whole milk, not 2%, 1% or skim milk), heated it in the microwave oven for 2-3 minutes, added two spoons of coffee powder (Nescafe instant coffee) and stirred. I'm talking about the spoons you eat with, not teaspoons for measuring.
What you end up is a strong cup of coffee, which is a simple latte. If you want to turn it into a cappuccino, add whipped cream to the top. If you want to turn it into a mocha, add a spoonful of sweetened, powdered chocolate.
Why go to Starbucks instead of Drinking Coffee at Home?
If it's so easy to make coffee that tastes like Starbucks coffee at home, then why don't people spend more time at home instead of going to coffee shops? I could never afford to regularly stop at Starbucks when I lived in the US (and definitely can't now) and probably wouldn't make it a point to do so even if someone gave me a Starbucks gift card.
It seems that people are always "on the go" and don't take the time to stop and enjoy the simple pleasures in life. Perhaps it's a social desire to stop at a coffee shop on the way to work or on the way home, even when it's out of the way.
All I know is that I'm glad I'm no longer part of the rat race and living in a fast-paced society. The fast pace is what keeps companies like Starbucks in business. I'll have none of that and drink my lattes at home, thank you.
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This article is published as: How to make Coffee like Starbucks at Home
Great article, and it could be very useful for the coffee addicts, like me. IVE purchased a great espresso machine a few years ago, and it's really nice to mimic the milk with it. And the coffee tastes better with that, because of the high pressure (15bar). There are a lot of espresso machines for an affordable price, so the starbucks feeling isn't only for the metropolitans anymore:)
Julie recently posted..dental implants
The wife and I have a Breville Espresso/Cappuccino maker which runs anywhere form 150 to 200. How many cups of Joe at Starbucks would you need to have to get one these machines? Whatever it is it's certainly worth it as we have been using ours for almost 6 years, add that up and see what we've saved.
While the above method is quite interesting I can't see it comparing to using an actual machine. Heck I think you can buy a cheap one for under $50 bucks now, not the best but it does the trick.
John Doe recently posted..Baby Making Coffee for Mom as Future Barista
You obviously didn't read "It's easy to do if you have your own personal espresso machine. What if you don't?"
Really great article since it is very cost effective to make a latte at home especially in this economy.
Sweet,
That was well written and so true. I can't afford to go to the coffee cafes anymore. I have gotten pretty good at making my stuff at home. FYI another thing I do too. I have A Keurig and as you probably know they have the reusable filter. So, instead of using the more expensive K cups I buy our favorite gourmet coffees and use the filter and it fast easy and less expensive!
Thanks for the great brewing method,
Keurig B40 Elite
I wonder how much on average is saved per cup of coffee.
Rich recently posted..Pike Place K-Cups by Starbucks
" It's probably okay to order a cafe latte in Italy now, after all the publicity of the drink"
No, in Italy caffè latte is another thing
John Doe recently posted..Coffee Makers Espresso Machine updated Sun Mar 25 2012 5:07 pm EDT