Cafe Vanilla with homemade vanilla syrup

At some coffee shops, a “cafe vanilla” is another name for a vanilla latte. I tend to think of a cafe vanilla as coffee flavored with milk and vanilla syrup. I like steamed or otherwise frothed milk in mine, but straight milk will do just as well. Heat up your milk in the microwave for a few seconds if you aren’t going to steam it, otherwise you might cool down your coffee a bit too much. I used some homemade vanilla coffee syrup to finish this drink off.

The recipe is easy and can be adapted to any size mug. Fill up a mug 2/3 full with freshly brewed drip coffee, stir in about two tablespoonfuls of vanilla syrup, then add milk to the top and enjoy!

Vanilla Syrup for Coffee

Mochas are fairly easy to mix up at home if you happen to have some chocolate or cocoa powder lying around that can be stirred into hot coffee. Drinks that are vanilla-based, although so popular at coffee shops, tend to be a little bit more elusive to the at-home barista – especially if you don’t want to buy the bottled stuff.

This vanilla simple syrup is easy to make and far better than anything out of a bottle. It is two parts sugar to one part water, with a real vanilla bean used to infuse the flavor. You can scale it up to make a huge batch, bottle it yourself and keep it in the fridge for flavoring your own lattes and coffees – not to mention lemonade, iced tea or anything else you might like to sweeten – any time. Using a real vanilla bean, as opposed to vanilla extract, really gives the syrup a great flavor. It may not look that impressive on its own, but it both smells and tastes delicious.

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Starbucks Thanksgiving Blend, reviewed

Even though it has been out for a couple of weeks, the Starbucks Thansksgiving Blend seems like a very short-lived coffee blend. This is probably because Thanksgiving happens in a rush of food and shopping over the course of about a week – in between thinking about Halloween and worrying about holiday presents. The blend is actually a great idea because most people end up serving a lot of coffee to friends and family this time of year and it’s promising to see a roast put out for the occasion.

The Starbucks Thanksgiving Blend is a blend of extra-dark roasted Sumatran and medium roasted Guatemalan beans. The blend is designed to let the deeper flavor of the dark roasted beans create a backdrop for highlighting the sweet, slightly spicy notes of the lighter blend, so there is an emphasis on the darker beans. I didn’t get all the herbal notes that the tasting notes promised, but this blend did have a really good overall balance to it and you could taste the sweetness from the lighter beans over the slightly smokey dark roasted ones. This is a blend that will appeal to a lot of coffee drinkers, as it is neither too intense nor to mild, and will still complement all kinds of foods, sweet and savory.

What is the Starbucks Gold Card?

If you’ve visited a Starbucks recently, you might have spotted a new Starbucks card over by the registers: the Starbucks Gold Card. The card is intended to reward frequent customers with various perks. It costs $25 annually (and cards purchased this year are good until December, 2009) and includes:

• 10% off most Starbucks cafe purchases, including drinks, mugs and whole bean coffee
• A free drink (of your choice) when you purchase the card
• A free drink on your birthday when you register the card

Unlike the regular registered Starbucks card, a Starbucks Gold Card won’t get you a free add soy or free syrup for your drink, so if these are the primary modifications for you, it may not be worth getting the Gold Card. If you buy whole bean coffee, or frequently buy drinks that have more than one add-in, however, that 10% can add up quickly and the Gold Card might be a good option.

The Cup Pilot

The Cup Pilot is a portable cup holder that is primarily designed for air travel, where you often encounter turbulence but are not provided with anything that might keep a drink in place during the flight. The hook at the top of the cup holder can attach to tray tables, seat pockets, and even onto suitcase pockets (handy while you’re waiting, Starbucks in hand, to board your flight). The Cup Pilot is lightweight and folds up flat into a small nylon pouch for easy storage when it’s not in use.

As you might suspect, this cup holder can also be used in many other places, as well. Its versatile clip can be attached inside of a car, either adding a cup holder to a car that doesn’t have quite enough for your tastes or where the cup holders aren’t quite high enough to hold your coffee in place during stop-and-go traffic.