The Card

The Starbucks card was kind of a pioneer for pre-paid coffee shop cards. You can get the card free, load money onto it, and use it to pay for anything at Starbucks. The convenience factor comes into play when you’re really in a rush and it’s easier to swipe the card than digging into your wallet for change or using a chip-enabled debit card that takes processes at a  snail’s pace at the POS (point-of-sale) terminal.

If you go to www.starbucks.com and register your Starbucks card, you are entitled to quite a few freebies. Buying 30 drinks a year entitles you to Gold Status, and that means a free drink after 15 purchases. If you buy a drip coffee, you get a free refill. If you buy a pound of coffee, you get a free drink with it. You get a free drink on your birthday, and you also get free “modifiers” to your beverage; modifiers are options that you can use to customize your drink.

For example, you can add the “misto” (steamed milk) modifier to your Americano and have an American misto, while paying only for the Americano. You can also add any of the syrups that you see on the barista counter. Purchase a steamed milk and add vanilla, and you’re only charged for the steamed milk if you paid with your registered card (in this case, the vanilla syrup is the modifier). For those of you who like to substitute milk with soy (or eggnog during Christmas time) in your drink, you can ask for that modifier and it will be free if you use your registered card.

One thing that I have an issue with at Starbucks: the mocha and white mocha syrups are misnamed “sauces”. I think Starbucks does this intentionally to avoid giving a discount on the oodles of people that would purchase a steamed milk with mocha (and theoretically end up only paying for the steamed milk instead of a hot chocolate). These “sauces” do not qualify for the modifier discount with a Starbucks card. That’s too bad, because one of my favourite drinks is an American misto with white mocha. The misto part is free, thanks for my registered Starbucks card. But I usually end up paying for the Americano and the white mocha. Still, I'm essentially paying about 33% less for what is essentially a white mocha (which is made with white mocha sauce, espresso, and steamed milk only).

Stay tuned for my next post: how to use your card to get the Poor Man’s London Fog.