Better Than Starbucks Day #2: Creating an At-Home Cafe
When she came to my house, I knew she was looking for support and a few (OK, maybe more than a few) laughs. But as Tonya came into my kitchen, she revealed her true purpose for being there, “I knew you’d have good creamer for the coffee…”
Even if you don’t love coffee, I think it’s important to have a basic set up for when friends and family come over and need a cup. Not want a cup. Need a cup.
In my house it’s:
- Jesus
- Family
- Coffee
(And let’s be clear. On bad days, number’s 2 and 3 can get switched.)
When my friend Bronwyn moved from our hometown to an Austin suburb, she left a lot of love. Girls who “got” her and who she “got”. That’s hard stuff to leave. That’s until she found her new group: Her coffee group: “I felt the pain of loneliness until I found the gals here in TX I now share my Thursday mornings with. We rotate whose home we meet in and enjoy breakfast and the much needed fuel for our lives COFFEE together. It is during this time that we share life; the struggles, joys, frustrations and vent about all things we can’t take to our husbands. The coffee dates are the food for our souls.”
If she misses a Thursday coffee date, her husband Jason tells her to call her friends and go out, “You need them and I need you to be with them” he will say.
I LOVE having my own little cafe at home. I love having people over and mixing up new and fun drinks to try. Here are just a couple of things you may want to invest in to start your own at-home cafe:
Get Your Equipment Set Up
Frother When Tonya, heard that I was going to be talking about at home cafes, she posted on Facebook,”I was at IKEA and was going to buy another cruddy frother. I put it back because your’s was STELLAR. Please tell us what that one is.” I have tried many a frother, but my favorite is this Bon Jour Rechargeable. It actually froths the milk – not just moves it around. It gets nice and frothy and not only do my drinks taste great, they look AMAZING.
- Espresso Maker An Aeropress Coffee Maker the BEST system for making espresso shots and is less than treating your family to Starbucks drinks and treats.
- A Cinnamon Shaker It makes everything just a bit nicer – like it’s a treat.
Have Some Choices
One of the reasons that going to a coffee shop is such a great option is all the varieties of flavorings available. Here are a few items (besides the basics) you may want to get to set yourself up as an at home barista:
- Coffee Flavoring
- Creamer
- Peppermint sticks
- Good quality cocoa
Do you need to buy all these things at once? Of course not. Coffee with milk and some kind of sweetener will get you started. But, it’s fun to be “the coffee house” and let people experiment. Plus, even if you did go on a caffeine-induced shopping spree and bought all those fun extras, you could make up for it in a year with avoiding one Starbucks run a week.
Use Great Mugs Using your favorite mug, and having a few mugs put away for friends that are “their mug” at your house instantly makes your friends feel like they have a place in your home.
Yummy Treats are a Must When you make a loaf of banana bread at home, and then compare it to paying $2.25 for a single slice at Starbucks, you’ll feel like a genius for never leaving your house.
Learn Some Moves Ashley Row is a blogger over at www.joyfulthriftyhome.com who knows the secret to making all those great drinks we love: “I come from a family of coffee drinkers so it was no surprise when I became one myself. After college, I even worked as a barista in a local coffee shop where I learned all about making fun coffee house drinks. I no longer work there, but I do volunteer in my churches coffee shop where I still get to act as a barista. One of my favorite things is using the skills I learned as a barista to make make different kinds of coffee drink recipes and share them with family and friends.” Check out her excellent post on How to Make Coffee House Quality Drinks at Home
Tell me your favorite drink to make at home (and if you know it by heart, give us the recipe!) and you’ll be entered to win an ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP to MOPS for you or a friend! Enter by Friday midnight and we will announce a winner on Monday!
just found this post via Pinterest. It makes me so happy to read! I love coffee any way I can get it. And like you, I have the 1, 2, 3 priorities! lol
My favorite drink is a vanilla latte, but at home I just make coffee…if I had a frother (which I didn’t even know existed until just now!) I could probably make my own at home!!!
I mastered Starbucks pumpkin bread 2 winters ago, so last winter I decided I should learn how to make my 2 favorite drinks; a Caramel Macchiato and a Peppermint Mocha. I had to froth my milk on the stove, since I don’t have a frother yet, but I was surprised by how easy and yummy they turned out!!
Any chance you would be willing to share the recipe? I would be a hero to my husband!
I’ll share! Coffee or pumpkin bread?
Pumpkin Bread PLEASE!!!
