Copycat Starbucks Brown Sugar Oatmilk Shaken Espresso

 

About a month ago, all hell seemed to break loose in our house. It started when we got a call that my father-in-law had had a heart attack on the plane ride home after attending a wedding in Missouri and was ok but in the hospital awaiting surgery. Minutes later, we got texts saying that my husband’s grandma had tested positive for COVID. The next day my little Typhoid Lorelei, as I’ve been calling her after this first year of school saw all manner of plagues making their way home to us, came down with the flu. She didn’t get it too badly, just a fever and body aches that some Motrin fixed. I, on the other hand, came down with it two days later and was knocked out hard. A fever of 103 that lasted for days, terrible chills, body aches, and congestion. I haven’t been that sick since I was a kid! I spent the entirety of Mother’s Day in bed nursing a bread bowl full of Panera Bread corn chowder, binge watching Anne With an E on Netflix, and trying my darndest to bring my fever down while my husband wrangled the kiddos (actually not the worst way to spend a Mother’s Day minus the flu.) The day I was finally up and about again, my summer classes started, my husband came down with the flu, and was very sick for a few days. Then it got the baby who thankfully just had a low-grade fever and congestion much like his sister. The day the baby finally seemed recovered, my husband woke up unable to move one side of his face and had to go to the ER where he was diagnosed with Bell’s Palsy. Basically, the influenza virus can sometimes inflame the nerve behind the ear that controls the facial muscles causing temporary paralysis and pain. They put him on anti-viral medication and steroids to shorten the duration of the condition but that was about all they could do.  He couldn’t even close his left eye and had to use eye drops and eye patches for weeks. Then the baby started getting three teeth all at once as well as a growth spurt and refused to sleep for days on end. After all this, I was one tired mama to put it mildly. I’ve been a Starbucks fan for a long time and always got iced lattes or frappucinos when I would go, but this time I felt the need for something that packed more of a caffeine punch, so I opted to try their brown sugar oatmilk shaken espresso. Man, oh man, I was hooked! The blonde espresso had an exceptionally rich flavor when paired with the brown sugar syrup and cinnamon, and the oatmilk was creamy and delicious. The only caveat was, like most drinks at Starbucks, it came with a fairly high price tag of almost $7 a drink. Needless to say, that was not going to be financially feasible to purchase every single day, so I set out to make my own at home! I ordered a Nespresso Vertuo machine, and all the necessary accoutrements for the drink and gave it a whirl. It was exactly like what I got in the cafes for a fraction of what I would pay there! Here’s how to make it:

 

Ingredients:

Starbucks Blonde Espresso Pods

Oatly Barista Blend Oatmilk

Brown Sugar Syrup (I sprung for the actual Starbucks brand on Amazon, but there are many brands of brown sugar syrup out there. You can even make it at home!)

Ground Cinnamon

 

Directions:

1)      Dispense 2 Starbucks blonde espresso pods into a cup

2)      Stir in brown sugar syrup to taste (I do 3 pumps)

3)      Fill a small cocktail or protein shake shaker about ¾ of the way with ice

4)      Top the ice with a few shakes of cinnamon

5)      Pour the espresso over the ice and shake for a few seconds until frothy

6)      Pour everything into a glass then top with oatmilk – no need to mix, it’s best layered!

 

Some people seem to like to mix the oatmilk into the espresso at the bottom, but I personally feel like doing this ruins the flavor profile of the espresso and basically makes it into a weak latte. Make sure you have enough ice in the glass as well so the oatmilk will sit on top and not mix into the espresso right away too!

Hope you enjoy!