For the record, I am not a sugary coffee drink person. But the Brown Sugar Oat Milk Shaken Espresso from Starbucks broke me, and I cannot remember a time when I so quickly answered the siren call of a specialty coffee concoction.

I can’t even pinpoint why I ordered it in the first place. Blame it on the perfectly coined phrasing of the title? My love of oatmeal? The dark allure of brown sugar? Whatever the reason, I ordered one on a whim one afternoon (requesting half of the normal amount of syrup), and the rest is history.

This drink became a daily fix for me, and I posted about it on Instagram enough that several people joined my bandwagon and concurred with my over-the-moon position regarding the Brown Sugar Oat Milk Shaken Espresso.

Faced with the reality that my new habit was not a smart financial decision, and after watching the barista make this drink numerous times, I decided to crack the code and figure out how to make this drink at home using my Nespresso espresso machine. I am happy to report I now make these regularly at home, and have developed a recipe and a method for you to do the same!

There are a few secrets to success. First, pour the hot double shot of espresso directly over a shaker full of ice. The heat will melt the ice a little bit and water down the strength of espresso.

Second, the secret ingredient is a simple syrup made with dark brown sugar. Do not substitute light brown sugar. It will not taste the same.

Third, shaking the whole mixture gets all of the cinnamon and syrup fully infused into the coffee. If you don’t own a cocktail shaker, you could use a mason jar.

Lastly, if you do not own an espresso maker, you can use a coffee concentrate and heat it up. Or, you can use instant espresso powder and boiling water. Either way will yield results that are good enough to work in a pinch.

If you are interested in an espresso maker, I highly recommend the Nespresso Vurtuo. I have owned a traditional espresso maker before, and while elegant, there is quite a lot of learning and clean up required. The Nespresso uses pods and takes all of the guess work out of it. The machine is a splurge, but I use it every day and love mine.

My recipe for Brown Sugar Oat Milk Shaken Espresso can be found at the bottom of this post. I wrote it using half as much syrup as the original Starbucks drinks calls for. If you like yours sweeter, by all means, add more syrup! I am also including a video tutorial I posted on Instagram. I hope you enjoy this drink as much as I do!

Ingredients

for the brown sugar simple syrup…

1 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1 cup water

to assemble the drink…

2 tablespoons brown sugar simple syrup
4 tablespoons espresso (this is the equivalent of a double shot)
1 dash ground cinnamon
oat milk to fill your glass

Instructions

To make the brown sugar simple syrup, combine the dark brown sugar and water in a small sauce pan and bring to a boil. All you are trying to do is dissolve the sugar into the water. Once the mixture boils, give it a stir, remove it from the heat, and allow it to cool. Store the syrup covered in the fridge. It will keep indefinitely.
To assemble the drink, fill a cocktail shaker with ice. Add a dash of ground cinnamon and 2 tablespoons of brown sugar simple syrup to the ice.
Brew a double shot (4 ounces) of espresso. Pour the hot espresso over the ice in the cocktail shaker. Cover and shake vigerously for 15 to 20 seconds. The ice will begin to melt, and the syrup and cinnamon will get infused into the hot coffee.
Pour the contents of the shaker, including the ice, into a large glass. Top with oat milk to fill your glass and stir gently. Enjoy!

Brown Sugar Oat Milk Shaken Espresso