Frappes At Home

I fully admit I am a coffee freak/addict. I was a barista in my 20’s for around 9 years and loved my work but let’s get real…..I highly doubt I will ever have a $10 or $20,000 espresso machine in my house )although a girl can dream, no??) So over the years I have tried on and off to be able to make drinks at home – minus the pricey machine. And well, that doesn’t always work so well. An easy way to make frappes (those delicious creamy semi-frozen treats of coffee goodness!) is to use commercial mixes. My only issue is that most are just too sweet for me and contain coffee powder. Kirk is happy using Jet, which we get at the local Cash n’ Carry (and is free of hydrogenated and tropical oils) Jet and Big Train (another company) are often used at independent espresso shacks and coffeehouses for their frappes sold, they just add espresso shots and sometimes flavors to pump it up. My old boss liked having a fancy pants granita machine (which we all hated because it was a major pain in the butt to clean every night) and we made a base from scratch – I can still nearly 9 years later remember the recipe by heart because I made so many thousands of gallons of that stuff. But I digress….back to the subject – getting my frappe fix without paying $4 to 5 a drink. For some reason I cannot stomach what Kirk drinks. Not sure if it is the pregnancy or just my taste-buds. Over the past couple years I have experimented many times but rarely been happy. So on Pinterest I happened to see a recipe for making frappes and decided to play with the recipe. I figured that I wouldn’t be out much if I hated it, just the cost of one latte really, for a container of powdered coffee creamer. Disclaimer aside, yes, the stuff isn’t exactly healthy. But I wanted to get an idea of the feasibility of the recipe first and $ or so was OK to play with – and the amount used is minimal in the recipe. And this is where the recipe is fun – you can use ANY flavor of powdered creamer. If you want sugar-free, use that. If you want fun, look for the ‘seasonal’ flavors. I opted for Caramel Macchiato flavor (take a look at their website, they make many, many fun flavors although many stores now have generic versions as well).

Then all you need is some quality instant coffee. At least get all fancy and use Medaglia D’ Oro Instant Espresso Coffee. Many grocery stores carry it, look up high, in the coffee aisle – of which you will already be in anyways, no? Instant espresso has a lot more flavor and depth than instant coffee does, it is worth it.

I considered my final results to be worthy of my time. I would drink it happily. But never fear, I have an idea and will be working on it more. I have an idea of how to use all natural coffee creamer and maybe even my husband’s favorite, cold pressed liquid espresso shots (a very PNW thing that you can find at Cash n’ Carry in the chill section). So keep an eye out for more ideas soon! I am on a roll 😛 Or maybe it is all the caffeine talking….cause the baby is kicking me pretty hard now.

Yum!

Yes, I know the irony here. That is a Starbucks cold cup. But hey, I got it for 50% off 😀

Customizable Frappes

Ingredients:

• ¾ cup cold low-fat milk
• 2 Tbsp powdered coffee creamer, your choice of flavor
• 2 tsp instant espresso Medaglia D’ Oro Instant Espresso Coffee
• 10 ice cubes

Directions:

Add everything to your blender, process on high/blend (or frappe if yours has that button) till smooth. Transfer to sippin’ cup and enjoy quickly.

Note:

I found the drink to be sweet enough on its own, but do taste to see if you want to add any sugar or other sweetener before serving.

Serves 1.

~Sarah