I had been buying Starbucks drinks for each of my two children, myself and occasionally for my wife for quite a few years.  I had experimented buying different Starbucks drinks that I liked.  I finally found that the grande size zebra really worked for me.  It has coffee, 5 pumps of dark chocolate, 5 pumps of white chocolate, steamed milk, and a dollop of whipped cream.   I also ask the Starbucks barista to heat the drink up to a very high temperature.  I like to drink my coffee slowly.

If you have a zebra drink often, you should consider going to a gym to work off the calories.

One day I decided to see how much I was spending on buying Starbucks drinks and food items.  I viewed my billing for one month and took that amount and multiplied it by 12 to get an approximate value for the year.  I came up with almost $6,000.  Ouch.  I shared this with my daughter, that I was spending way too much money for these coffee drinks.  In a few days she went out and purchased a Keurig machine.  I had never considered this option.  She then went out and purchased a variety of pods that you need to feed into this coffee machine.  The Keurig is a very clever device.  I recommend it.

My next problem was to find a way for the Keurig to make me a zebra coffee drink.   Here is my solution for getting close to a zebra using a Keurig:

• I buy a box of Swiss Miss Hot Coco Mix that hold the mix in Keurig pods.  This supplies the chocolate flavor.  I like to save money so I go to Bed Bath & Beyond to buy their large box.  Most grocery stores will sell the smaller boxes of these pods, but at a higher cost.
• I started buying Starbucks Via Instant powder coffee sleeves at COSTCO, Columbia flavor.  COSTCO, after a few years, failed to sell this so I searched around for the best price and Walmart is now my source.  This is a fine powder and you need to stir it into the hot chocolate.  You only need these two ingredients to get close to the zebra flavor. 
• Next, my wife found a product that moved away from the zebra flavor quite a lot.  Her ingredient, shown next, has made a very good different drink. 

 

 

 

• About a year after I discovered how to  make a Keurig zebra, my wife started buying a coffee creamer made by Planet Oat.  It is a French Vanilla, Oatmilk Creamer.   This creamer moved the drink flavor away from the Starbucks zebra but it really added to  making the drink even better.  I put only a small amount of this creamer into my cup.

 

 

 

• I then add milk into the coffee mug to raise the whole drink closer to the top of the mug.  I then put the mug into our microwave to raise the temperature up so it is hot as I like.

I ran an analysis of how much I spend at Starbucks in 2021 and the total now comes out to be roughly $2,100.  I have not calculated my costs for the Swiss Miss pods, Starbucks Via Instant coffee.  

 

 

Posted:   April 17, 2021