When I first started getting Starbucks in London I must admit that I was a little bit embarrassed. After having lived in Spain for 4 1/2 years the thought of cafe para llevar (coffee to go) was pretty much a cardinal sin. I mean, what kind of unsophisticated monkey would actually get subpar coffee that was 20 oz and walk around with it? I got over that quickly as I adjusted to freezing my ass off in London.
I started out drinking tall non-fat lattes. Somewhere along the line I graduated to vanilla latte. Then I bumped up my caffeine intake to a grande which contains 2 shots of espresso. The only real change that I have made to that in the last year was the addition of soy milk. This was all find and great in England where my grande vanilla latte was £2.40. In the UK your Starbucks card lands you free vanilla, free extra shots and free soy milk. Pretty good deal.
Then I moved back to the States.
The same grande soy vanilla latte here is $5.25. Um. A bit steep when you pound one of those every day. My dumb Starbucks card seemed to be on constant reload. Total fail. That is the same cost as my internet + cable combined per month.
So I had to come up with a new drink to combat my expensive habit.
The solution?
Grande bold drip with soy milk + vanilla shot. More caffeine / less than half the price. I can get this combo for $1.95.
Yes. I am that cheap.
For the record, I would probably have Blue Bottle every day if I had the patience to waste 30 minutes in a queue every day. But I'm just not that hipster…
