Coffee Drinkers - How do you prepare your coffee at home to avoid places like Starbucks?

reduced sugar almond milk

My favorite is the Dunkin Donuts coffee grounds in either Blueberry Muffin or Chocolate Donut. They taste sooooooo good with a splash of milk. I find switching up the flavors keeps me "interested" as opposed to just plain black coffee all the time, although I do always keep a dark roast around as well.

I drink Folgers Black Silk and have a recipe for homemade cappuccino. Tastes yummy and much cheaper than Starbucks. The recipe I have is for the chilled drink.

10 cups coffee
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup vanilla creamer or your choice

Mix all together, chill and enjoy

If you want the Starbucks "experience" at home I think an espresso machine is a good investment. Assuming you go for the espresso drinks like lattes and such, trying to make a "latte" with a cup of drip coffee is just not going to go well, haha. It's going to be a weird proportion of ingredients.

I enjoy coffee black but I also enjoy espresso drinks. We have a decent espresso machine (not cheap, not on the high end either), and at this point I've got my "recipes" down pretty well:

Americano: 2oz espresso + 4-6oz of hot water...basically, the closest you get to a "cup of coffee" using espresso. Just tastes like a strong cup, and I take it black.

Cappuccino: 2oz espresso + 2oz milk + 2oz milk foam (you froth 2oz of milk until it doubles in size)...this is my go to drink if I want an espresso drink. 2oz of milk is hardly any calories, I think like 30 for 2%

Latte: 2oz espresso + 4-6oz of steamed milk + optional flavors. I have vanilla, hazelnut, or caramel syrups if I want them. < 100 calories

Mocha: 2oz espresso + 4 oz milk + 1 tbsp nice cocoa powder. Gives me just enough cocoa flavor without overpowering the drink. I think Starbucks (and most places) put too much chocolate flavor in a mocha to the point it tastes more like hot chocolate than a coffee drink. The most "calorie heavy" of any drinks I make at home, I think it ends up being 100 or so.

All of those are still much lower calorie wise than their Starbucks equivalents, but they taste a lot better to me because it's the exact proportions I like. Starbucks main issue is their sizes are TOO BIG haha. A short (8oz) usually gives the best flavor but even 12oz talls are so big you end up putting a lot more milk in a drink than a more traditional recipe calls for. This results in a weaker drink, to me.

I still go to Starbucks for frappuccinos though from time to time, because I don't bother with a blender here to make one myself. Also they just released the S'mores frappuccino yesterday. I had it, it's a delicious dessert, a bit too rich to have a lot though haha.

If you don't want to invest in an espresso machine but want the espresso like intense flavor your next best bet would be an Aeropress, I think. We have one that doesn't get used now but before the machine it was our main coffee maker. It uses pressure to create a strong concentrated amount of coffee (not quite like espresso, but same idea), and you just add hot water to it to make a "cup of coffee" - but you could use the concentrated amount for an espresso drink.

Sorry this turned into a novel. I guess tl;dr if you want espresso drinks they're hard to capture with regular coffee. For regular coffee I just drink it black. If you're the type that doesn't enjoy black coffee you can wean yourself off sugar/milk. I grew up drinking black coffee so it never bothered me but my boyfriend basically tapered off sugar a little bit each day until he could enjoy the bitterness of black coffee, now he loves it. Or just enjoy the sugar in your coffee and count the calories! Whichever :

Edit: If anyone is looking for new coffee to experiment with I highly recommend ordering from Happy Mug, an online coffee seller. They have great shipping rates and delicious beans from all over the place. But for experimenting, you can get 1/2 pound bags for just $5 more or less. We buy 3 different types at a time and have been slowly making a list of our favorites.

I have an espresso machine so most mornings I have a latte w/ whole milk for breakfast. No sugar or flavorings. If I want a special dessert coffee sometimes I will stir some salted caramel sauce and chocolate syrup in with the espresso and top w/ the steamed milk for a salted caramel mocha.

In the fall and winter I use the "fake" pumpkin spice recipes I found on pinterest. I use stevia, solid pumpkin, almond milk and vanilla. Heat it up and then pour on top of coffee. Delicious!

I bought a Nespresso espresso machine. Have not spent a dime at Starbucks since then.

Generally, I drink my coffee black, but if I'm craving an iced, sweet Starbucks sort of drink, here's what I do - I always have cold brewed coffee around (basically let coffee, 2 oz for every cup of water, sit at room temp for 24 hours and then drain). I fill a cup with ice, fill half way with the coffee, add a serving of my favorite flavored creamer, and top with water or milk, depending on my mood. Good stuff.

I have my Folgers coffee with either regular 2% milk or almond milk. Depends on what I grab from the fridge. Sometime I will spice it up with a creamer but that is mostly in the fall or winter when I want pumpkin or peppermint but I don't do that every day.

There have been some great suggestions on here though that I want to try!

debsdoingthis wrote: »

super_b_star wrote: »

TheVirgoddess wrote: »

I've never liked Starbucks, though oddly I use their coffee at home.

I just have a cup with two sugar in the raw packets, and a tsp of hot chocolate mix. I'm not trying to replace Starbucks though, so I'm probably not much help.

I use basic,generic, Folger's coffee. Do you think that using other grounds make a world of difference in quality? I'm sure it must, although I'm too afraid to try. Afraid of not liking it and it ends up being a waste of money because I don't know what to look for

I just use Folgers as well, or any that's on sale (I'm cheap that way!). I shake a little cinnamon on top of the grounds in the basket or some cocoa powder and brew. YUMMM

I drink folgers too. I have teued many others and dont care for them.

Fresh ground filter coffee, stevia and a tspoon of coconut oil

I'm simple. 16oz black coffee, 4 TBSP of Fat Free Half & Half & 1 TSP of Sugar, 64 calories.

If you have a Keurig, I love the Gevalia Mocha Lattes. It's 80 calories and delicious! I don't have to add cream, sugar or anything to it, so it's not so bad at 80 cals to get a latte taste. But when I drink a regular K-cup, I don't have a problem using 3 tablespoons of creamer at 105 calories! I just budget for it because that's the best taste for me.

I do cinnamon in mine too.

- Locally roasted beans (I have several roasteries in walking distance of my house, pretty sure I absorb caffeine from the air!). My current one claims to be like chocolate brownies (yes, it is yum)
- I use a French press, put some cinnamon in (no idea how much cos I never measure it, maybe start with 1/2 a tsp and go from there, add coffee grounds, small amount of water just off the boil and swirl for a bit (at least 30 secs I'd say, you can also stir it, but why get a spoon dirty when swirling does the same thing?), top up with water to required amount and allow to brew for a few minutes. Plunge, drink, enjoy. I also have milk in my coffee (and a bit of sugar), but these are optional