The difference between ordering your drinks stirred or upside down at Starbucks

One of the all-time, most popular Starbucks beverages is the Iced Caramel Macchiato.

Starbucks describes it as follows: “We combine our rich, full-bodied espresso with vanilla-flavored syrup, milk and ice, then top it off with caramel drizzle for an oh-so-sweet finish.”

The Unmodified Iced Caramel Macchiato

Here’s what the unmodified, beautiful Iced Caramel Macchiato looks like.

The unmodified Iced Caramel Macchiato is built like this: A barista adds vanilla syrup to the cup. (For a Grande size, 16 ounces, it is 3 pumps of syrup. All of my beverages in this article will be the Grande size). Next comes milk and ice. And then the barista pours 2 shots of espresso into the cup (after the vanilla, milk and ice are in the cup). Lastly, the barista takes caramel drizzle (a caramel sauce) and makes a hatch like pattern on the top. The beverage is “marked” by caramel drizzle, hence the use of the word “macchiato”. Sometimes people are surprised that the syrup is vanilla, and the only caramel is the drizzle.

Whenever a beverage has the word “macchiato” in it, some ingredient will be last, atop everything else. So an Espresso Macchiato is two shots of espresso with a small dollop of foam atop the espresso shots, finishing the drink. The Espresso is “marked” by the foam.

I have heard it said anecdotally by partners, that the Iced Caramel Macchiato is the most frequently ordered beverage at Starbucks. Media relations at Starbucks told me that it is a “long-standing customer and partner favorite” and that it is “very popular.”

The cup marking for an unmodified Iced Caramel Macchiato is just a “CM.”

*Upshot: Perfect medley of caramel sweetness, cold milk and espresso.

I received a Facebook message from a barista a while back, just wanting to talk about the Iced Caramel Macchiato. I can’t find the message now, but the gist of our conversation was that at her store, the “stirred Iced Caramel Macchiato” is such a popular beverage that she has seen her partners start to do that automatically now. I was surprised. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone order a “stirred Iced Caramel Macchiato” so I went to Starbucks and did a little investigating.

The Stirred Iced Caramel Macchiato

If you order a “stirred” Iced Caramel Macchiato, your barista will build the drink as usual (see the above discussion on building the beverage) and then take a spoon and stir it.

I tried to understand why customers like that. It does give you a more uniform taste to the beverage. Because the unmodified Iced Caramel Macchiato is a layered beverage, you’ll take sips where sometime you’re tasting more milk and towards the end you might taste more caramel.

I discovered that if you order this beverage stirred, you’ll get the least amount of caramel on it, compared to the unmodified or the upside down version. (I’ll talk about the upside down version next). The reason you get the least amount of caramel is that when the barista pulls the spoon out of the drink, some of the caramel stays clinging to the spoon and gets removed from the drink. If you order it stirred, you either need to be aware that it has a little less caramel than the unmodified version, or you might want to ask your barista to add a bit back on top after it’s stirred.

I asked my neighborhood baristas if they’ve ever seen anyone order a stirred Iced Caramel Macchiato. Sure enough, this is not that unusual of a modification. I suppose you might order this if you don’t enjoy a layered beverage and /or you enjoy a less prominent caramel flavor.

*Upshot: Uniform flavors with the least amount of caramel-ly goodness.

The Upside Down Iced Caramel Macchiato

The upside down version of the Iced Caramel Macchiato really is a very different beverage from the unmodified version. Since your caramel is on the bottom, it’s not “marking” the drink at the end.

Your barista building this version of the beverage is going to start by putting a bunch of caramel at the bottom of the cup. What was last is now first. I asked my barista exactly how she built the drink above and she literally reversed the steps of the unmodified Iced Caramel Macchiato. Caramel drizzle goes on the bottom. Next she added 2 shots of espresso to the cup. After that, she added milk and ice, and lastly she pumped vanilla syrup into the beverage as the final step.

Since all the caramel is on the bottom of the cup, when you take your first sip through the straw, you’ll get a glob of caramel or a lot of caramel flavor immediately. Rather than a uniform flavor of the stirred drink, or the layered flavor of the unmodified drink, here you get a lot of caramel in the early stages of your drink, followed by a more milky-sweet-espresso flavor in the finish.

Turns out, this variation is popular too.

*Upshot: A blast of caramel to start your drink followed by milky-espresso deliciousness.