Good baristas always practice their skills by experimenting with different homemade concoctions. At the shops I’ve worked at, we often made mystery drinks for each other after the morning rush. It’s a fun game and we try to outdo each other with our creativity. One of my favorite creations came out of this ritual — the Cookie Latte.

Cuppa Cookie

The basis for this drink is a mocha, which of course is a latte with chocolate sauce added to a combination of espresso, steamed milk, and foam. But I wanted to make a new drink where the chocolate syrup was a little less thick than in the traditional mocha latte.

In a regular mocha, you’d use about ¾ to 1 ounce of syrup per espresso shot. The Cookie Latte is different because it uses about ⅓ of the amount of chocolate you’d normally use.

This is a 12-ounce drink with 2 shots of espresso, but only ½ ounce of chocolate. Then I add ¼ ounce of vanilla syrup and ¼ ounce of hazelnut syrup. Finish if off with a dash of cinnamon, and get ready for a drink that tastes exactly like a chocolate-chip oatmeal cookie!

The Cookie Latte

Ingredients

½ ounce chocolate syrup

¼ ounce vanilla syrup

¼ ounce hazelnut syrup

2 ounces espresso

9 ounces steamed milk and foam

Instructions

The key to this drink is mixing your syrups together first, in the bottom of your empty, pre-heated cup. Next comes the espresso. Stir these together and add the steamed milk and foam.

Serve in your favorite mug — I like a short, wide-mouth mug that takes two hands to hold. It makes me feel like I’m warming up near a fireplace.