I recently received a coupon to get any drink I wanted at Starbucks. They do this if something goes awry with a previous experience as a nice gesture.

I decided to use the coupon for an experiment: What is the most expensive drink I can order?

Luckily (or unluckily), I happen to live in Manhattan and that makes Starbucks prices expensive. Yup, they fluctuate from region to region (and even store to store). The first thing I did was call a dozen Starbucks stores around Manhattan to see who had the most expensive prices. I used my regular order of a tall soy chai to make the comparison. I figured a Starbucks in Times Square would be more expensive than where I live on the Upper East. It’s even a cool idea itself to create a Starbucks heatmap of Manhattan.

Boringly, most Starbucks in Manhattan (no matter where located) rang my drink up at $4.23.

My next problem was I needed to find out the most expensive stuff to put in a drink. I called up my sister Lauren who happens to work at a Starbucks. She told me that I definately need to go with the venti white mocha and to add as many shots as possible.

I then went to Starbucks to make my drink. I told the barista that I was there as part of a contest to make the most expensive drink. She played along, trying to squeeze as much as we could into a venti cup. She thoroughly enjoyed the problem at hand (although other customers on line were getting peeved).

And the ultimate yuppified result: A 13 shot venti soy hazelnut vanilla cinnamon white mocha with extra white mocha and caramel. It cost a total of $13.76 (with tax).

After she rang up the amount, I then presented her the coupon (which I didn’t reveal beforehand). She laughed, comped the entire drink, and I left.

At first taste, it tasted just like a shot. The 13 shots in it were just too strong. However, when I got home, I mixed it more with a spoon and it became drinkable (even enjoyable to my girlfriend). It was very sweet and I’m still shaking a bit. I didn’t attempt to drink the entire thing since I’d like to sleep tonight.
 
 
Here is a shot of the receipt (note: 2 shots come with the drink, so she only rang up 11):

 
 
And me wincing at first sip.

 
 
Think you can make a more expensive Starbucks drink? I challenge you to do it and post your shot of the receipt here. Bonus points if you do it with a comped drink coupon too. (note: you can inline images or link them)
 
 
UPDATE: We put it in the freezer and it’s delicious frozen!