Starbucks Pistachio Latte Recipe and Photos

I love trying the new drinks that Starbucks comes up with. I also love anything pistachio-flavored, so the coffee chain’s new Pistachio Latte is right up my alley. And as much as I want to walk down that alley every day, a girl has her budget to think about, so I resolved to try and make this latte myself. I worried it would be a tricky drink to replicate as the flavors aren’t as familiar as your standard caramel or chocolate, and the Salted Brown Butter Cookie Flavored Topping is as unique as it is delicious.

Thankfully, a quick search brought me to a copycat recipe that was fairly easy and only required one ingredient that wasn’t already in my pantry: pistachio extract! You can buy it on Amazon for around $10 (I went with the one that the recipe suggested). I love pistachio flavor and definitely plan to make more of these lattes, so I thought it was a worthwhile investment. I also love that buying the extract lets you control the amount of sugar in your latte, since the extract provides all the pistachio flavor.

This latte is a little more labor-intensive than strolling up to your local Starbucks, but if you have 10 extra minutes between Zoom calls or want to treat yourself on a weekend, I promise it’s worth it. Personally, I love knowing exactly what’s in the food that I’m putting in my body, so homemade lattes are my favorite way to healthily indulge. I also savored this latte a lot more because I knew I’d made it myself. The brown butter cookie topping isn’t an exact Starbucks replica, but it still adds delicious flavor and depth to the latte. Just be careful when making the brown butter: it browns very quickly since there’s only a tablespoon of it. Your end result should take less than five minutes and look something like this (you can also find a video tutorial here).

In addition to the brown butter cookie topping, I added whipped cream and my favorite pistachios from Setton Farms, just because I was feeling fancy. And by feeling fancy, I mean I devoured the whipped cream, brown butter, and pistachios with a spoon before even trying the latte! You can certainly skip the whipped cream and crushed pistachios, but I recommend them both for the flavor and honestly, for the ‘gram. Besides, as you can tell by the photo below, the pistachios make a major aesthetic difference! I also highly recommend green food coloring if you’re going for that pistachio look — 1-2 drops is perfect for giving this that pastel green color.