Starbucks — the mother of many coffees, teas and lattes we’re all familiar with. Many of these drinks offer unique tastes that give us the fix we need to take on the day and to get the perfect, Instagrammable photo.
Most of the popular drinks ordered at Starbucks include ingredients that aren’t fit for vegans or plant-based customers. Although drinks can be made vegan upon request, it’s easier to have a little do-it-yourself moment and avoid the hassle.
Here’s three vegan recipes for popular Starbucks drinks with ingredients that can be found at your local Walmart or Target. This will help beat the lines at Starbucks and save money.
Vegan Caramel Frappé
A barista at a Starbucks on San Diego State’s campus listed the caramel frappé as the number one most popular order. To make this frappé vegan, all you need is Nature’s Charm coconut caramel sauce, sugar, almond milk or caramel almond milk creamer, coconut whipped cream, ice and chilled coffee. Combine one cup of cold coffee, three tablespoons of sugar, one cup of almond milk, four tablespoons of caramel sauce or ½ cup of caramel almond milk creamer and three handfuls of ice into a blender. Blend the ingredients until smooth, pour into a cup of your choice, put a swirl of coconut whipped cream and finish by drizzling coconut caramel sauce on top.
Vegan Vanilla Sweet Cream Cold brew
The vanilla sweet cream cold brew drink is hard to replicate upon request at Starbucks. The most important ingredient — the sweet cream — contains milk. But this vegan recipe will shock you into believing it’s the real thing! All you need is cold brewed coffee, ice, soy milk, vanilla syrup and almond vanilla creamer. Combine one cup of cold brew, ½ cup of soy milk, three pumps of vanilla syrup and a handful of ice into a cup of your choice and stir. Add a splash of almond vanilla creamer to finish and enjoy.
Iced Matcha Green Tea Latte
This sweet latte can be made vegan upon request by replacing the milk with almond, soy or oat milk at Starbucks, but if you want to make this tea at home all you need is Jade leaf classic matcha green tea powder, almond milk, vanilla syrup and ice. Add ½ tablespoon of matcha green tea powder, one cup of almond milk, one tablespoon of vanilla syrup and two handfuls of ice into a cup of your choice and stir until the powder is dissolved. After stirring all the ingredients, you’ll have yourself the perfect iced matcha green tea latte to take on the day!
Vegan Cold Brew Coffee
One of the easiest drinks to make vegan is Starbucks’ iced coffees, and it’s the drink you can have the most fun with when trying different ingredients. To keep it simple, all you need is cold brewed coffee, ice and a plant-based milk of your choice. There’s almond milk, coconut milk, oat milk, soy milk and cashew milk, just to name a few that you can experiment with. Combine one cup of cold brew, two handfuls of ice and ¾ a cup of your preferred plant-based milk and enjoy your vegan iced coffee!
