I have been a barista at Starbucks for about a month now and I have had time to experiment with the different ingredients and drinks to concoct a few special creations that I want to share with the world.
Here is a list of off-the-menu drinks and hacks that you should totally try the next time you go to Starbucks:
The infusions do not just have to be for tea. Starbucks offers pineapple, peach and strawberry infusions for their teas that taste AMAZING, but are not advertised enough. My personal favorite drink at Starbucks includes these infusions, but not in the way they are supposed to be used.
Try ordering a strawberry acai refresher with the pineapple infusion. It is a great blend of fruity flavors that really puts a twist on the original strawberry acai refresher.
I also recommend the berry hibiscus refresher with the peach infusion!
Blend whipped cream into a frappuccino instead of getting it on top. Frappuccinos are great drinks for summer, or any time you are craving something cold. Something most people do not know is that they can be made with whipped cream blended in. This makes the drink creamier and brings out the taste of whatever flavor you are drinking.
Just ask your barista for whipped cream added to the blender before the drink is blended.
Any coffee-based frappuccino can be made without coffee, usually. The coffee flavor in a frappuccino comes from two places: The coffee frap roast that is added first to the cup and the coffee-flavored blending syrup that is added right before blending. Luckily for all the non-coffee lovers out there, there is an alternative to these two coffee additions so that any frappuccino can be coffee-free.
To get a coffee-free frap, ask for no frap roast and for crème-based syrup to be used instead of coffee-based. Alternatively, just ask for a crème frappucino; for example, if you want a white mocha frappuccino without coffee, ask for a white mocha crème frappuccino. The barista will know what you mean!
If you do not like chocolate, get your drink made with white mocha sauce instead. Several of Starbucks drinks have mocha sauce in them, but for a lot of people, like me, the mocha sauce is too chocolatey.
Starbucks has white mocha sauce that can be substituted for mocha sauce in any drink, like the double chocolatey chip frappuccino, java chip frappuccino, hot chocolate or café mocha.
In my opinion, it tastes so much better! Just ask to substitute white mocha sauce for the mocha. It is that simple!
That is my advice for creating special concoctions at Starbucks. Give them a try and you won’t regret it!