How To Make At-Home Espresso Taste Just Like Starbucks

Starbucks is an international powerhouse, the largest coffeehouse chain in the world, and the third-largest fast-food company overall. But despite a price freeze announced in December 2024 (and the chain bringing back freebies in 2025), the cost for some of its beverages is just too high for many. "I could make the same drink at home for much less," you might think after taking a sip of your $7 vanilla latte. Well, it's time to put your money where your mouth is. According to Theo Chen, managing editor at Coffee Roast, with whom Food Republic spoke on this topic, you might not be able to exactly replicate Starbucks' espresso, but you can get pretty darn close.

He said, "You will need whole bean coffee ground at home [to] replicate the freshness you get in store. A proper grind size is essential ... similar to table salt." He also emphasized the importance of using a high-quality burr grinder.

"When brewing at home," Chen continued, "a 1:2 ratio of coffee to liquid espresso (e.g., 18 [grams] coffee yielding 36 [grams] espresso) is ideal. A home barista can do this by measuring the coffee." He also mentioned that Starbucks uses water that has been triple-filtered, so you might also use filtered or spring water at home.

Of course, you'll also want to be sure to choose the right beans. "Starbucks primarily uses a dark roast blend of Latin American and Asian-Pacific — 99% sure it's always Indonesian — beans for its espresso," Theo Chen said. "The Latin American beans provide a balanced acidity with nutty and chocolatey notes, while the Indonesian beans add earthy, spicy depth and a full body ... resulting in a bold, slightly smoky flavor with caramelized sweetness and lower acidity," he informed us (much like today's smoky French roasts). To get something close in flavor, he suggested, "LatAm/Africa blends roasted dark also have a similar balance."

However, Chen told us to get something dark roasted: "One of the biggest issues is using medium roasts, or lightly roasted beans as they lack the caramelized sweetness and full body of Starbucks' espresso. Specialty espresso is lighter and fruitier these days, and not at all Starbucks like."

You might have noticed that sometimes Starbucks coffee has a burnt taste; it's because Starbucks chooses to roast its beans that dark, both for practical reasons (the beans stay fresher for longer) and for the flavor it imparts, which is a uniform toastiness that ensures its coffee tastes the same whether you're in Paris, Texas or Paris, France.

If you were thinking about saving yourself the money on a grinder and just buying pre-ground espresso, Theo Chen cautioned against it. "[Starbucks'] volume allows them to always be pulling freshly ground beans on a high end commercial machine," he said. "If your coffee is pre-ground, you're lucky if it's at the level of freshness the day you open the bag."

If you want your coffee to taste as close to Starbucks' espresso as possible, you're going to have to make the investment, but it doesn't have to be super expensive, as with this model from Cuisinart. In addition to purchasing a good burr grinder, finding that just-right grind can make a world of difference to the flavor the grounds produce. "A grind that is too coarse will create a bitter, under-extracted espresso, while a grind that is too fine can lead to excessive bitterness," Chen stated. "Using a burr grinder and adjusting it to a fine but not powdery consistency is essential."

You might have to play around with the grind settings a bit in order to attain the aroma, flavor, and texture that you want. And while you can get close, there may be no exactly replicating Starbucks; they "can afford some of the best equipment," Chen reasoned. In addition to high-end grinders and fresher beans, Starbucks' machines make coffee a little bit differently, and a little bit better, than pretty much anything we can afford at home.