Trying To Save Money Making My Own Zebra Drink.
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