If you don't know the difference between the different coffee drinks then you're in luck. Right now, we'll go through these coffee drinks, so you can order them confidently for your next coffee run.

Disclaimer! I am not a coffee professional and these are all drinks that come from a Starbucks standpoint from a target Starbucks barista you know me.

So, this information will definitely work for you when you visit a starbucks and may help when you go to a coffee shop. We're not gonna go too much into detail because who cares. I'm just kidding but we're gonna be talking about coffee in relation to Starbucks, which means we don't really have to go too much into detail.

Let's start with the most familiar drink, a brewed coffee. A brewed coffee is what you typically know when you hear someone say they like coffee. It's simply coffee grounds that are not too fine and not too coarse. These coffee grounds are saturated by hot water which produces brewed coffee. It's what people refer to as coffee with cream and sugar.

It's what you get when you order that from places like Mcdonald's, Starbucks.

You know a coffee shop, whatever.

Basically it's the most standard coffee.

You know in my opinion this is just my opinion.

What about iced coffee? Well it's basically that but just over ice again.

You'll typically see people get an iced coffee with cream and sugar.

People especially at Starbucks love to sweeten their iced coffees with different flavor, syrups, and milks.

At my target Starbucks people are less likely to deviate from the standard hot coffee with cream and sugar.

At Starbucks there are a ton of ways to customize an iced coffee.

Let's clarify what an iced coffee will look like if you get it at Starbucks.

First there's an iced coffee which in Starbucks lingo is just iced coffee black. It will also come sweetened unless specified otherwise. Or there's an iced coffee with milk which is you guessed it iced coffee with milk added to it.

Let's look at the ratio of coffee to milk.

You can see that there's a lot of coffee with just a small amount of milk.

This is typical when ordering a coffee or iced coffee with milk at starbucks.

There are a ton of milks and alternative milks to choose from at least in the us.

In addition, there are a lot of flavors you can add to your coffee or iced coffee. This is good to know if you don't want to consume just a black and let's face it bitter coffee.

So when people say an iced coffee with cream and sugar they're most likely referring to a drink like this.

Now let's switch over to espresso.

What is espresso? Espresso is coffee that has been ground finely, finer than a brewed coffee.

It is coffee that can be produced in seconds and in a smaller volume compared to a pot of brewed coffee without getting into too much detail it, is a much smaller but more concentrated coffee.

Espresso can be consumed in different ways. One can enjoy one shot of espresso two shots, and so on, just by itself.

At Starbucks espresso is most popularly consumed when put in different drinks.

Now that we know what espresso is, we can introduce the latte.

A latte is made up of espresso and milk.

In a latte espresso makes up a small amount of the drink while the main component of the drink is milk.

This ratio seems a bit off, right.

I see people ask why is there so little coffee but so much milk.

Well! let's remember espresso is so concentrated for the amount of volume that you get.

When you taste a latte you immediately understand this proportion of espresso to milk. Believe me! You don't want to be drinking a cup of coffee's worth of espresso like that.

Let's dive into that a little deeper so we can understand the difference between coffee with milk and a latte.

Remember coffee is the main component in a cup of brewed coffee where there is a small amount of milk added; however, milk is the main component in a latte where there is less coffee.

Let me just say a latte can come hotter iced where the milk in a latte will be steamed, and the milk in an iced latte will come over ice.

So if you're confused on that don't be.

Just remember a latte and then it's whatever flavor syrup added to it.

Now that we've covered the basics we can easily dive into other drinks.

Let me know if you want me to cover the other drinks, as well such as a caramel macchiato, a cold brew, an americano, and so on.

Trust me. I know all the different drinks can be confusing but once you understand them it becomes a lot more fun.