DIY Dutch/Starbucks Drinks

As the warmer weather approaches many people have the desire for cold, refreshing drinks. Some of the most common and popular coffee shops to buy those drinks at is at Dutch and Starbucks. They can get pricy, and it adds up when buying one almost everyday. A resolution to save money, and still have your favorite drinks from Dutch and Starbucks, is by making them at home. Although not all of the drinks will taste exactly the same, many can be made with only a few ingredients and still have a close, or exact taste to the original.
“If provided the right supplies to make them exactly the same I would make them at home, but if not I would keep buying them,” Alyonushka Pavlova ’16 said.
The famous passion tea lemonade from Starbucks costs close to $4 for a large drink, but can be made with only two items: Minute Maid lemonade and a box of 20 Tazo passion tea. For around a total of $5, the drink can be recreated with a result of five medium cup servings. The first step is to take a gallon pitcher and fill up three fourths with boiled water, put around 15 to 20 tea bags in it, and let them sit for ten minutes to cool down. After the ten minutes are done, add the lemonade and ice cubes. That is all, the passion tea lemonade is made.
A medium sized caramel frappuccino at Starbucks is $4.25, but with a few ingredients that can probably be found in your kitchen, the drink can be recreated: coffee, milk, sugar, ice, whip cream, and caramel syrup. To make one serving, it requires two cups of ice, half a cup of milk, three tablespoons of sugar, three tablespoons of caramel syrup, and half a cup of cold coffee. This is to be put into a blender, and blended all together. The last step is to pour it in a cup, and add whip cream and more caramel syrup.
Dutch Bro’s rebel drinks are very popular during the warm and cold weather. The rebel drink is available in a variety of many flavors such as strawberry, blue and red raspberry, and even a flavor called dinosaur egg. A rebel can range in price from $3.75 to $6.75, but with ice, any kind of energy drink, and Torani syrup the drink can be self made in one step. The only step to perform is to add all three ingredients together into a blender and blend it. The more syrup is added, the more sweeter the drink will be. For those wanting a strawberry rebel, then the strawberry flavor syrup will be needed, and so on. An energy drink can range up to $2.50, and the Torani syrup around $3, for a total of $5.50.  Even though the price seems close to the actual drink, there will be leftovers from the ingredients used that can later on be used to recreate the drink once again without spending more money.
“If I had the option to make my own drinks at home, I would totally do that. I would save money by making it rather than going out and buying a drink,” Rubi Rios Valdez ‘16 said.
For anyone who has the tendency to buy and craving of any drink from Starbucks or Dutch, making it at home is an option to save money, and still having the craving satisfied. No more looking for that extra change under the sofa, or asking a friend or parent for money because your favorite drink can be made with ingredients that are already available in your household.