How to Hack Starbucks
I’ve worked at Starbucks a long time now, and there’s a few things you can do to hack the system:
Brewed coffee is cheap enough. Ask for a pour over of their bold coffee for a fresher cup. It takes a few minutes, but it’s fresher and costs the same amount. Also, if you and several of your friends all want coffee, ask for a French Press. It’s around $4 and is approximately 45 oz of fresh, hot, French pressed coffee. And you can pick whichever blend you’d like.
If you want espresso, avoid the options already on the menu board. Americanos cost just a little more than a cup of brewed coffee, but packs more of a caffeine punch because it’s espresso and hot water. It tastes like coffee and you can sweeten it just like you would your normal cup of coffee. More bang for your buck. If you want an extra shot, don’t ask for one. Ask for a “grande Americano in a tall cup”. That way, they charge you an extra 30 cents, instead of an extra 70 cents for the shot of espresso. This works because Grande Americanos get three shots. Same would work for a Venti. My manager tells all his partners to do this by default, whether the customer asks for it that way or not, but other stores may not be so nice.
If you like iced drinks, asking for a triple espresso in a Venti cup over ice, and then filling it with milk after the fact at the condiment bar is a great way to get an iced latte for about 2 dollars. Even adding a flavor (which is 40 cents extra) still saves you about 50%. Unfortunately, there’s no real way to do this with hot lattes, as you need a barista to steam the milk for you.
If you and a friend both want a Frappuccino, ask for a Venti split into two tall cups. Iced venti cups are 24 oz. Tall are 12. Viola. Two talls would cost you about 6 bucks, a venti, 4.
If you are secretly a Starbucks junkie, there’s a new loyalty program Starbucks came out with. You get a Starbucks gift card (Not credit), register it online, and pay with your card each time, reloading it as you go. You get a free drink (Any kind of drink, not matter how expensive) every 10 transactions or so. You get a free tall coffee with each purchase of a 1lb of coffee and a free tall drink of your choice for each 2lbs. You also get a free drink on your birthday. If you have one of these, and are getting drinks for multiple people, ring up each drink separately.
Also, if you want a good coffee that is also quick and easy, Starbucks is pressuring their stores profusely to up their VIA sales. It’s instant, water soluble coffee. No chemicals, no freeze drying. Actually quite good. I’ve used it when I’m staying in a hotel and it tastes just like coffee (Get the bold Italian Roast though, not the Colombian). A 12 pack of that stuff is $9.95. Not bad price per cup. And it dissolves in hot or cold water and even milk (.98 cent latte anyone?). It’s a good gift for someone who works in an office with bad coffee or travels a lot. It’s also wonderful in cooking. Act very skeptical and ask a lot of questions about it. If you don’t get offered a free drink or some other deal with it within 2 minuets, I’d be very surprised.
Also, make friends with a barista. They will most likely hook you up with free drinks a lot. Further more, if you get to be really good friends, Starbucks baristas get a weekly coffee/tea/VIA markout. My boyfriend’s parents and my parents never have to buy coffee because I get it for free. Furthermore, we get partner shopping days around the holidays, 40% off everything. Starbucks is a great place to get presents for those people you don’t know very well (distant co-workers, secret santas, teachers, etc) and you can save a lot of money by asking a barista you know to buy it for you.
A good way to tell if a store is good or not is through two ways:
- Drive Thrus. Many drive thru stores are not as good as a cafe-only store. But say that a drive-thru store also has…
- Newer espresso machines. The older ones have the separate hoppers for the decaf and espresso beans and have two metal steam wands. The newer ones have a retro look to them, with pink enamel on the back and a flying-saucer looking hopper on top. The stores with these machines make more money, and therefore probably have better management/better staff. Also, the espresso is better from these machines, as the shots are timed with each pour, so the barista can better maintain the quality of the pour. The old machines had to be timed and calibrated every four hours or so, and, a lot of times, that just doesn’t get done.
- However, unlike the new machines, the old machines can only pour two shots at a time. That means if you get a Grande Americano with three shots, will have a fourth one going down the drain, unless you ask the barista nicely if they could throw it in for you. Sometimes, if you’re friendly from the get go, the barista will just do it anyways. And viola! Free shot.
ALSO. Not that I would believe any of you to be guilty of this, but if you’re bitchy to a barista, you’re possibility of them ‘accidentally’ giving you decaf just went up about 70%. By the same token, complimenting the barista on bar on the quality of your drink will pretty much be the highlight of their day. I can say from experience, a man once said to me “You’re so smart [sip] and you make a damn good cappuccino,” the cappuccino part was the one that stayed with me.
Hope this helps you save a bit! Happy coffee drinking!
EDIT: Finally, if you come in and ask for a cup of coffee and see that the little red light on the brewer is blinking, ask politely for a fresher batch, or just go with a pour over. The red light starts blinking after an hour. At my store, we’re pretty strict about the 30 minute time limit on our coffees, but other stores aren’t.
Originally appeared in: http://www.reddit.com/r/Frugal/comments/efxps/starbucks_hacks/