You don’t need to be a professional barista to create delicious mixed coffee concoctions at home. While your favorite specially crafted drink from Starbucks can seem difficult to reproduce, we can help you craft the perfect at-home version.
The pistachio latte offered on the Starbucks menu has a perfect blend of espresso and sweetness. The most “challenging” ingredients to reproduce are the pistachio sauce and salted brown butter topping. You’ll soon find it’s not all that difficult to make. You just need a quick trip to the supermarket. Here, we’ll help you re-create the delicious, sweet, and buttery pistachio latte.
Pistachio Latte Review – Is The Pistachio Latte Good?
Yes, it’s very good! Starbucks’ pistachio latte is a seasonal offering that has only been around for two years. Currently, it’s only available in the winter months. If you haven’t tried it yet, get to a Starbucks before spring, or simply follow our recipe and make one yourself.
The pistachio latte is one of Starbucks’ more subtle flavored drinks. It’s not ultra-sweet like a frappuccino, but it has more sweetness than a standard coffee with a pump of flavor.
The sweetness largely comes from the salted brown butter topping, which makes this drink a sugary morning jumpstart or afternoon treat. The pistachio flavor is pretty subtle when they serve it on location, but you can taste it. Of course, since you’re making it yourself, you can always add an extra dose of syrup if you love pistachio.
It tastes like a butter cookie dipped in a somewhat nutty coffee. You can add sugar or whipped cream to sweeten it up or leave those out for a latte with slight notes of pistachio and butter.
Here are some nutrition notes for this drink: The pistachio latte at Starbucks consists of double shots of Starbucks signature espresso, steamed milk, four pumps of pistachio sauce, and salted brown butter topping. A Grande Pistachio contains 320 Calories and 150 mg of caffeine. You can order in short, tall, grande, and venti sizes. It’s served hot or iced.
What’s In Starbucks Pistachio Latte？
The pistachio latte isn’t a very tricky recipe. You’ll probably have some – if not all – of the ingredients on hand. You may want to buy pre-made pistachio sauce. It isn’t too difficult to make from scratch, but it is time-consuming.
Here are all of the ingredients you’ll need: premade pistachio sauce or make your own (you need pistachios, water, and sugar), milk (and ideally a steamer), espresso, brown butter topping (butter, sugar, salt), and if you’re serving it cold then you should have some ice. That’s the whole list.
As you can see, the flavors come out tasting complex altogether but not too much goes into your cup. It’s easy to make a batch of pistachio lattes for yourself and your friends to enjoy.
Once you have the recipe down, you can make it all year. There’s no need to wait for Starbucks’ winter menu to release!
Pistachio Sauce
If you like to work from scratch, you can choose to make your own pistachio sauce. There are a lot of benefits to working from scratch. You can control quantity- if you want to go heavier or lighter on sugar for taste or diet, working from scratch is great.
You can also choose to make things in bulk. This is more cost-effective than buying a smaller and more expensive prepared option.
Pistachio syrup isn’t too difficult to make. If you love pistachio, you can make a large amount and add it to your drinks or other recipes for weeks.
The only ingredients you need for this are:
- Chopped pistachios
- Water
- Sugar
- Quantity: use enough to fit into a medium-sized saucepan (about a cup of pistachios and water, sugar is up to your tastes but probably ½-1 cup will be good) if you want to fill a small mason jar. Since you’ll only use a couple of teaspoons per drink, this will last for a long time. Adjust quantities according to needs and preferences.
Some notes on the pistachios: whole pistachios are cheaper, but you’ll have to shell and chop them yourself. You can also choose between salted and unsalted pistachios. If you want to control your salt intake, then use unsalted, but you should still add a pinch of salt to the recipe for flavor.
Process:
- Put all the ingredients into a medium-sized saucepan and bring to a boil. Then reduce it to a simmer for about 10 minutes.
- Strain the liquid into a jar and refrigerate. The sauce will thicken as it cools. It shouldn’t take more than 40 minutes to be ready for use.
- The pistachios left in the strainer are now candied. You can eat them for dessert or sprinkle them on your drink or even baked goods.
