Making Starbucks Holiday Drinks At Home | But Better

The last time we did this one, I said, I didn't really want to do it. And I only did it because people wanted me to do it. It's a lot of doing it. And we're back on Starbucks by popular demand. And I think for good reason. OK, so it is the holiday season. That's why I just, you know, it makes sense. Everybody was really happy with the Starbucks video we did. We've got three of the most popular drinks that Starbucks has ever created. I'm sorry if yours isn't on the list. But with all that said, let's make these, shall we? Before we get started, let's add the pumpkin spice latte. I know you've been asking for it, so here you go. Good evening. No. OK, we're back at Starbucks. I don't know why. I feel like it was just yesterday that we did Starbucks. And obliterated them. So we're going to do that again. But this time it's the holiday spirit. Can I get a grande hot caramel brulee latte? A grande hot peppermint mocha? And then one grande eggnog? No, no worries. Thank you so much. So we've got our drinks. We're going to go back and taste test these and see how they are. We have three beveraginos here. Well, first off, let's take a look on the inside and see how those look. Where's my whipped cream? Aren't they supposed to put whipped cream on those? You have to ask? What is that? That's not even all the way full. This is kind of sad. This is what they all look like, and then this is what the advertisement looks like. What's the difference? We'll start with the nog, because I love eggnog. This tastes nothing like eggnog. 98% milk, 1% coffee, and 1% eggnog. OK, caramel brulee latte. That just tastes like sweet milk. No brulee about that. I can feel the fat on my lips. This is what everybody is losing their mind about. Josh, hit you with a peppermint mocha. My expectations for this are astronomically high due to the volume of people that love this so much. That's it? That's what the hype is about? There's a layer of oil on top of this. There is literally a layer. Do you see that layer, that separated layer? Syrup is a liquid. It doesn't separate like fat does. You know how fat and water separates? That's a layer of fat. See how I dip my finger and there's nothing on it, but shimmering? I'm moisturizing my hands with it. Now I need to wash them. Ay, ay, ay. What is this? Oh my God, let's just make this. OK, let's get this Starbucks part two on the road. We got three drinks, eggnog latte, peppermint mocha, and the caramel brulee latte thingy. Let me start by saying this. I do not consider whipped cream on a latte to be legally allowed, but in the Starbucks tradition, we're gonna do it, so don't yell at papa. Let's begin with the eggnog latte. First, we're gonna make our own eggnog. Sorbot will just never compare. In a medium sauce pot, add one cup of granulated sugar, three cups of whole milk, and the beans from one whole vanilla bean. Add the whole vanilla bean pod too, why not? Whisk that together, set that over medium-low heat, then keep heating and whisking, and once the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is hot, but not boiling or simmering, get a separate bowl and add five to six egg yolks, depending on their size. Whisk the egg yolks together, then add a small ladleful of your hot liquid to the yolks, whisk that in, then keep doing that just until your egg yolks are tempered, and by tempered, I mean nice and hot. Add your yolk mixture back to the milk, then add one teaspoon of ground cinnamon, a quarter teaspoon of ground cloves, one and a half tablespoons of ground ginger powder, and two teaspoons of fresh grated nutmeg. Whisk all that together and continue heating over medium-low heat while continuously mixing, making sure that this mixture does not simmer or boil. Please. Two things will happen if you let it simmer or boil. For one, Papa will be mad, and for two, you'll cook the yolks and get a gross mess and cry in the corner. You want the mixture around 175 Fahrenheit the entire time. Anyway, after five to eight minutes, the mixture should have thickened and should coat the back of a spoon nicely like this. Strain that through a fine mesh strainer into a bowl set over an ice bath and start mixing that just until the mixture is totally cool. Then whisk in one and a half cups of heavy cream and a quarter cup of brandy, cognac, or bourbon. You can skip the alcohol if you want, but it's an iconic flavor addition. Now, making the latte is pretty easy. You'll need a quarter cup of whole milk. Add in half a cup of your eggnog. Now, look, you can heat that up over the stove, but I chose to steam mine with my espresso machine's steam wand. Once it's nice and hot, go ahead and pull two shots of espresso from an espresso machine. Link in the description for the one that I use. Now, alternatively, you could use half a cup of cold brew concentrate that's been heated up or half a cup of a mocha pot espresso. Totally up to you. Then just mix your coffee with your hot eggnog mixture until thoroughly combined. Then pour that into a coffee mug, top with a nice swirl of whipped cream, and hit that with some additional fresh grated nutmeg or a dusting of cinnamon. We'll taste test these at the end, so let's move on to the next latte. Next up, we have your precious little peppy mint mocha. I don't know why people love this so much, but anyway, whatever. Instead of chemicals, let's start off with a mint-infused simple syrup. In a small saucepan, combine one cup of sugar and one cup of water. Whisk that together and heat that over medium heat until the sugar is completely dissolved and the mixture is hot and steamy. Then just drop in two bunches of fresh mint. Da-da, da-da, da-da! Turn off the heat and let that steep for 15 minutes. Then remove your mint, strain the liquid, and bada-bing, bada-boom, you got a minty syrup. Now, to make your latte, heat up half a cup of whole milk until very hot. Then add a quarter cup or one ounce of finely chopped unsweetened chocolate. Mix that together until completely melted and combined. You may need to hit it with a little additional heat if that doesn't finish dissolving. Then again, pull two espresso shots or half a cup of your heated up cold brew concentrate, blah, blah, blah. Mix that into your chocolatey milk. And from there, you'll add about two to four tablespoons of your mint syrup or