The Best Starbucks Blonde Espresso Copycat Recipe You’ll Find

These days, it’s not just about getting a kick from caffeine. It’s about adding an extra amount of luxury to your mornings. Look no further than to a perfectly made Blonde Espresso cup.

The Blonde Espresso is the newest espresso addition to Starbucks‘ menu. Its lighter flavor results from espresso beans that haven’t been roasted as long, creating a smoother and sweeter taste with the same bold finish as its darker cousins.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by allana blumberg (@allanablumberg)

Blonde Espressos (as the baristas so aptly call them) aren’t as bitter as regular Espresso shots and go great with a number of things like milk, vanilla syrup, and even almond milk to add to its already delicious sweet flavor.

And the best part is, you don’t have to schlep out to the nearest Starbucks to get a cup of Blonde Espresso. It’s easy to make at home, and all you’re going to need is an espresso maker!

Overview of Recipe: The Starbucks Blonde Espresso

Preparation Time: The 10 seconds it’ll take you to turn on your espresso maker.
Cooking Time: About 5 minutes roughly.
Yield: 1-2 shots

• The Blonde Espresso is made from a lighter-roast espresso bean, so you’re going to need those to make yourself a cup of great Blonde Espresso in the morning. Starbucks sells its own Blonde Espresso coffee off its website and most outlets, but you can also use other light-roasted coffee beans.
• You’ll only need an espresso maker to get the job done. If you don’t have one, a Nespresso will do it too (though we don’t know why you’d have a Nespresso and not an espresso maker).
• And lastly, if you want your Blonde Espresso to taste exactly like the Starbucks version, you’ll have to get their coffee. It’s a special blend of coffee beans from a number of different countries, so other light roasts won’t come close to matching its delicious taste.

Ingredients

A great fix for all those mornings when you’re craving a pick-me-up, the Blonde Espresso only needs light-roasted coffee beans to make. With that said, though, you also have the option of adding everything from whipped cream to almond milk to make your cup of morning coffee special.

Also, any drink you’d make with normal espresso can be made with blonde espresso too. That means if you’ve checked out other recipes that use espresso (like an Iced Vanilla Latte or an Almondmilk Shaken Espresso), you can replace the regular espresso with blonde espresso for a lighter, sweeter flavor.

• Light-Roasted Espresso Beans: Your best bet is getting the Starbucks version off their website since it’s widely claimed to be the best blonde espresso blend out there. If that isn’t an option, any light-roasted coffee off the supermarket shelf works great too.

• Filtered Water: This helps you get rid of the annoying taste of chlorine in tap water. After all, nobody wants a hot Blonde Chlorine Latte in the morning, right? … Yeah, not our best one.

• Almond Milk: It mixes great with the lighter texture and sweeter flavor of the Blonde Espresso. Just a dash on top, after the coffee’s made, and it makes for a sweeter, more caffeinated cup of delicious coffee.

• Milk: If you don’t want to shell out for almond milk, normal milk works great too. You’ll have to keep a careful eye on the amount you’re adding, though.

Instructions

Blonde Espresso. Sounds like it’d be a real handful to make in the morning, doesn’t it?

In reality, it’s as easy as tamping your espresso machine with finely ground blonde roast coffee and turning it on.

Seriously, we’re not kidding.

1. Prepare Your Machine

Before you make the coffee, you want to make sure there are no leftover grounds left in the machine. Remove the portafilter from the machine and run water through the group head to get rid of any leftover grounds in there.

Make sure you also clean any leftover grounds in the portafilter while you’re at it. Larger bits often get stuck in our espresso maker’s portafilter, so that’s a golden tip you can’t miss out on.

2. Fill Your Portafilter

You want finely ground blonde roast coffee for the best taste and texture. If your beans are already ground, that’s great. If they aren’t, you’re going to need a coffee grinder to grind the beans down yourself.

Once done, fill the portafilter with the ground light-roast coffee. Most packages come with serving instructions on the back, so read those before you start filling.

3. Start Pulling Shots

From this point on, it’s just using the espresso maker like normal. Put the portafilter back into the group head and start pulling shots (make sure your cup’s under the portafilter!). One to two shots is what we usually drink.

You should know, however, that lighter-roast coffee is way more caffeinated than regular-roasted coffee. If a regular shot of espresso gets you up the wall, two shots of Blonde Espresso might not be a good idea.

Recipe Card for Our Blonde Espresso Recipe

Storage:

You can store it, but since it takes all of about five minutes to make, we’d say just making it on the spot’s a much better idea.