The Evolution of My Coffee (and Why I’ll Never Go Back)
I have just always loved coffee.
I was probably 12 or 13 when I started sipping it, not for energy, but for the experience. Coffee ice cream was always my favorite flavor. I remember iced coffees from Dunkin’ with my mom or my grandmother, something we’d grab on the way out of the house. It felt like a ritual before I even knew what rituals were.
Coffee, for me, has always meant something.
The $12-a-Day Era
When I was nannying, coffee became a full-blown lifestyle.
Every single morning, I would stop at Starbucks. A venti vanilla iced coffee with extra cream and a breakfast sandwich. Without fail. It was $8 to $12 a day, which, looking back, is actually insane considering my paycheck at the time.
I quite literally spent most of my nannying income on Starbucks.
& I justified it.
I worked early hours. It was part of our routine. It made the mornings feel special. Some of my favorite memories are tied to those stops. Sitting in the car, coffee in hand, starting the day.
But here’s the thing. I have nothing to show for it.
Just memories and a vague awareness that my bank account was never… thriving.
The Color Test
As I got older, something shifted.
You start doing that mental math. Is this iced coffee actually worth $6?
And then it became about something oddly specific: the color.
If you know, you know.
You’d get your iced coffee, hold it up, and immediately decide the fate of your entire day. If it was the perfect creamy tan, you were thriving. Errands would be successful. You’d find the best thrift pieces. Everything would just work.
If it was too dark or too milky?
Your day was basically over before it started.
And the worst part? No one says anything. You just accept it and move on with a slightly off mood.
The “I’ll Just Make It at Home” Phase
At some point, I pulled back.
I started buying those jugs of Starbucks iced coffee from the grocery store. Medium roast, poured over ice, with Nutpods during my Whole30 phases.
That honestly felt like a win at the time.
Then dairy came back, and I became a simple girl. Medium roast, ice, half-and-half. Done.
I still loved going out for coffee with friends, and I always will. But day-to-day, I was trying to find a way to make it make sense at home.
The Influencer Espresso Machine Regret
Naturally, I got influenced.
I bought the $30 espresso machine that “tastes just like a coffee shop.” You’ve seen it. Everyone was pushing it.
It was… terrible.
Watery shots, inconsistent pressure, more frustration than anything. I spent so much time trying to work around not investing in a real setup.
And honestly, that phase taught me something.
You can’t shortcut something you actually care about.
The Keurig Phase (That Didn’t Last)
I also had a brief Keurig era.
& I am not proud of it.
Not even for the taste, although that wasn’t great either. It was the waste.
The plastic pods, the idea of consuming something heated through plastic, the amount of trash it created.
My eco-conscious heart could not handle it.
So that ended quickly.
The Shift That Changed Everything
Three years ago, everything changed.
For my birthday, my husband got me the Breville Touch espresso machine, and I can confidently say… my life improved.
Not in a dramatic, life-altering way. But in a quiet, daily, this-is-so-much-better kind of way.
I started actually learning coffee.
Grind size matters
Temperature matters
Brew time matters
Beans matter
And once you understand those things, you realize why your coffee never tasted quite right before.
I found a local, organic roasted bean that I love, and from there, it became something I genuinely enjoy making every day.
My Current Coffee Setup
This is what I do now, every single day:
Double shot espresso
Organic whole milk
Ice (bonus points for chick fil a nugget ice)
Homemade syrup
Simple, intentional, and honestly better than anything I was buying out.
Breville Settings:
Grind size:
Decaf: 14
Regular espresso beans: 16
Grind time: 25 seconds
Brew time: 31 seconds
The Part That Made It Magic: Syrups
This is where everything elevated.
When I started making my own syrups, it stopped feeling like “at-home coffee” and started feeling like my perfect cup every time.
No weird ingredients. No overly sweet artificial flavors. Just simple, cozy, intentional flavors.
My Classic Vanilla Bean Syrup
This is my forever favorite.
1 cup water
1 cup sugar
1 tbsp vanilla extract (or scrape a vanilla bean pod or 2 if you’re feeling fancy)
Simmer until dissolved, let cool, store in the fridge.
It is better than anything I’ve ever had at a coffee shop.
My Sugar Cookie Syrup (Starbucks Inspired)
Cookie Syrup
1 cup water
½ cup brown sugar
½ cup white sugar
¼ tsp almond extract
1 tsp vanilla extract
¾ tsp butter extract
tiny pinch of salt
Add sugars and water into a saucepan and heat until disolved.
Simmer 3-4 minutes.
Remove from heat and stir in vanilla, almond, butter extract and salt.
Cool completely.
Store in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.
Tastes like the holidays in a cup.
Where I Landed
I still love coffee shops.
I’ll always say yes to an iced coffee with a friend. That experience is sacred to me.
But daily?
I don’t miss spending $10 at all.
I don’t miss wondering if my coffee is going to ruin my mood based on the color.
I don’t miss the inconsistency.
What I have now is just… better
It’s slower. It’s intentional. It’s mine.
And every morning, when I make my iced latte exactly how I like it, I get that same feeling I had at 13, sitting in the car with my mom or my grandma.
Just… upgraded.