If you don’t feel like doing this, you can buy pistachio syrup directly from Amazon or other places. Monin, Torani, Jordan’s Skinny, Amoretti, and many other brands offer pistachio syrup.
Espresso and Steamed Milk
Brew your espresso in your espresso machine. Ideally, your espresso machine will also have a milk steamer.
If you do not have these things, other ways to make espresso-style coffee include an Aeropress or Moka pot. You can also use a handheld milk frother for frothing milk.
If you don’t own a frother, you can pour your milk into a tightly sealed container. You should fill about a third of the container. Shake vigorously until frothed – this will usually take about 30 seconds.
The butter topping is melted butter, salt, and brown sugar.
How to Make Starbucks Pistachio Latte at Home?
You’ll need the equipment and ingredients listed below to make the sweet Pistachio Latte at home. Once you have everything you need, it’s a simple process of preparing the pistachio syrup (4 steps), brewing your coffee and steaming your milk, and creating the salted butter topping (2 steps).
Pistachio Latte
Equipment
- Saucepan For making Pistachio Syrup and brown butter
- Strainer For straining the syrup liquid into a jar
- Espresso Machine Or other alternatives that brew concentrated coffee
- Milk frother
Ingredients
Pistachio Syrup
- 1 cup Chopped pistachios
- 1 cup Sugar adjust for your preference
- 1 cup Water enough to cover your pistachios
- 2-4 pumps Pistachio Syrup If you want to buy one directly instead of making it.
Coffee (Espresso)
- 2 shots espresso or concentrated coffee
- 6 fl.oz steamed milk whole milk, 2%, or use oat milk, almond milk, or any other alternatives
Brown Butter Topping
- 1/2 stick Butter Add more or less for preference
- 2 pinches salt Add more or less for preference
- 1/4 cup Brown Sugar Add more or less for preference
Instructions
How To Make Pistachio Syrup?
- Pour all ingredients into a saucepan.
- Bring mixture to a boil.
- Strain out the pistachios and pour the liquid into a mason jar or something suitable for long-term storage.
- Refrigerate the syrup to thicken as it cools. You can save the sweetened pistachios separately to eat as a snack or use as a topping.
How to Make Salted Brown Butter Topping?
- In a small saucepan, heat your butter until it turns brown. Keep an eye on it as it's easy to overheat.
- Turn off the heat. Pour in the sugar and salt and stir until it's combined.
How to Make a Pistachio Latte?
- Pull a double-shot espresso. Or prepare your coffee with your coffee maker.
- Add your pistachio syrup to your coffee- use the amount based on personal preference. (If you buy pistachio syrup directly, Starbucks uses four pumps of syrups in their recipe. )
- Pour a teaspoon of the salted brown butter (more or less depending on your sweet tooth or diet) on top of your latte over the milk, or stir it in. This will give your latte a sweet, salty, and almost caramel undertone.
- Froth the milk with the steam wand or your milk frother, pour it to over the espresso.
- Enjoy!
Notes
- If you don’t like to make pistachio syrup from scratch, you can buy pistachio syrup directly from Amazon or other places. Monin, Torani, Jordan’s Skinny, Amoretti, and many other brands offer pistachio syrup.
- The nutrition information is a grande Starbucks Pistachio Latte. For the homemade recipes, the nutrition fact is based on the ingredients you use.
Nutrition
Final Thoughts
The Starbucks Pistachio Latte is a delightful seasonal beverage that you can enjoy all year round if you learn to make it at home. Once you have all the ingredients, it’s incredibly quick and easy to make.
If you’re looking for more Starbucks-inspired recipes to try at home, check out our delicious Mocha Cookie Crumble Frappuccino recipe for another delightful homemade Starbucks experience.
Making it yourself also means you can have a large batch of flavoring prepared to add to other drinks and use daily. Treat yourself to this delicious latte any time you want and impress your friends and household with your pro-level coffee skills. You’ll love the flavors of the rich brown butter paired with the nutty pistachio and latte in the holiday season or thought-out the year.
