Make Starbucks Quality Lattes at Home: A Detailed How-To

Like many people, my wife loves Starbucks. Particularly, she loves the grande, skinny vanilla latte. At almost $5 each (six to seven times a week), it can be an expensive thing to love. But just over a year ago I resolved that we would figure out how to make our own lattes at home to save money - but we would do it without sacrificing quality.

That last part is key. If you can't get the taste just right then you'll quickly slip out for a run to the nearest Starbucks and all of your trouble will be for naught.

I began searching online for recipes and ideas but I never found a really detailed how-to that explained every thing from start to finish. But that's what I intend to do right here. The Espresso

The key, foundational step of making your own lattes is a good espresso, and since there are only two components here - beans and the espresso machine - it's important to consider them separately. The Espresso Machine

First, the machine. When I started researching this, I realized that we were going to need to invest in a quality espresso machine. I honestly was dumbfounded at the prospect of the whole thing and wasn't sure where to start. I looked at reviews on Amazon, but most reviewers had so much more sophistication than I did on the subject that I hardly understood what they were saying. I just wanted a basic espresso machine with a wand for steaming milk - the rest was just unnecessary in my view.

One of the ones I considered was this Mr. Coffee 4-Cup Espresso Machine from Amazon. It got decent reviews, the price was right (~$40), and it seemed like it would fit the bill. While it may have worked fine, I don't think my campaign to reduce our dependance on Starbucks would have worked nearly as well. Here's why.

In the simple machines, the user has to first: grind the beans, then tamp them down tight, then, then, then... As you see, there are a number of steps (not the least of which would have been buying a coffee bean grinder) and I just felt like I needed this to be as simple as possible. So I kept searching.

What I realized is that I was willing to spend a bit more to get a fully automatic espresso machine that reduced all of the work involved down to one step and made it as easy as possible. We ended up deciding to get an Odea Go Super Automatic Espresso Machine from Costco. They were on sale over Christmas 2009 and we got a pretty good deal (~$450). In the realm of automatic espresso machines, I think this little guy is on the lower end of the spectrum - you can easily spend over $1K here if you want. Since it was from Costco I knew that we could bring it back in a few weeks if the whole thing didn't work out so I was willing to give it a try.

In case you can't tell, the big difference between these two machines is that the second one does everything internally without much input from the user. In the Odea, you just insert the beans into the hopper on the top, press the big coffee button and voila! The beans are ground internally, the espresso is made and then the machine discards the leftover grounds into a big tank on the side that needs cleaned about once a week (and by cleaned, I mean that I toss the grounds in the trash and then rinse it out in the sink). This machine literally takes all of the work out of making quality espresso at home. The Beans

Once I bought the machine I actually had a hard time figuring out what beans to buy and where to get them. Not being a coffee connoisseur, I sort of thought that espresso beans were special (magic?) beans that required a trip to Whole Foods to get. So off I went, down to Whole Foods and Trader Joe's - naively asking for "espresso beans"? No one at either store seemed to know what I was talking about, but no one actually took the time to explain that if I wanted to make espresso at home, I just needed whole beans and an espresso machine, because the word espresso simply describes the method of preparation, not a completely different type of coffee.

After some intense googling, I figured this out. I read online that Costco sells good, whole beans that make great espresso, so off I went. I ended up buying a bag of their House Blend, medium roast beans. As you can see, it even says on the package that they are roasted by Starbucks - so I knew I was on the right track. At Costco, you get 2 pounds for ~$10, so it works out to be $5/lb. and one bag lasts us more a month.

The Recipe

Now that I had the right equipment, I set about learning how to actually make a grande, skinny vanilla latte. The next most important ingredient after the actual espresso is the flavoring. The term "skinny vanilla" refers to one made with sugar-free vanilla syrup and non-fat milk. Non-fat milk is easy to find, but there are a number of sugar-free syrups out there. We searched and discovered that one of the most highly rated syrups is the Torani Sugar-Free Vanilla and that it's relatively cheap. I'm never found any evidence of this, but I definitely believe that it's the same syrup that they use at Starbucks.

In order to actually construct my latte, I do the following:

1. Brew two shots of espresso directly into the cup that I plan to use for the drink.
2. Add three tablespoons of sugar-free vanilla syrup.
3. Steam enough milk to fill the rest of the cup. The attached milk steaming wand to my espresso machine does a great job. It probable takes between two and three minutes to perfectly froth the amount of milk I need. Once it's hot enough (I'm unsure of the exact temperature but experience will quickly dictate how hot it should be), I pour it directly into the top of the espresso/syrup that's in the bottom of the cup and it mixes itself - no additional stirring is required. For steaming milk, one of the best (and cheapest) things I've found is the Coleman 10 Ounce Coffee Mug that is commonly used for camping. Don't use a ceramic mug, actually get a metal cup like the one I linked to. We bought two - one to use, one to wash.
4. Enjoy. It really is that simple. If you don't believe me, the next time you stop at Starbucks, notice how few steps it takes to make your drink. It's all about having the right equipment.

As far as transporting your latte, you have to decide: disposable or reusable. If you want to reuse, we've had great luck with the Thermos Stainless 16-Ounce Leak-Proof Travel Mug , and if you want a disposable cup, we've tried and enjoyed the Chinet Comfort Cup . I strongly recommend the Thermos mug because it really does keep drinks hot forever. We've tried both and as long as you're good about washing (and not losing it), the Thermos is definitely cheaper in the long-term.

How does it taste? My wife swears that she can't tell the difference between our home Starbucks and the real stuff. I don't think she's lying here because she loves Starbucks enough that she wouldn't be willing to substitute just anything. Additionally, she frequently has me make two lattes before I go to work in the morning and then she reheats one later on (I don't mind being the barista if that's what it takes!) in the microwave.

How Much Money We've Saved Brewing Espresso at Home

Like I mentioned earlier, our main impetus in experimenting with this was saving money. Given that the espresso machine is an expensive initial investment, I figured that we would need to spend $0 at Starbucks for three solid months in order to get our money back. In thinking about this, I tried to figure out how much money we actually did save over the last 12 months.

For simplicity's sake, let's assume that each latte is $5 and we were buying 6 per week for a total cost of $30/week. Over 52 weeks, that's $1,560/year in coffee, just for her. (I say "just for her" because, while I am not a latte person, I was often tempted to buy a regular drip coffee while we were in the store, as well as the occasional pastry, thus driving the actual total much higher. Now that we don't visit, I stick to my cheapo Costco drip coffee in my $12 Mr. Coffee Coffeemaker , so the actual savings are much higher.)

We initially spent $450 for the espresso machine, $15 for two milk steaming mugs, $20 for the Thermos mug - for a total of $485. As far as ingredients, I estimate that we get 10 drinks from each gallon of milk ($.25/drink); 50 drinks from each bag of espresso beans ($.20/drink); and 25 drinks from each bottle of syrup ($.18/drink). If you do the math, we spend $.63/drink, instead of $5/drink.

If you're wondering how long it took to recoup the initial costs, it took 110 drinks to break even, or just over 18 weeks. At this point, we've kept it up for over 60 weeks, so we've paid for the latte machine three times over and continue to rack up the savings. Beyond paying ourselves back for the equipment, we have additionally saved well over $1000 in the last year.

While lots of people just simply go cold turkey and try to give up the Starbucks, we've found a legitimate way to keep enjoying their drinks without the exorbitant prices. And even my wife approves.