Starbucks is a common stop for us.  Grownups love it, kids love it and what is a better way to deal with YET MORE SNOW IN WISCONSIN than a nice warm cup of coffee or tea?! Literally, I have no words for April snow. I mean, COME ON!
When we were first diagnosed with nut allergies, we avoided Starbucks completely. However, that’s no way to live life {coffee deprived, are you KIDDING me?! Also known as Mean Mommy!}.
Once we figured out how to navigate the Starbucks menu a bit, we learned that our favorite treat was no longer completely off limits.
If you follow me in Instagram @nutfreemomblog, you’ve seen my posts about “how to Starbucks” – well today, I thought it deserved a blog post of its own since we just drove through.

How to Starbucks {with a nut allergy}

1. Choose a Starbucks that you can walk into
2. Make sure you have your epi pen / benadryl JUST IN CASE {these should be with you already anyway}
3. Have a conversation with the barista at non-peak hours regarding food allergies.
4. Order a drink that is recommended safe by the barista.
5. If you have almond allergies, this might be a little riskier for you, but soy milk is always an option. Cross contact can’t be 100% avoided, so just make sure you’re talking with the barista.
6. For many peanut and tree nut allergy sufferers, almonds can be safe to eat. So anything made with or around almond milk, will not affect your nut allergies, which is the case for us. THANKFULLY!
7. Many Starbucks locations have dedicated steam arms / handles for specific milks. This is the case for SOY MILK {most of the time} + again, talk with your barista.
8. Our “go – to” safe drink for my daughter is the  kids size steamed vanilla soy milk.
9. If you tell them it’s for a child, they will not steam the milk as hot as for an adult, the portion is also a lot smaller.
10. Using the soy milk handle ensures that we probably wont come in contact with any nut based milk or coffee (hazelnut coffee does have trace amounts of actual hazelnuts, but the affect on allergies varies, obviously).
11. Note that coconut is not a tree nut, but restaurants many times consider them to be.
12. Our back up drink is always a milk box or juice box.
13. Most of the food at Starbucks is NOT safe, especially the bakery items, and hot food items. However, if you are in a pinch and need a snack, they do offer some to-go items in the cafe, just check the labels as these snacks rotate frequently and we dont have  a go-to snack item there currently.
14. If you have the SLIGHTEST doubt that your Starbucks just might not be fully understanding your food allergy or requests, DO NOT RISK IT and go with the 100% safe option, bottled water, milk box or juice. It’s not worth it.
15. The bottled water and banana are also 100% safe and we’ve never {knock on wood} had an issue with the drinks or service at Starbucks after we tell them we need a nut-free drink 🙂

 
What’s your favorite drink at Starbucks? I have a few…

1. Tall, non-fat chai tea latte
2. Tall, skinny mocha latte
3. Tall, cafe latte
4. Tall, non-fat dirty chai tea latte (two shots of espresso)
5. Cafe americano
6. Passion fruit ice tea, light ice

 
Make sure you sign up for Starbucks rewards app on your phone to snag some free drinks! It’s worth it + kind of fun, too!
Is this the Mondayest Monday or what?! Enjoy your day!