Coffee at Home

By Bella Garcia

I love coffee, both hot and cold. For a while, my favorite drink has been the brown sugar shaken oat milk espresso, with an extra pump of brown sugar, and vanilla sweet cream cold foam on top at Starbucks. Starbucks has been more and more expensive recently. My favorite drink went up by 30 cents just a few weeks after the New Year! Not everyone, including me, has the money to spend $8 every few days just for a cup of coffee so, I decided to learn how to make my espresso drink from home!

To make it, you will need brown sugar, light or dark works, your choice of coffee roast, cinnamon, your choice of milk (for me its oat or soy), heavy cream, a handheld non-heated milk frother, Torani vanilla syrup, ice, a mason jar, and a mason jar lid.

If you do not own a Keurig, Nespresso, or Moka Pot… brew your coffee in whichever way you are familiar with.

Usually, I brew my espresso using the Nespresso machine, with a dark roast pod. I use 2 tablespoons of brown sugar, or a little more if I want it sweeter. I place the sugar and a dash of cinnamon in my mason jar and brew the hot espresso or coffee into it to make it easier for the sugar to dissolve. I tightly screw on the lid and shake. Once well shaken, I add ice into the cup, seal it with the lid once again and shake. Next, I add extra creamy, Silk oat milk and stir with a straw.

For the vanilla sweet cream cold foam, I grab a small cup. To it, I add less than ½ a cup of heavy cream and 1 ½ pumps of vanilla syrup, you could also use vanilla extract. I froth the milk with the handheld frother for about 3 minutes or until thickened. I pour the foam on top of my coffee and enjoy.

I advise investing in a Moka Pot if you do not own an expensive espresso machine. Regular brewed coffee can work well but the coffee flavor is greatly diluted once ice and milk are added. A Moka Pot is an Italian coffee brewer that creates a more concentrated coffee flavor with any type of grounds. They range from $5-$40 online.

In total, I save about $40 a week by making my coffee from home. In total, the ingredients, excluding the coffee, are around $22 altogether.