My Homemade Iced Caramel Macchiato

I just love Starbucks. Loves everything on their menu from lattes to chocolate drinks and even lemonade. But being a student on budget, daily Starbucks coffee will be very expensive. So how do I adapt to this new tight budget situation? Well make your own coffee, of course.

So Google came to the rescue. There are lots of websites that provide almost-Starbucks drinks recipe. So I decided to try the famous Iced Caramel Macchiato. Got the recipe from here Eugenie Kitchen, just as a guideline. I tweaked the vanilla & caramel measurement. The basic ingredients are expresso shots or a very strong coffee, vanilla syrup, milk, caramel sauce and ice. Wow, it was not easy to find vanilla syrup around my area but finally found it at Waitrose. It was not cheap either, around GBP 2.99 per bottle.

Iced Caramel Macchiato 
(serves 1)

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoon vanilla syrup
• 1 cup ice cubes
• 1 cup of cold milk (240 ml)
• 1/2 cup strong brewed coffee
• 2 teaspoon caramel sauce

How I make my coffee: I don’t have an espresso machine so I bought instant espresso powder, instead. I used 2 tbsp of espresso powder with 1/2 cup of hot water. The coffee needs to be cool down before you pour it into the drink, otherwise all the ice will melt before you could enjoy the caramel macchiato.

Directions

Just put in the vanilla, then milk followed by ice cubes. The tricky part is putting in the coffee into the cup. Slowly, pour the coffee into the cup so you won’t mess up the layers. As suggested, I used the back of a spoon to pour in the coffee. Last but not least drizzle yummy caramel sauce on top of the ice/coffee. 

Done! Easy right?

Ok now is tasting time! It has similar taste to Starbucks’ Original Iced Caramel Macchiato. But it’s a bit too sweet for me. The measurement given above is just a rule of thumb. It depends on the size of the cup and other factors. But in my case, I think it might be because of the vanilla syrup and caramel sauce. I’ll just use 1.5 tbsp of vanilla and 1 tsp of caramel sauce next time. Plus I got approx. 1/4 cup of coffee leftover that did not go into the drink as it was too full. Will  reduce the amount of water to 1/3 cup and so i’ll have a stronger coffee taste . There you go, my first attempt at copying the famous Starbucks Iced Caramel Macchiato. Not a success yet but at least I’ve tried. 

Have fun trying!