I was a coffee barista for 4 years; here are our recipes for our best selling iced drinks that you can make for cheaper at home!

Former coffee barista here! There was a post recently on here where I left a comment about how to make some specialty drinks that people enjoyed when I was a barista, so I figured I’d make my own post so more people could find it.

As a preface since this is r/frugal and I’m sure there are other current/former barista’s on here—take my advice/ingredient recs with a grain of salt! I didn’t work at Starbucks (I worked at a small independent cafe here in Westchester NY) and every cafe uses different ingredients and has different ratios for their recipes. So if you’ve found that a recipe I’m sharing sounds too sweet or you don’t want to spend x for a certain brand because you have your own preferred brand then hey, feel free to experiment/substitute with your favorites! Nothing is set in stone and at best these are just base recipes till you figure out what ratio and brands work for you. And if you think to yourself “well I’m not spending $30+ for all that!” Then clearly you don’t drink these enough to hurt your wallet—which, good for you.

So, let’s get started!

Chocolate sauce:

A tip I learned for mocha drinks (even without a fancy machine) is to either add a splash of hot coffee to the bottom of your cup after decorating the sides with chocolate, so it’ll melt and you don’t get a straw full of chocolate as your first sip and you still have the pretty decoration. The reason I started doing this (I wasn’t trained about that) was because I noticed customers complaining about one of my coworkers leaving a huge pool of chocolate at the bottom of the cup, so from then on I started melting it with some coffee and I suddenly had customers wanting me specifically to make their drinks—it’s the little things that make a difference, I’m telling ya! Same can be applied for caramel sauce and honey--honey in coffee is sinfully delicious.

If you’re using cold brew and don’t have hot coffee ready then a splash of hot water works just as well and won’t mess up the flavor.

Syrups/sauces:

HomeGoods/Marshalls has fantastic coffee syrups and is easily available to the public--Amazon carries these brands as well but I've found that they're cheaper at HomeGoods/Marshalls. The best brands for flavoring coffees are either the Torani or Monin syrups; that’s what my job used and customers loved them and I even go out of my way to see what brands small coffee shops use and so far it’s been these two so you know they’re good. I have also seen both the Torani chocolate and caramel sauce there and for the price they are worth the buy. Unfortunately when you buy them from the store they don't come with a pump, so if you have a shot glass then just add a shot at a time to your drink till you're content with the flavor. If you don't have a shot glass them go a tablespoon at a time.

If you’re looking to cut down on sugar (or can't have) but still enjoy flavored drinks then the Torani sugar free vanilla (which is what I usually see at HomeGoods) is VERY sweet (tastes sweeter than the normal one actually) so I usually just add a pump or even just half a pump to my coffee and it’s delicious. If you’re not used to sugar free syrups you’ll definitely taste a difference but trust me when I say that if you really wanna cut out your sugar intake (and are fine with fake sugar) then just keep trying to drink it and after maybe a week your palette changes and you’ll find it yummy🤤

For anyone doubting my last comment: I used to take my coffee as super light and sweet back when I was in college; basically sugar in a cup and for the life of me I couldn’t stand the taste of anything sugar free. Then I realized I should stop adding sugar and slowly phased out the amount of sugar I was using until I got to the point where I was just drinking my coffee with some oat milk. Wasn’t super yummy but it got the job done and I wasn’t making a face when drinking it anymore! Whenever I want to actually enjoy the taste is when I’ll add a half pump of sugar free vanilla syrup to my cup.

The flavors we had of the syrups were as followed for our hot or iced coffees/lattes (starting from the left was the most popular, to the least popular with customers):

Vanilla

Pistachio (Monin brand—the syrup is green and I’m not joking when I say we had times where we couldn’t meet demand because we kept running out)

Caramel

Sugar free vanilla

Hazelnut

Pumpkin spice (not the worst one or anything but people tended to think we didn't carry pumpkin spice year round so they didn't ask for it outside of Autumn. This is honestly best in the chai mixes anyway--not on its own.)

And for iced teas:

Mango (Torani brand)

Peach (Monin brand)

Sugar free raspberry (Monin)

Chai/Pumpkin spice lattes:

We used Big Train brand chai latte mix (find it on Amazon— it’s a bag or can with a dark purple label).

If you don’t have a steamer wand then add 2-3 scoops to a small pan with your choice of milk with 1-2 pumps of vanilla syrup. Mix well and heat up till desired temperature. If doing iced then add 3 scoops and 2 pumps of vanilla syrup. It’s a sweet mix on its own, but with some experimenting you’ll find your ratio of sweetness when adding the syrups.

If you want a pumpkin spice flavored drink then buy a bottle of Torani pumpkin spice syrup and add 1 pump of vanilla and 2 pumps of pumpkin spice instead (and a single or double shot of espresso—pumpkin spice is traditionally with espresso but if you just want something similar to the chai/don't want espresso then feel free to omit the espresso). Top it off with some cinnamon—yum!

Chai lattes were (and still currently are) the biggest seller at that cafe. You can also try using Trader Joe’s brand chai latte mix; this brand mix is slightly less sweet but is spicier (as in flavor because of the spices used—not spicy as in hot. The flavor is exactly what you’ll think of when you think Autumn) which can really be yummy as well. One of my coworkers that doesn’t like how sweet the Big Train brand is said that she finds the Trader Joe’s brand to be of better quality. Big Train Chai mix is not authentic chai but it does taste good, which I know is what a lot of people care most about.

If you want some coffee in your chai then feel free to make it a dirty chai by adding a shot or two of espresso into it.

