Starbucks For Dummies ? The Tutorial

Eeee!!!! I am officially on vacation!!! Just finished working the world?s loooongest closing shift. Now I don?t work again till next Tuesday!!! I?m leaving for my hometown tomorrow afternoon. It?s only a 90 minute drive, but I?m praying the snow lets up so the roads are clear by then!

Anyways, despite my excitement, I am seriously sleep deprived. I was up way too early this morning to fill my empty tummy.

Pecan protein pancakes!

1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup egg whites
1/2 cup cottage cheese
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp ground flax
1 tsp vanilla extract
cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice
2-3 tbsp roasted pecan pieces

All blended up and cooked to deliciousness. Seriously, this was an awesome batch.

I was feeling kinda ?meh? about the gym today, but it was just pure laziness. I dragged my butt over there and got my weight workout in. Trying to beef up the weight lifting ? gotta look the part of a personal trainer too! ;)

Warm-up:
10 minutes on the stairmill
10 minutes on the rowing machine

A1 – Squat w/ heels raised on plates:
3 sets @ 30 lbs x 10

A2 ? Dumbbell shoulder press:
3 sets @ 15 lbs ea x 10

B1 ? Step-up:
3 sets @ 40 lbs x 10

B2 ? Underhand grip lat pulldown:
3 sets @ 50 lbs x 12

C1 ? Horizontal woodchop:
3 sets @ 35 lbs x 10

C2 ? Back extension:
3 sets @ 4kg x 10

C3 ? Hanging leg raises:
3 sets @ bw x 10

HIIT:
15 minutes on elliptical, 1 minute sprints, 2 minutes recovery

I went down in weights a little so I could focus on my form today. I like doing this from time to time, keeps me in check ;)

Was a hungry hungry hippo, and running late for work by the time I made it home. Whipped up a quick lunch.

Two scrambled eggs, onion, red pepper, spinach, laughing cow and Franks hot sauce on a Lavash wrap. Couple small tangerines on the side. Clementines are better.

Then it was off to work, which was surprisingly not that busy tonight!! Even though I was running late, I still threw together a packed supper before leaving. No five-buck sub for me tonight.

Obviously, as simple as it gets. Hummus + tuna sandwich and a pear. There were obviously snacks in there too. Including a short nonfat sugar-free hazelnut steamed milk and an unsweetened black iced tea lemonade.

 

Ever since returning to work at Starbucks, I?ve been fielding a few questions about what kind of drinks I would suggest. Both Lara and Averie suggested I do a ?Starbucks Tutorial? of sorts to clear things up!

First, I published a list of Starbucks How-To?s a while back with tips to order smart. But today I?ll get a little more detailed so you reeeeally know what you?re doing ;)

First, lets start with the basics ? espresso.

Sources for images can be accessed by clicking on the picture.

Espresso is essentially condensed coffee. A little bit of water run through densely-packed coffee grinds. It actually doesn?t contain as much caffeine as most people think. One shot, or 1 oz, has about the same caffeine as 6 oz regular brewed coffee. However, drinking it straight can mean you?re consuming your caffeine more quickly ? so you may get a bit of a head rush!

Next up is the latte. The latte is the heart of every Starbucks drink. They may sound fancy and complicated, but they are really just different flavoured lattes.

A latte is just espresso + steamed milk and a lovely dollop of milk foam on top. That?s it!

Starbucks uses flavoured syrups in all their drinks. Anything like a pepermint mocha, gingerbread latte or caramel macchiato are just lattes with said syrups added for flavouring.

Every store is different, but here are the syrups my store is currently offering:

Vanilla, Sugar-Free Vanilla
Caramel, Sugar-Free Caramel
Hazelnut, Sugar-Free Hazelnut
Cinnamon Dolce, Sugar-Free Cinnamon Dolce
Toffee Nut
Raspberry
Classic (an unflavoured simple sugar syrup)
Peppermint
Caramel Brule
Pumpkin
Mocha (a rich chocolate sauce)
White mocha (another ?sauce?)
Chai

Now, one thing that confuses people the most about Starbucks are our weird cup sizes. There are four, although the smallest isn?t usually advertised.

How much syrup, coffee and milk goes into these cups depends on size. I?ve made a handy-dandy chart for you to understand it. It must be known that 1 pump of syrup = 0.25 oz and 1 shot of espresso = 1 oz.

So if it?s the caffeine you?re after, you can get away with a short instead of a tall, or a grande instead of a venti.

The iced sizes are almost the same, but the iced venti cups are 24 oz, 6 pumps and 3 shots.  It?s a beast of a size.

There are three more drinks worth mentioning. A cappuccino.

Ha, not all of them are pink!!! I chose this picture because you can clearly see the distinction between the milk and foam. While a latte is espresso and milk with just a dollop of foam, a cappuccino is espresso + half milk + half foam. Usually, you just ?free pour? the milk into the cup (i.e. don?t hold foam back with spoon) and the milk and foam will naturally separate like this. They?re a little stronger tasting because there?s less milk to dilute the espresso.

There?s also an Americano.

This is just espresso + hot water. Almost like a stronger tasting coffee (except so much better!)

Finally, the Misto.

This is half brewed coffee + half steamed milk. Sort of like a weaker version of the latte, but also lower cal because it has less milk.

 

Okay, so how can you take all this info to order yourself a drink? You can?

Ask for different milk ? skim, soy, lactaid or eggnog
Ask for a sugar-free syrup
Ask for less or more pumps of syrup
Add a syrup flavour to a plain drink, or try combining flavours
Ask for one less or one extra shot of espresso
Turn your coffee or tea into a misto
Ask for more foam or extra foam (extra foam will cut the cals a little too)
Ask for no whipped cream (or extra!)
Ask for it in decaf, or just get it without the espresso

So hopefully that helps!! I know there is a lot of ?lingo? involved at Starbucks, but that?s really designed to help the baristas, not scare away customers. With this information, I can decide I want a latte with a mix of SF Vanilla and Caramel syrup, skim milk, an extra shot of espresso and extra foam (yes, that?s one of my fave drinks!). It doesn?t matter if I can call that out as a ?double-tall-sugar-free-vanilla-caramel-nonfat-extra-foam-latte.? All you need to do is double check with your cashier and barista to make sure they got all your requests!

 

Question of the Day: What is/would be your Starbucks drink?

 

P.S. I will be maintaining a somewhat regular posting schedule while home for the holidays. I?m bringing my laptop and my mom has wireless internet. It might not be at the usual time, but short updates will be going up! It will give me an excuse to take a small break from the family craziness everyday ;)