I asked 5 Starbucks baristas to make me their favorite off-menu drinks. I'd order them all again despite the prices.
- I had five Starbucks baristas make me their favorite off-menu drinks.
- All of the drinks were tasty, though I was shocked one customized grande latte cost me $8.20.
- My favorites were twists on the brown-sugar oat-milk shaken espresso and I learned ordering tricks.
Starbucks has a new CEO coming — and analysts predict that his reign could come with changes to store operations and, of course, menus.
The chain's menu typically changes seasonally, with special drink releases popping up throughout the year. But Starbucks is also known for the wide variety of customizations it has available to customers — and many play with them to create "secret menu" drinks.
Instead of putting my own creativity to the test, I stopped by two Starbucks locations in the Southern California area and asked five baristas to create their favorite off-menu beverages for me.
Here's how it went.
One barista I spoke to, Sophia, told me she likes to make a brown-sugar shaken espresso with two pumps of dark caramel sauce and lavender cold foam, a seasonal ingredient.
I was mostly on board because I love the brown-sugar shaken espresso on its own, but I was skeptical about the flowery cold foam.
I ended up loving this drink, lavender cold foam and all.
The dark caramel sauce gave the drink a richer, more indulgent flavor. It was balanced out by the creamy cold foam, which had a very subtle floral taste.
I would order this again, even if it cost me $8.20 for a grande, making it the most expensive drink I tried.
Starbucks barista Tommy promised me a bit of a "weird" drink that involved making a chai cold foam.
Starbucks doesn't have chai cold foam on its menu, so he made his own version by adding pumps of chai into a combination of cinnamon-sweet-cream and vanilla-sweet-cream cold foams.
This concoction was topped with a doppio (double) espresso and cinnamon powder. It sounded right up my alley, considering I already love Starbucks' chai drinks.
This drink was very strong from an espresso standpoint, making it perfect for days when you really need an energy boost.
The espresso was powerful and bitter (not in a bad way), and the drink's flavor was balanced with the sweet, subtly spiced cold foam.
The price was hard to nail down because the cold foam was customized, but if I tried to order a drink like this in the future, it would likely cost about $6.45.
When off the clock, barista Nathan told me, he'd order a simple cold brew.
But while working, the barista prefers an iced shaken espresso with all four pumps of the classic syrup removed. He then adds two pumps of white-chocolate mocha sauce and substitutes the default 2% milk for oat milk.
This sounded similar to how I make my own espresso drinks at home, so I figured I would enjoy it.
This drink had a strong espresso flavor that finished on a lighter, sweeter note, thanks to the white-chocolate mocha.
The Starbucks signature espresso was slightly more bitter than I'd prefer, so I think I'd order this again and substitute the signature espresso for the blonde.
I liked that this is a more affordable beverage, ringing up to $5.25 even with the oat-milk substitute.
Like Sophia, Noe likes the brown-sugar oat-milk shaken espresso with a twist.
Noe adds an extra shot of espresso, which seems to be a trend among the baristas I spoke with, and the brand's popular vanilla-sweet-cream cold foam.
The grande brown-sugar oat-milk shaken espresso usually comes with three shots, so adding extra seemed like it would make for one bitter beverage.
But it didn't taste bitter at all because it used a blonde roast and was topped with the vanilla-sweet-cream cold foam. Instead, the coffee flavor I love was balanced with some sweetness.
At $7.70, this drink came in at the mid-range price point of all the barista-recommended Starbucks drinks I tried.
Nelly, the fifth barista I talked to, recommended an iced white-chocolate mocha with several adaptations.
This drink started as an iced white mocha, subbing the signature two shots of espresso for a triple shot of blonde espresso roast, swapping two of the four pumps of white-chocolate mocha sauce for two pumps of toffee-nut syrup, and nixing the whipped cream.
I'm not the biggest fan of white chocolate, but I was willing to give it a shot.
As it turned out, swapping some of the white-chocolate-mocha sauce for toffee-nut syrup gave me the sweetness of the white chocolate without so much of the artificial flavor.
I really enjoyed the nuttiness of the toffee-flavored syrup. This drink was just shy of being too sweet, and I think keeping the signature espresso roast would actually help balance the flavored syrups.
This drink was really delicious, but at $8 for a grande, it will be a special splurge for me in the future.
I enjoy coffee in many forms, whether it's hot and black or blended with syrup over ice — so I wasn't surprised I enjoyed all the drinks the Starbucks baristas recommended.
My two favorites were Noe's and Sophia's recommendations, which were both twists to my favorite Starbucks drink, the brown-sugar oat-milk shaken espresso.
I also learned new ordering tricks. I'd never thought to swap out espresso roasts based on what I think will best complement the drink I'm ordering. I'm also excited to explore adding more than one flavor of cold foam to my drinks.