Chocolate/Strawberry milk:

Whenever we had kids (or even some adults) we'd get asked for chocolate milk. It wasn't on our menu but I made it for them anyway. Just take your desired amount of milk and add it to a small pan with chocolate sauce and 1-3 pumps of vanilla. Chocolate milk is served cold, so just barely heat up the milk enough to melt the chocolate and then pour it into your cup. I usually will add 1-2 ice cubes to keep the milk cold for the kids.

We had a strawberry puree for one of our pastries and one day I experimented to see if I could make strawberry milk and it worked and it's downright sinful. You can either buy your own strawberry puree or make your own by just adding some sugar to some mashed up strawberries and cooking them on the stovetop till the strawberries break down. Once cooled you can store in a jar. Look up any video for making jams and it's about the same process I believe, just less cooking time since the longer you cook it for, the thicker it becomes. Purees are looser than jams.

Once you have your puree, do the same steps as you would for the chocolate milk (the vanilla syrup is what really brings the flavor together).

Ice cubes:

If you love iced coffee during the summer then coffee ice cubes are great! We only made a few trays because the customers that knew we had them would take advantage and we couldn’t meet the demand for them since we already had a regular ice machine. Coffee ice cubes really help keep your drink from getting watered down. Espresso ice cubes work great as well either for your iced coffee or for an iced latte. Don’t bother adding milks or flavorings to the cubes; just put black coffee or just pure espresso into an ice cube tray and freeze them. We used large silicone ice cube molds for the largest cup (it never fit into the cup so I would just run some hot water on the cube to get it to the right size)…was a bit more convenient to do during a rush then to just grab a glove and hope I get a bunch of smaller cubes into the cup without dropping anything. Plus the bigger cubes tend to last until you finish your drink and still be plenty left over if you wanted a refill. If making regular sized cubes is better for you then go right ahead.

Hot chocolate:

For a really yummy hot chocolate I recommend the Ghirardelli hot chocolate mix. We kind of used whatever brand we could get but our customers went crazy for the Ghirardelli mix specifically so we tended to stick with that one.

Add a drizzle of chocolate sauce to your pan with your desired amount of milk and for 24oz add 3 scoops (2 scoops for anything smaller) and 1-2 pumps of vanilla syrup OR 1 pump of vanilla and 1-2 pumps of peppermint syrup for a peppermint hot chocolate. Heat to your desired temperature, drizzle a bit of chocolate into your cup and top off the drink with some whipped cream and unsweetened cocoa powder. If you’d like a dirty hot chocolate (which are crazy delicious) then add a shot of espresso to your cup. The flavor from the espresso pairs very well with chocolate.

I have tried the Ghirardelli white chocolate mix and it was alright—didn’t taste bad or anything but I wasn’t personally crazy about it, but then again I’m not super crazy about white chocolate in general but some people are. If you prefer white chocolate then use the same recipe for the hot chocolate mix but just replace the chocolate sauce with white chocolate sauce. Or you can make it black & white by using chocolate sauce with the white chocolate mix (that was my favorite thing to do).

I actually did once mix the white chocolate mix and hot chocolate mix together so the white chocolate mix wouldn’t go to waste—and it was pretty good!

Iced tea:

When it comes to steeping teas you’d be surprised by how accurate tea guides are—the ones that tell you how long to steep certain types. We used to have a huge tea bag that we would just drop in a huge container of hot water and customers hated it—too bitter/didn’t taste yummy. Then my coworker looked up what temperature the water for black tea should be and how long it should be steeped for and customers started loving the flavor after that.

If you enjoy fresh iced teas then I’ve found that mixing different tea bags can make some really refreshing teas—I actually got the idea from one of our regulars. We usually used the Bigelow brand or Steep brand tea bags.

Take 1 bag of mint and 1 bag of green tea. Once it’s steeping add in a piece of yellow lemon and your desired amount of honey or agave. We usually would put the steaming pitcher (or cup) in an ice bath and by the time the mixture cooled (after mixing it every now and then to speed up the cooling process) then it was perfect and less likely to get bitter from over steeping. You can either take the bags out or keep them in your cup and just add your desired amount of ice (you get a stronger flavor this way and with the honey you’re less likely for the bags to make the tea bitter). This iced tea is perfect during a hot summer day—the mint is mellowed out by the grassiness of the green tea and the honey really bring outs the flavor. So you get the coolness of the mint and the sweetness from the honey.

Another refreshing combination is 1 bag of lemon ginger with 1 bag of green (specifically the Steep brand lemon ginger bags—my absolute favorite, and it was a huge favorite for customers as well—hot or cold) with some honey and lemon. Or even 1 bag of lemon ginger with 1 bag of mint with honey and lemon.

*Please make sure that either both teas are caffeine free or just one of them has caffeine. If both have caffeine then it'll be too much caffeine for your body to handle and your heart will race like crazy and make you feel like you're having a panic attack--ask me how I know...

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London fog:

Take two bags of earl grey tea and add 2-3 pumps of vanilla syrup. After adding your desired amount of hot water, add the cup to an ice bath and stir till cooled down. Add the tea mixture to a cup of ice and add a splash of your choice of milk. Take a taste and if not sweet enough then just add more vanilla syrup. Very simple but so yummy. If making it hot then top it off with some steamed milk.

Our store unfortunately didn’t have a blender so I don’t have any frappe recipes, sorry! I truly hope this helps a few of you out :)

Enjoy, and don’t be afraid to lightly experiment with different flavor/brand combinations!