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

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  • Ame_ly
    Ame_ly Posts: 29 Member
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    I've always found Starbucks-like beverages gross so that's an easy one for me.

    I usually like my coffee black but sometimes I'll have a cappuccino or caffee macchiatto(just a bit of steamed milk, i guess its like 10 calories). When I'm home if I don't feel like having it black I'll add some low fat milk and some cinnamon(it really gives it a nice taste).

    I hate anything sweet in my coffee so no sugar for me, but if you want you can add a natural sweetner like stevia. My mom does it, no calories and as far as I'm aware it's not unhealthy. Hope this helps :).
  • 3JinItaly
    3JinItaly Posts: 27 Member
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    I live in Italy right now, the land of amazing coffee and sometimes I just miss my plain old American drip coffee. I have awesome friends that send me over coffee creamer, since it doesn't exist here and I ration it out, tablespoon by tablespoon. Believe it or not, when I first started doing that, I was amazed at how many calories I was normally adding every morning to my coffee, but now that I only add one serving, I'm used to it, it lasts longer, and I add way less calories to my day!
  • KarenJanine
    KarenJanine Posts: 3,497 Member
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    whole beans
    AeroPress
    milk steamer

    flavoured sugar free syrups when I fancy a 'silly' coffee.
  • Pathmonkey
    Pathmonkey Posts: 108 Member
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    Baileys.Irish Cream.
  • rhodesar
    rhodesar Posts: 43 Member
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    I think I may may move to Australia or NZ just for their coffee. If you'll have me.
  • bendyourkneekatie
    bendyourkneekatie Posts: 696 Member
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    Pathmonkey wrote: »
    Baileys.Irish Cream.

    Oh god. Don't talk about baileys. It has like a hundred bajillion squillion calories per ml I'm sure, but now I want some!!!!

  • Nony_Mouse
    Nony_Mouse Posts: 5,646 Member
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    rhodesar wrote: »
    I think I may may move to Australia or NZ just for their coffee. If you'll have me.

    Sure, come on over :)
  • spyro88
    spyro88 Posts: 472 Member
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    TimothyFish wrote: »
    I'll sometimes put creamer in it, but I figure that, if you're going to load your coffee down with sugar and cream, you don't actually like coffee. Real coffee drinkers drink it black.

    Yeah.... Cos if you don't like something in its original form with nothing added, you don't really like it. Stop drinking coffee OP, you big faker. Oh and while you're at it, stop putting any sauce or dressing on anything you eat too. You have t-shirts with patterns on? You don't really like t-shirts. Everyone should have everything plain and as it was originally intended, otherwise they are just faking and trying to make everyone think they like something when actually, they don't.

    In fact, you might as well not add water to the coffee, just eat the beans. Then you can join the select group of REAL coffee lovers

    Lol.

    (I was being sarcastic, in case that is lost in internet translation) ;)

    Personally I just have a good quality cafetiere coffee with a little skimmed milk, but, whatever floats your boat.
  • jascakes
    jascakes Posts: 26 Member
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    Hi, hi,

    I'm a professional Barista here in the UK, and run a training school.

    I have at least 1 coffee per day, sometimes much more, and I make them at home or at work.

    Tips for low cal coffee as follows:

    - Buy good quality coffee that you enjoy the taste of without sweetening. You'll get a fresher taste if you buy beans and grind them yourself. Here in the UK there are many amazing independent roasteries with loads of variety in blend and taste.
    - Try to get used to the taste of the coffee you've chosen without sugar. Either slowly decrease the sugar to none, or switch to sweetener if you want.
    - If you enjoy black coffee or espresso, it has very few calories! You can enjoy as many of these as you like per day at very little calorie cost, but be careful you don't drink more caffeine than you can handle.

    Milk tips -

    - If you're making it yourself, and you prefer a white coffee or you are steaming milk for a latte/cappuccino yourself, try using milk with a lower calorie content. I use 1% milk in all my drinks. Also, try having a smaller drink which uses less milk. I'll have an 8oz coffee, with 35-70ml of espresso, and about 100ml 1% milk. This comes to about 50cal per cup of coffee.

    - If you're having a filter or a splash of milk, this becomes less, but make sure you are measuring your milk in ml, and pay attention to the calorie content, as it differs for different brands.

    Drinking out tips

    -always order the smallest size, unless ordering black coffee.
    - drinks like a cortardo or picallo are smaller and contain less milk, but still creamy.
    - you can ask the barista for the size of the cups if it doesn't say on their menu
    - ask for skim or semi skim milk.

  • randomtai
    randomtai Posts: 9,003 Member
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    I make protein coffee.
  • runmama411
    runmama411 Posts: 162 Member
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    Try an Americano next time you're at Starbucks-I'm not a black coffee fan, but these taste awesome and low cal,
  • DawnieB1977
    DawnieB1977 Posts: 4,248 Member
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    We buy decent instant coffee like Nescafé Azera or Carte Noire Instinct. So, I add boiling water and a splash of whole milk. Voilà, done! Sometimes in the Summer I make my own frappuccino....coffee, flavour like caramel, ice cubes and a bit of skim milk in the blender.

    I'm not really keen on Starbucks (really crap, weak coffee) but if I have coffee out I either have an americano or a skinny cappuccino. Caffe Nero and Costa in the UK are better, or independent coffee places.
  • Marchmallow
    Marchmallow Posts: 124 Member
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    In the UK, we tend to use milk rather than cream in coffee, which I suppose lowers the calories especially when you use skimmed milk. I drink tea the same way, with two tbsps of skimmed (low fat) milk and two tsps of Stevia.

    The funny thing is, when I moved to Germany, I noticed that the coffee culture here is almost as strong as the US, no one drinks tea, mostly coffee, (unless it's that fruity nonsense ;) ) and they use cream rather than milk, just like the US. But I just ask my mum to send me boxes of tea, hehe!
  • sweetd6
    sweetd6 Posts: 74 Member
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    I'm not sure if this has been mentioned because I didn't read through the 6 pages, but the thing to look for, for good coffee, is "100% arabica beans" on the label. Most expensive brands say this, but some cheap unheard of brands say this too, at least at Ocean State Job lot, where I buy my coffee. There are three brands there that are 100% arabica beans there, "Portafina" and "Java" and "East Coast market", and they are $4.99 for a lb. and a half, or $3.49 for a lb (entire lb., not 11 oz.) for the East Coast Market. If the label doesn't say 100% arabica beans, then they have added other, cheaper beans (like robusto beans) that bring in bitterness. Once you start with a good coffee, whatever you do will taste better. Sometimes I like to put cinnamon on top of the grounds before brewing so it will be cinnamon flavored when brewed. I use a small amount of sugar free creamer, I do like the "Italian Sweet Cream" flavor from Coffee-Mate lately. Because I'm trying to use the smallest amount of creamer as possible, I add a few vanilla cream stevia drops to make it just a tad sweeter.

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