I travel to various coffee shops across Peoria to determine which place has the best iced vanilla latte.
This week I begin my blog by explaining my search for the perfect iced vanilla latte. This is my go-to drink whenever I go get coffee. I decided I should compare lattes from various stores throughout Peoria. The top three I chose were Dunkin Donuts, Zion Coffee Bar, and Starbucks.
Dunkin' Donuts:
I started my journey to find the best latte at Dunkin Donuts. I went early Friday morning before class. I ordered a medium iced vanilla latte, it cost $3.59. This price is very cheap compared to many other places. I enjoyed the sweetness of the latte. I is fairly strong coffee, but I could not taste its bitterness because of the sweet vanilla syrup and sugar. This syrup is very sweet and occasionally hurts my stomach. I would rate this latte a 8 out of 10 because of its cheap price, and its strength.
Zion Coffee Bar
As you can tell by the name, this was a pricey place. I went to Zion on Sunday to try their iced vanilla latte. It has been recommended to me many times, but because it is twenty minutes away, I never got around to going. The price for the medium iced vanilla latte was $5. This was not as much as I was expecting, but the latte was mediocre for the expensive price. I prefer my coffee sweet, this bitter, strong coffee was just not sweet enough for my taste, but after a few sugar packets, the latte tasted great. I would rate this latte a 6 out of 10 because of its high price and bitterness.
Starbucks
The classic, most popular coffee shop in the world, of course I had to compare a Starbucks iced vanilla latte to all others. The latte costed $3.65, I was surprised to realize it was about the same cost as Dunkin. I had always assumed Starbucks was more expensive. This latte was just the right balance of sweet and bitter. The caffeine of this latte did not seem to keep me as energized as Zion, but were probably the same strength of coffee. I would rank this a 8.5 out of 10.
Overall, I was pleased with all the lattes I tried, and you could not go wrong with any of them. I was surprised to realize that Starbucks and Dunkin cost about the same amount, this is a common misconception among my friends and I. The winner of this latte taste test was Starbucks by a slight advantage over Dunkin. I hope to continue trying different shops around Peoria to drink more delicious lattes.