Latte Loving - the cost

One of my favorite items in my kitchen is my espresso machine. My mom got it for us for our wedding. I am the only coffee drinker in the house, but I have an addiction.... to the dirty S expensive coffee word. I Love Starbucks! Nate HATES the price.

I still get one once or twice a week, but to supplement I buy the syrups at Starbucks and make my own. I did this before, when I was living in Wisconsin, an hour away from the closest Starbucks and no local coffee shops to make my yummy latte for me. I used that espresso machine (one I bought from Starbucks) so much that I burned the motor out in a year. Now I do it here, whenever I want.

  When Nate and I met I was buying one or two (sometimes more) Starbucks a day, at $4 a pop that's 8 dollars a day, $56 a week, $224 a month. This couldn't continue once we got married because our budget was stretched further.This is a great way to save money and still get that Starbucks treat.

 the syrups cost about $12 apiece and you can get at least 30 venti size drinks out of it, which is $.40 per drink

You can find pretty reasonable espresso makers, ours was a gift, but it would have more than paid for itself with the savings.

Espresso roast coffee or really any dark roast you can get reasonably, but if you want Starbucks espresso roast you can find it for $12 a pound. Other espresso roasts and dark roasts you can get reasonably, I even scored some Starbucks French Roast and Café Verona at a local discount/salvage store we have here at $3 for a 12 oz. package. For a venti you need two shots of espresso which is about half an ounce of coffee. at $12 for 16 ounces that's $.75 an ounce or $.38 for a venti size drink.

Milk at $4 a gallon is the only other necessary ingredient you can get 6.4 venti size drinks out of one gallon Which is $.63 per drink. I'll teach you how to make a great latte in another post.

That makes  $1.41 for a venti drink, instead of the normal $4-$5.

We have friends over at least once a week, on Fridays, and make lattes for everyone. I keep at least two syrups on hand, vanilla and cinnamon dolce. Cinnamon dolce is the hit on our Friday night get together, I made 5 lattes with cinnamon dolce syrup last Friday. I use the inexpensive Starbucks dark roasts I found and fabulous Haitian coffee that one of my friends got on a mission trip to Haiti, so mine usually costs even less to make. Hear more about her trip in a future post. I also buy the chai mix that they use at Starbucks, Tazo chai concentrate occasionally to make chai lattes. I have found it at another discount store for $2.50 a carton, it usually goes for about $4 per carton. I like my chai lattes with cinnamon dolce syrup in them too.