Starbucks Iced Caramel Macchiato Copycat Recipe

starbucks iced caramel macchiato on a counter

Published Date: 10/05/2020

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If you’ve never had an Iced Caramel Macchiato from Starbucks, you have been missing out! According to the Starbucks website, an Iced Caramel Macchiato is a combination of their full-bodied espresso with vanilla-flavored syrup, milk and ice, topped with a caramel drizzle for an oh-so-sweet finish. The Iced Caramel Macchiato has been Super Dad and my go-to drink for years.

After a number of tries, we finally mastered the Iced Caramel Macchiato at home and I’m so excited to share it with you! It’s so creamy and sweet, you won’t even need to add sugar (which is always a plus). You can adjust it to your level of sweetness to, just by using less caramel sauce and/or sugar free syrups!

Before we get to our Starbucks Iced Caramel Macchiato copycat recipe, let me share a few tips about the ingredients.

While it’s always best to use Starbucks ingredients, there are a few other options!

You definitely want to use a good espresso. That will make or break the flavor. We use the Starbucks Dark Roast Espresso. I’m not 100% sure that’s the same one that they use when you go into one of their cafes, but it’s excellent. If you’re looking for a more inexpensive option, we also really love Cafe La Llave.

There are a couple of ways to make your espresso shot. If you have an espresso machine, that is probably the quickest and easiest way. You can also use a stovetop espresso maker. We tried both ways and found then espresso to be much more dark and rich with the machine, but it will work with either!

While you can choose whichever milk you prefer, we love vanilla almond milk. It’s creamier, in my opinion. You can use sweetened or unsweetened, depending on how you like your iced caramel macchiato.

I tried a few different caramel drizzle options as well. The best one, by far, was the Torani caramel sauce. It’s thick and rich and very similar to the one that our local Starbucks uses. Tip: the 4 pack is cheaper on Amazon than it is on the Torani site.

You’ll also want to grab the Torani vanilla syrup.

Don’t forget to grab pumps for your syrup as well! It will make it so much easier to measure!

**Updated 11/22/20 – Special thanks to Brittany, former Starbucks Barista, for pointing out what was wrong in our recipe. We tried her suggestions and it was PERFECT! We’ve adjusted the recipe below (though the step photos should be step 4 and then 3).

I’ve tried to show the steps in photos above for you, to make it a bit easier.

Step 1: Caramel Sauce

Step 2: Vanilla Syrup

Step 4 (now 3): Milk

Step 3 (now 4): Ice (at the suggestion of Brittany, former Barista, put the ice in after the milk)

Step 5: Espresso

Step 6: Caramel Sauce on Top

If you try our version of the Starbucks Iced Caramel Macchiato copycat recipe, we’d love to hear your thoughts. Don’t forget to check out all of our family friendly recipes! Don’t forget to try our very popular Starbucks Pink Drink copycat recipe as well!