Starbucks @ Home: Salted Caramel Mocha

Coffee house visits can be a major source of unnecessary, and usually avoidable, expense in the average professionals life. Don’t get me wrong, I love Starbucks and although spending $3-6 dollars on a gourmet beverage may seem like a minor thing if you are making these trips occasionally, daily visits can certainly become very costly. Think about it, visiting a Starbucks every work day can cost you $20 a week and $1,040 a year! That is rather much for a single beverage a day habit and that’s not even including weekends! So, what’s a girl to do if she wants to avoid this expense? Well, make it at home, of course! Most people do own a coffee machine, even if they get their coffee fix elsewhere, so put yours to good use with this simple recipe I have created at home using Starbucks coffee products! Hopefully, this will help you see that a delicious barista style drink doesn’t have to cost you much time or money, and you can still say your drinking Starbucks, because, well, you are! I will be using a Keurig to brew my coffee, but you can easily translate this to a standard coffee machine!

What You’ll Need

A Reusable Starbucks Cup: I bought this simple reusable Starbucks cup earlier this year when Starbucks was running a reusable cup promotion. I believe the cup only cost me $1 and it looks exactly like a regular Starbucks cup!

Starbucks Cafe Verona K-Cup: This coffee is also available in regular ground form, but I use this blend because it is actually made with chocolate in the brew so it is already a little sweet and mocha flavored.

Starbucks Salted Caramel Hot Cocoa: I only use half of a packet in order to get that salted caramel flavor without my coffee tasting like hot chocolate.

Creamer: I use a lite non-dairy creamer, but milk, soy/almond/rice milk, or cream will do fine as well!

Whipped Cream: You don’t need this per se, but if you want to give yourself that extra special Starbucks feeling, its easy to add a but of whipped cream to the top of your drink before you lid it.

Sweetener: Although the coffee and the cocoa itself are sweet, you may want a bit of something extra. I use stevia to sweeten my coffee, but feel free to use whatever you’d like. Just make sure to go a little easier on the sweetener than you normally would because your drink is already slightly sweetened.

Garnish: I garnish this drink with just a pinch of the cocoa mix, some natural sea salt and some colorful pink sugar crystals, but you can top it or not top it however you would like!

Let’s start brewing!

The first thing you will need to do is brew your coffee. K-Cups are super simple, but they do cost a bit more than regular coffee grounds. Obviously, you will just use whatever method of brewing your coffee you have available to you! Once I have my coffee brewed, I transfer it to the reusable Starbucks cup and spoon in half a packet of the cocoa mix. I then add my creamer and sweetener to taste. If you plan to add whipped topping, make sure you leave a little room at the top of your cup for that. Next, add your desired amount of whipped topping and your garnish. I use a small wire sieve to distribute that pinch of cocoa mix evenly. I then add another pinch of sea salt and the pink sugar crystals for added color and general delightfulness!

Voila! Top your cup with its lid and take a sip! Delish right? Depending on the size you made, this recipe costs at least half of what you would pay at Starbucks, is significantly fewer calories, and is quicker than the Starbucks drive thru!

Has this recipe inspired you to start making your own coffee-house drinks at home? Would you be interested in more easy, at-home coffee recipes like this? Do you visit Starbucks or your local coffee-house as part of your daily commute to work? Or, perhaps you already brew your coffee at home? Let us know in the comments!