Barista Shows How to Make Popular Starbucks Drink at Home for Less Than $1
A barista on TikTok has gone viral for her cheap and effective at-home recipe for one of Starbucks’ most popular (and expensive) drinks.
Cosette Manson (@cosettecutie) posted the video on May 4, sending coffee fans into fits of joy. The simple, four-ingredient process reportedly costs just $1 or less when made using store-bought ingredients.
“I haven’t been to Starbucks in forever,” Manson says at the top of the video, “but I just wanted to see how much my favorite drink costs.” She then displays an Iced Caramel Macchiato on the Starbucks app, which comes out to nearly $8 after adding oat milk for a whopping 80 cents.
“This drink costs less than $1 in ingredients to make at home,” she says before demonstrating her enviable barista skills.
Manson uses a Brevel Barista Touch to brew her espresso, a machine which retails for nearly $1,000. If you’re not willing to invest that much in your morning coffee, Manson assures you can also use a more reasonably priced Nespresso machine, or even instant coffee.
“This will forever be my favorite Starbucks drink to make at home, no matter the method you use for the espresso,” Manson promises.
After adding the fresh espresso, Manson fills her cup with ice and pours in “eight ounces of oat milk for a grande.” She adds three pumps of vanilla syrup for every two shots of espresso, before topping the luxurious beverage off with “my favorite part, the caramel drizzle.”
“Now we have an Iced Caramel Macchiato that tastes like Starbucks,” Manson concludes, “and we saved, like, $6.”
Coffee fans rejoiced, with many begging Manson to post more at-home hacks for their favorite Starbucks drinks.
“Please do the Iced Shaken Espresso with caramel, toffee, hazelnut, [and] Salted Caramel Cold Foam!” begged @lesliejordan60.
Manson’s is one of several tutorials showing how to make fast food at home. Last year, former McDonald’s chef Mike Haracz showed how to make a dupe of the chain’s beloved French Fries at home. In a separate video, Haracz revealed that Walmart sells a carbon copy of McDonald’s breakfast sausage.
These tutorials are the latest hit for embattled fast food chains, who have uniformly been struggling with waning sales amid price hikes that have left customers disillusioned and irate. Recently, Starbucks revealed they lost tens of millions of customers last year. A recent earnings report also showed that McDonald’s spin-off CosMc’s is trouncing Starbucks in foot traffic during key hours.
Check out Manson’s recipe below, and try your hand at a homemade Iced Caramel Macchiato.