until it reaches your desired level of sweetness and mint flavor. Mix that together until thoroughly combined, pour it into your favorite coffee mug, top with a fanny of whipped cream, and add some finely grated chocolate on top just for the flex. Okay, last but not least is the caramel brulee latte. And yes, we're gonna make the little crunchies on top, so don't even go there. On that note, to make the crunchies, in a medium sauce pot, add one cup of sugar, six tablespoons of water, and three tablespoons of bourbon, or just more water if you don't want the alcohol. Now whisk that together until combined, then heat over medium heat. Bring it to a boil and let it boil until it turns a very deep amber color. Then immediately whisk in one tablespoon of unsalted butter. As soon as that's combined, pour that onto a baking sheet lined with a Silpat or parchment paper and let that cool completely. Once that's cooled, it should be nice and hard, heh heh. Then snap it into pieces, place it in a plastic bag, beat that thing up until you get nice crumbles like these. Then just set it to the side. Now we also need a caramel sauce, which is a very similar process. Get a medium sauce pan, add one cup of granulated sugar, two and a half tablespoons of water, and two tablespoons of bourbon. Whisk that together, and this time set it over medium high heat. Bring it up to a boil, and let it boil and reduce until it reaches a slightly less dark amber color. Then whisk in four and a half tablespoons of unsalted butter, one teaspoon of fine sea salt. Once that's combined, turn off the heat and whisk in half a cup of heavy cream and one teaspoon of vanilla extract. I mean, look at that. That is a beautiful caramel sauce. Now pour that into a container and let it cool. Don't worry if it looks a little runny because it's gonna thicken as it cools. Now, to assemble your latte, heat up three quarters of a cup of milk until very hot. Add in those two shots of hot espresso or your heated up cold brew, blah, blah, blah, and one to two heaping tablespoons of your caramel sauce, or to taste. Now once that's thoroughly combined, pour that into your coffee mug, top with your velvety whipped cream, and finish it off with a nice helping of your crunchy brulee topping. And that right there is a salty bourbon caramel brulee latte. Now let's see how the taste of ours compare with little Starbucks. Okay, so in order to make this not weird and no mouth to mouth, I'm gonna use this spoon so TJ can taste test this afterwards. So the eggnog latte, I mean, wow. This is already my favorite drink of the winter. Look, normally my order is this, a quad shot iced latte with whole milk. 16 ounces, no sugar, nothing else, just milk and espresso. This, well, if I wasn't on a diet, I would have this every morning. Anyway, the stupid peppermint stupid latte. Immediately, immediately, you've got that rich chocolate, the peppermint's there. It doesn't taste artificial like the other one. This one actually has a fresh mint flavor, but it actually co-mingles more properly with the real chocolate flavor. All right, last. This is something to be sipped, all right, don't do this. This is just stupid. That's the special one. Ooh, between this and this. My favorite out of these three, split between the eggnog and the caramel brulee. My personal favorite right off the bat, caramel brulee. It's the least sweet, it's got salty caramel, good for me. Now, more specifically, did we win? Which ones did we win? I would say we won every single category, but obviously I can't say that because I'm biased. And Josh, you have to have somebody come taste, otherwise you just always say you win. Can't always win. That's not true, you can always win. And I hope that happens today. So TJ, come on up and have a little taste. All right, there we go, so we're all set. After this short break. Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep. This is good, bro. I'm in pain. Here's number one. Le sip. Okay, number dos for you. They're both like pretty decent, but I'm gonna go with number two. Yeah, I mean, they're both pretty good. Wait, which one are you picking? This one? Okay, which do you, okay, taste these again. That's one, okay? And then that's two. I just wanna make sure that we got the right thing here, because I'm like actually kind of surprised by that. Yeah, this one. That's one. Oh, it is. Okay, yeah, we're going with one nine. This seems rigged, but I swear to God, TJ's just stupid. Ha ha ha ha ha. Here's number one. Okay, so that's number one. Give number one a sip. Lickety split. Number two. It's number two, just as a reminder. This one. Finally, I win, god damn it. This tastes like caramel. This tastes like sad. This tastes like they just put a bunch of sugar in it. Oh, no, no, no, no. Here's number one. So there's number one. And two. I'm gonna go with this one. Finally, I win, let's go. I don't really like either, though, but this one. Ha ha ha ha. I'm gonna say three out of three. I'm gonna say TJ was just a little confused, because the eggnog was on point. That one was the best one. Nonetheless, even if it was two out of three, that's still a win grand total. So, but better, Starbucks part two, the hot drink holiday edition. You wanna know what else gives you energy and happiness? When ingested B-roll. For guys, and that is it. So we made our three holiday drinks, hot latte versions of each. They're all honestly relatively easy to make. And I think if you really are craving something that has like a genuine, properly conducted flavor, then obviously making your own is the best. If you are looking to just drive through, drive through and pick it up, then I'm sure there's many people who are gonna comment and be like, well, going to Starbucks late takes two minutes, John. It's like, eh, not really. It actually takes like 30 minutes. So you drive like probably, you know, I don't know, five to 10 minutes out. Then you sit in line for five minutes and then you drive back for five to 10 minutes. So really, when you weigh the time scale, that argument's becoming less and less valid in my opinion. I don't know. I guess you can get it delivered. The point is you can do whatever you wanna do. I'm not gonna try and force you to do anything, but if you enjoyed this video or you learned something, leave a like, subscribe, and I will see you next time. Bye.