How to Save Money on Iced Lattes

At the start of 2025, in an effort to be more fiscally responsible, my resolution for the new year was to only purchase one coffee per week. This might seem easy for many people, but it’s a goal I’ve already failed at. I can make coffee at home, and I can dispense it from an electric machine at the Food & Wine office, but neither option can replicate the ambiance of my favorite local coffee shop or the quality of its La Marzocco espresso machine.

While I can now confirm that sticking to only one coffee purchase per week is not doable for me, I am going to attempt to salvage the intention behind my resolution — starting with an iced latte hack courtesy of Instagram and TikTok.

There’s a strategy for getting a discount on your iced latte that’s been circulating the internet in a few slightly different variations over the past few years. It regularly resurfaces in viral social media clips, which isn’t surprising considering that it stands the test of time and works at almost any coffee chain, and it recently cropped up in my feed again. This simple hack calls for purchasing a plain espresso at a cafe, then pouring it over a cup of milk and ice that you’ve brought with you. Iced lattes are typically at the top of the price range among the beverages at a coffee shop, and this approach aims to knock their price down by a dollar or two. But does it work?

How much money can you save?

This technique isn’t going to cut the price of your iced latte in half, but it will save you incremental costs that add up over time. The exact amount of money you save on each iced latte will differ depending on the prices at the coffee shop you go to, which may vary widely depending on the cost of living wherever you are. But it is highly likely that the majority of cafes will charge more for an iced latte than a shot of espresso, so this trick will work in most places.

I live in Brooklyn, New York, and my favorite independent coffee shop charges $3.75 for a shot of espresso — like most coffee shops, they only pull double shots, so everything is a double. In contrast, a 12-ounce iced latte at the same place costs $5.50 (with regular milk). If you want oat milk there’s an additional upcharge of $0.75, bringing the total to $6.25.

That’s a price difference ranging from $1.75 to $2.50 per drink, depending on your milk of choice. Let’s say you buy three iced lattes with regular milk each week: that means you could be saving at least $273 per year, a number that would be even higher once you factor in both tax and tip as additional percentages of your total.

The savings at my closest Starbucks location are similar, with the price difference between a tall (12-ounce) iced latte and a double shot of espresso coming out to $1.80. Unlike most other cafes, tall lattes at Starbucks only come with a single shot (Venti and Grande sizes come with a double), so if you want to add a second shot that will be an additional $0.70, translating to savings of $2.50. The Seattle-based chain does not charge any incremental costs for non-dairy milk alternatives.

How to try this hack

The tradeoff for saving some money with this coffee trick is that it requires a little bit of forethought and planning. So if you’re in a rush and desperately need an iced latte ASAP, it may not be for you. You are effectively getting a discount on your coffee because you’re bringing your own milk and ice. Consequently, there are three things you’ll need to try it: milk, ice, and a cup to carry them in.

Fill a travel coffee cup with ice and your milk of choice before heading to a coffee shop. If your office is like mine, it might even stock good-quality milk in the kitchen, making this hack easy to use either at home or at work. Take the travel cup to your coffee shop of choice, order an espresso, then pour the shot over the ice and milk. Voilà, you have an iced latte!

It is technically possible to utilize the same strategy for a hot latte, but this would be more difficult. You’d need to heat the milk before pouring it into your travel mug, and even then it won’t have the same foamy top as steamed milk from a professional barista. But this would work well for either an iced or hot Americano — simply add hot or iced water to your cup instead of milk. This might just be the year for more iced espresso drinks and more savings.