Guide To The Starbucks Menu (part 1)

I’m not ashamed to say that I’ve been Starbucks hundreds of times. However, I am ashamed to say that still find their menu a little intimidating. I’ve been exploring more and more of the Starbucks menu, but it seems like there’s still so much to try…and learn.

It seems so much easier to just pick out the same thing every time, however when I break it down, it becomes a lot easier. I can pick out the drink that I want without annoying the rest of the line behind me because it takes me so long to choose my drink and to order it.

The first choice you have to make is what type of drink. The main choices are coffees, teas, espressos and blended drinks. I’m breaking it down into several posts and tonight I’m starting with the coffees and teas.

Yes, Starbucks does serve just coffee. You can try their coffee of the week, or on a hot summer day you can get their iced coffee and they also have this thing called decaf. I’m not exactly sure what that is.

They have Caffe Misto, which is also know as the Cafe Au Lait, which is coffee with steamed milk.

The latest addition to the menu is the Pike Place Roast. It’s their response to the over roasting complaints that they’ve been hearing over and over from customers and critics. It’s a smoother, medium roast that I keep meaning to try.

They also have tea, another “who knew” for me.

They have…

• Green
• Black
• Herbal
• And yes decaf too.

Tazo Tea is the Starbucks brand. There’s many, many different flavors and you can get them as iced teas, lemonades, lattes, hot or cold.

Some of their most popular teas fall into the Chai tea category. It’s a spicy black tea with cardamom, cinnamon, black pepper and star anise.

Unlike the coffee, the price isn’t based on the size, instead it’s based on the number of tea bags, since water is pretty cheap in non-bottle form.

Photo by midom.