Boomers may love to joke that Millennials could buy a house if we stopped buying coffees and avocado toast, and while a shift in habits may not help you with a down payment, older generations (and financial experts) aren’t wrong that a daily Starbucks order can put a major dent in your savings. Inflation has caused Starbucks prices to increase dramatically — since 2020, the average price of a Grande brewed coffee has gone up 49% — and the company’s CEO actually announced plans to limit price increases in the near future as a result. Starbucks has also stopped charging for non-dairy milk in the U.S. and Canada, a major win for dairy-free customers. But that doesn’t mean that a customized drink is affordable.
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I, like my Millennial peers, have a coffee habit, though I lean toward an Oatmilk Cortado or the occasional Vanilla Latte. But I set out to see just how expensive a Starbucks drink can be, diving deep into the Starbucks app and filling my cart with crazy combinations. I threw propriety out the window. This drink would not sound delicious, like the unofficial arroz con leche Starbucks drink that’s popular on TikTok. This drink would not fit in a standard Starbucks cup (not even the famed Trenta). This drink would be a hodge-podge of every add-on that the Starbucks app would let us include. In the end, the priciest drink I could put together rang in at over $46 before taxes at my Denver-area Starbucks. To be clear, I did not order it — you’ll understand why once you hear what’s in it.
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What do Starbucks add-ons cost?
I thought building a wildly expensive Starbucks drink would be easy. Go big, right? The Trenta is the largest cup Starbucks offers, but only a few cold drinks — Refreshers, Cold Brews, Iced Coffees, Iced Teas, and Iced Tea Lemonades — are available in that size. My first attempt was to customize a Trenta Clover Vertica Iced Coffee, which has a base price of $4.95 at my Denver Starbucks, but I maxed out at $42.15 before tax.
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I dug deeper, looking for drinks with a higher base price and a full array of customization options, and I learned a few things. First, not all add-ons are available for every drink. At my local Starbucks, the Clover Iced Coffee has 15 options for cold foam, while a Venti Caffè Latte has 20. Second, not every add-on came with the same price. In the Latte, the price included $1.25 each for 14 of 20 Starbucks cold foam flavors, while the Iced Coffee included $1.25 each for 10 of 15.
I could add 12 shots of espresso to the Iced Coffee at $1.25 each for a total of $15 extra, while 12 shots in a Latte was only $12.50. I also discovered that, in the app, it costs $0.80 to add Starbucks’ flavored syrups to espresso drinks and hot coffee, but $0 for Iced Coffee. So, the winning beverage — if you can call it that — would need to be hot or espresso-based (and thereby not a Trenta size) to claim the crown.
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What does it take to make a Starbucks drink that costs more than $40?
To drive up the cost, I started with an expensive drink that could feature all the pricey add-ons. While a Venti Pistachio Latte costs $6.75, it was the Venti Matcha Latte ($5.65) that gave me the most customization options and allowed me to get the total up to $46.85. Got cash to burn? Here’s how to spend almost $50 on one Starbucks drink. Start with a Venti Matcha Latte ($5.65). Add 20 flavors of dairy and non-dairy cold foams ($17.50). My total included $1.25 each for 14 of these, but removing the extra six flavors also decreased how many I would have been charged for.
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Next, add both caramel and mocha drizzles ($0.60). Then, select 12 shots of espresso ($15.00). Add apple and peach juices ($1.60), then chocolate malt, cinnamon, and vanilla bean powders ($1.00). Next, include all four Refresher bases: Cranberry Orange, Mango Dragonfruit, Pineapple, and Strawberry Açai ($1.00). Time for sauces: caramel brulée, dark caramel, mocha, and pistachio ($3.20).
Inexplicably, there is no charge for the 10 syrups I included, except for Chai ($0.80). Go crazy with all nine toppings — only $0.50. And don’t forget the (free!) whipped cream. I tried removing items that didn’t have a charge, but there seems to be magic in this terrible excess. You need to include everything to maximize the charge, even if some things appear to be free. The question now is: Would it all fit in a cup?
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