Blonde Vanilla Bean Coconut Milk Latte (Starbucks Copycat Recipe)

Blonde roasted beans are much more complex and flavorful than heavy roasts. That’s why coffee lovers now prefer light roasts over the once-popular French and Spanish roasts that could taste like chocolate, but also like charcoal.  

Starbucks blonde vanilla bean coconut milk latte exploits all the blonde beans’ virtues, resulting in a very pleasing drink reminiscent of caramel, coffee berries, and of course, real vanilla bean.

Today we’re making our own version of this gorgeous drink, but there are some things to consider before we start. Let’s first talk about coconut milk.

Coconut milk is very similar in flavor and texture as real milk, but it has some lovely tropical hints. Substituting milk for coconut milk is a no-brainer, but there are some challenges. Coconut milk doesn’t behave as milk, mainly when we’re trying to froth it. 

This means you’ll have to pound your coconut milk heavily with an electric hand blender or blend it for a few minutes to achieve a decent amount of bubbles. Once you get this done, crafting a Blonde Vanilla Bean Coconut Milk Latte is easy. 

We’re using light-roast coffee beans, but they don’t have to be Starbucks’ Blonde Mix. Any light roast will do. And you really want to use these to experience the subtlety that makes this drink so popular.

The most exciting part of the recipe is using vanilla bean. The brown, gnarly vanilla pods are expensive, but there’s no other way of experiencing the real deal. Each vanilla pod has about a teaspoon of aromatic pulp, so carefully slice it open, and scrape the black gold with a spoon.

It comes without saying that if you want to make a blonde vanilla bean latte with regular milk, you can use this same recipe. Master it, and you’ll not only have one Starbucks recipe aced but two!

A final tip. Pour the espresso over the foamy milk, and not the other way around. The coffee will find its way to create a marvelously layered drink. Only then, will your blonde vanilla bean latte be ready for your favorite sweetener.