The Sweet, Dairy-Free Milk That Can Save You Money At Starbucks

It's no secret that Starbucks drinks can become quite pricey, especially if you like to order your drink with add-ons, such as pumps of syrup or extra espresso shots. For reference, some of the coffee chain's worst-value drinks include the Café Latte, which is priced at over $5 for a grande before you add in any flavors, meaning that if you enjoy your coffee on the sweeter side, your flavored latte will end up being over $6 — at the very least. Plus, all of those trendy secret menu items often require a full list of add-ons, so none of those are going to be great for your wallet. But, as it turns out, there may be a way to lessen some of those extra charges on your go-to Starbucks order. 

What some coffee lovers may not know about Starbucks is that their soy milk is vanilla-flavored, meaning that if you order soy milk in your coffee, you can forgo the extra charge of a pump of vanilla syrup. However, there are a few things to note about this method.

We all want to be as cost-efficient as possible when it comes to buying our coffee drinks, including at Starbucks, so it's important to outline exactly how to get the most for your money. Starbucks will charge a small fee for opting for non-dairy milk — about $0.70 — including the vanilla-flavored soy milk. The chain also charges a fee of around the same price to add in a flavor, such as vanilla. So, if you are the type of customer who wants non-dairy milk as well as a flavor, you can use the vanilla-flavored soy milk to your advantage and lower your extra charges to just one instead of two. However, it's important to add that soy milk, while flavored, has a more subtle sweetness than you'll get with vanilla syrup. 

Another caveat to this trick is that the only flavor of soy milk is vanilla, so if you typically opt for any other flavor — such as caramel or hazelnut, for example — and also want to stick to non-dairy milk, you won't be able to reduce those extra charges.