You Can Buy Starbucks' Flavor Syrups To Recreate Your Order At Home

From vanilla lattes to seasonal lavender-kissed spring drinks, the Starbucks menu has something everyone, but not all of us can afford to visit on a regular basis. Depending on the specific location, a Starbucks drip coffee costs anywhere between $2.45 and $3.15 a pop. When you add in milks, syrups, larger sizes, and other drink modifiers that rack up the dimes, many of the chain's popular drinks are expensive to purchase every day.

To save some dough, some fans opt to recreate their drinks at home. Copycat recipes abound on the Internet, including ones that replicate the chain's popular flavored syrups, but what if you could go straight to the source? You can, in fact, buy Starbucks-brand syrups at Walmart, Amazon, and Starbucks cafes themselves. If you want to purchase from the latter, ask a barista first, because not all branches sell syrup to customers, especially if inventory is running low on certain flavors. 

At outside vendors like Walmart and Amazon, you won't find every syrup flavor Starbucks has ever used. Seasonal syrups, such as gingerbread or apple, usually aren't available. In addition, you'll have to commit to purchasing an entire liter size, or 33.8 ounces. However, dedicated coffee fans might be able to use it all – grande flavored lattes, for example, contain four pumps of syrup, so one drink per day could add up.

Before you rush to buy some Starbucks syrup, learn what goes into your favorite drink first. All you have to do is look up the beverage's ingredients list on the Starbucks website. Based on the size of the drink, you can see how many shots of espresso baristas use, how many pumps of syrup to put in, and what sorts of toppings and add-ins are included. The site doesn't give exact measurements for the amounts of drip coffee, milk, foam, and other ingredients, but you can play around with quantities until you get it just right. 

While the coffee making equipment at Starbucks is top-quality and can churn out drinks at the speed of light, you don't need to have fancy machines at home. Stovetop espresso makers can produce excellent coffee, and you can even use your microwave to make warm milk and foam for your drinks. Hand-held milk frothers are also easy to use and affordable, and you can use them to step up your hot chocolate game, in addition to chai lattes, cappuccinos, and whatever else your heart desires.

If a liter of flavored syrup doesn't sound like something you want to invest in, Starbucks encourages coffee lovers to take the DIY route. On its website, the company has shared recipes to recreate many of its popular flavors, including hazelnut, caramel, plain simple syrup, mint syrup (excellent for teas or lemonade), honey ginger, Cinnamon Dolce, and vanilla. Most of these syrups take minutes to make, and can be used in yet more official recipes for the chain's drinks.

For example, in Starbucks' recipe for an Iced Caramel Macchiato, the instructions call for its homemade vanilla syrup and caramel sauce. Precise ingredient measurements are included as well. The official website also hosts recipes for favorites like the Iced Brown Sugar Oatmilk Shaken Espresso, Pumpkin Spice Latte, classic cappuccinos, Pistachio Lattes, and many more. 

Making your favorite coffee drinks at home is a delicious and economical way to get your fix, and recipes with the Starbucks seal of approval are at your fingertips. And if you miss stopping in to your favorite branch (who can resist that intoxicating aroma when you walk in?), there's no shame in popping in to grab your favorite order, or at least buy some coffee beans. A balance of treating yourself to store-bought drinks and putting in effort to make your own can lead to a happier wallet.