Kathi, I wish I could take credit for this recipe, but it’s from my go-to recipe site: AllRecipes.com! Here’s the link:
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/downeast-maine-pumpkin-bread/detail.aspx
I bake mine in a bundt pan, so it comes out pretty. You could go all Starbucks, and sprinkle pumpkin seeds on top, or if you (or Roger) is more of a crumb topping kind of person (like me), you could top it with this (Crumb Mix from Clinton Street Baking Company Cookbook)
1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 stick butter
Mix all ingredients together with butter by hand until the mixture is pea-sized. Keep in a cool place until ready for use. (can be stored in the fridge for a few weeks!) Sprinkle (liberally!) on top of pumpkin bread before baking.
my favorite drink to make it home is Pioneer Woman iced coffee with sweetened condensed milk! 🙂
What a fun post to read, and some GREAT ideas! The funniest thing was that I was just thinking about my “cruddy” frother from Ikea that died on me years ago!!! I’ve been wanting to find another one (maybe something a little bit heftier!) and here you are talking about frothers!!! Haha.
My favorite drink that my hubby makes for me (he’s the best barista in my little neck of the woods) is an Eggnog Latte…We get super pumped when eggnog comes out in November and we pull out our dusty cappuccino machine and whip some yummy lattes up!
My favorite drink is whole milk. Fills you up and a great comfort food.
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I don’t drink coffee anymore, the caffeine doesn’t agree with me, but I used to mix hot chocolate mix with some coffee until it taste yummy. Just like my own Mocha. It was yummy. Now I just love drinking Rooibos tea with honey.
I don’t drink coffee but I make a great hit chocolate… you use mostly boiling water a splash of milk some Carmel syurp and then a scoop of vanilla Wendys frosty!!!! Yumminess
I love that they make lots of great flavored creamers! A simple way to make a cup of coffee special! Thanks for these tips, though….I think I may have to step up my coffee game at home!
Because I am so used to drinking cold coffee (with kids keeping me busy) I like just adding drip coffee with a little Hersheys choclate caramecreamer over ice. On rare days, I can actually blend it up 🙂
is it lame that my favorite at home drink is dunkin donut’s french vanilla coffee from a 10 dollar drip coffee machine? Simple pleasures… 🙂
Vanilla caramel green mountAin k cup , caramel macchiato creamer , over ice! Delicious.
My coffee adventure is my keurig. I love the cafe mocha k cup with the new girl Scott thin mint cookie coffee creamer! It just screams Christmas. 😉 My mom prefers vanilla cappuccino with the mint creamer.
I have been using the Toddy coffee system to make a cold brew espresso concentrate. I leave in the fridge and add to boiling water for an americano in less than a minute. Love it!
Mint Mojito coffee. Had this $5 drink at Philz and had to find a cheaper way to do it, myself! Mash 1 tablespoon of fresh mint leaves and 1 tablespoon of sugar and pour strong coffee over it because this is an iced drink. Heavy cream optional. Adjust all amounts according to taste, but those are all the ingredients. (Kathi, this was one of my comments yesterday. I didn’t know it would be more relevant today.)
Wow. I really have no talent in the coffee making department! But this sounds like a blast! My daughter is in Kindergarten and my son is in pre-k from 11:30-2:30 during the week. I’m a stay at home mom (doesn’t mean I always stay home though…) and I flit in between coffee phases. I can go for months drinking it, then not drink it for a year. Then go back to drinking it. But this sounds like so much fun to introduce and make new friends! I love it! Oh, and my favorite coffee is usually with a vanilla-caramel creamer or sweet cream flavoring. I’m usually pretty boring when it comes to coffee!
Let’s first take a moment to praise my MOPS group for serving coffee. Moving on, I am just plain coffee drinker. Regular coffee and whatever flavored creamer I choose on shopping day.
Coffee with hazelnut creamer…I’m’ simple!
I worked as a barista for a few years at a small mom and pop store. We would concoct all sorts of things but my favorite to this day would have to be almond joy. Now I do not care for almond joy candy bars, I’m more of a mounds girl. The mixture of coconut, almond and chocolate syrups (torani or any brand) mixed with coffee was just amazing to me.
Kathi, Great blog today. Loved the link to Joyful Thrifty Home. Your tips on how to make your own coffee cafe at home was great – and now I want a frother. 😀
Kathi, Thank you so much for sharing my post. This is so timely too because I am actually having someone over for coffee tomorrow. I met her through blogging and we found out that we live just a few minutes away from each other. I am posting my favorite drink recipe on my blog tomorrow (Tuesday) as well!