Have you had one of these? Are you one of those that pay $2.50 a bottle because they are just so good? You can make your own Starbucks Mocha Frappuccino for 36 cents per bottle (or less)!
My niece stopped by one day drinking one, so I tried it, then tried it again. Oh. My. Goodness. A great blend of coffee and milk and sugar and cocoa. My frugal conscience took over. I knew I could figure this recipe out–the ingredients were so simple.
How to make Mocha Frappuccino:
1 1/2 cups strong brewed coffee*
1/2 cup sugar
2 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa (I used Dutch cocoa)
1 teaspoon ascorbic acid**
6 cups whole milk OR 6 cups low-fat milk + 1 Tablespoon pectin***
* Regular coffee can be used. If you’d like the exact taste of the bottled version, Starbuck’s Espresso Roast gives that taste.
Brew 2 cups of cold water with 1/4 cup Espresso Roast coffee grounds or 1/2 cup regular coffee grounds.
** Ascorbic acid is added originally as a preservative, but it does add that hint of flavor. It does not need to be used.
*** Pectin is used in low-fat milk to thicken it. If you use whole milk or raw milk, or if you just don’t want to, pectin does not need to be used.
Brew the coffee.
Mix sugar, cocoa, pectin (if used) and ascorbic acid (if used) into brewed coffee until everything is dissolved. The mixture will thicken after cooled if using pectin.
Mix coffee mixture into milk.
Funnel into recycled sterilized bottles or pour into jars.
That’s all there is to make your own creamy blend of coffee, milk and cocoa! This recipe will fill 4 (13.7 oz) bottles and leave a little bit for a taste now or fill a 1/2 gallon jar.
Chill and enjoy!
No reason to sit and savor that little 13.7 ounce bottle anymore. Just pour another glass!
Get the handy print page and save this to your recipe box here:
Mocha Frappuccino.
And now. The Failure. That’s F.A.I.L.U.R.E!
Miss Frugal here just couldn’t handle spending $7.78 for that 1 pound bag of Starbuck’s Espresso Roast coffee and it not last forever. That’s why I roast my own coffee beans. That 1 pound bag will make 96 bottles of Mocha Frappuccino. This one-time purchase was for the sake of experimenting–getting that right taste.
But wouldn’t it be oh so wonderful if you could bottle this up once a month or so and have it on your pantry shelf to enjoy? And wouldn’t my niece just love me if I dropped in with a case of quart jars filled with her favorite coffee drink?
I started researching “Pressure Canning Milk”. I could not find anywhere it says not to do it, just advising against it for consistency reasons. I did find an article from 1984 on Mother Earth News of how that author did it. I consulted with Dede, who gave me some facts from Yahoo’s Canning2 Group and these words “You are a brave woman to try canning a milk product. Whoa LOL.”
Because the recipe is so cheap, I decided to go for it–only a $3.00 loss for a double batch (4 quarts) if it didn’t work. Using the MEN article, I filled the jars leaving 1/2-inch headspace and pressure canned for 25 minutes at 11 pounds pressure.
I was quite impatient waiting for the pressure to go up, the 25 minute processing time and then the de-pressurizing, but I did. I waited. Then I lifted the lid, brought the jars out and saw this…
A congealed-meat-looking mass sitting in some weak-beef-looking broth!
I waited though. Maybe they’d be shake-able the next day, after I let them sit and cool.
Fourteen hours later, they looked like this.
A congealed-meat-looking mass sitting in some weak-beef-looking broth!
So, for many, this would be the end. I definitely couldn’t handle tasting something looking like this, but maybe, maybe, if I put it through the blender it would be better.
It looked better. In fact, it looked just like what I had sitting in the refrigerator.
But the taste? There was no coffee taste. There was no chocolate taste. It tasted like a very thin sweetened condensed milk. Well, duh, sweetened condensed milk is cooked milk!
Epic. Failure. Do not try this at home!
Cindy blogs at Chippewa Creek ~ Our Life Simplified.
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Miss Judy says:
Thanks for sharing the good…the bad…and the ugly! lol
On January 28, 2011 at 4:54 am
judydee says:
CindyP, You are indeed a very adventurous woman! Thanks for the recipe and the lesson learned. You have saved a lot of us from a similar fate!
On January 28, 2011 at 5:32 am
NorthCountryGirl says:
I’ve been making my grand daughter mint mocha frappachinos ever since she bought her first one at Starbucks. That’s been quite a while apo. I save the coffee and refrigerate it. I mix coffee, milk, Cool Whip if I have it, sugar or Splenda, vanilla, peppermint extract, chocolate syrup and ice and whirl them in the blender. Takes almost identical to the frappachinos she pays almost $5 for. Not to mention less than half the calories!!
On January 28, 2011 at 6:43 am
Dede ~ wvhomecanner says:
LOL those last pics aren’t too appetizing this early! Thanks for sharing Cindy – now we know for sure that Quality IS an issue canning milk 😉
On January 28, 2011 at 7:12 am
justdeborah2002 says:
Thank you.
My daughter is a barista at Starbuck’s and we have worked on a number of replicas.
And a big thank you for showing us all the “fail”, which since it’s a lesson for all of us, isn’t a fail after all.
On January 28, 2011 at 7:27 am
tsmith says:
What an awesome idea! I love those coffee drinks. I just never thought that I could have the exact same thing made at home. Although, I admit, I never looked to see what was in them. One of those ‘if you don’t know, it can’t hurt you’ things 😉 I use that same principle to the amount of calories in those things, too. Great idea thinking you could have a stash of those yummy little drinks. Too bad it didn’t work out. Oh, well. Live and learn.
On January 28, 2011 at 8:24 am
lisabetholson says:
Cindy P. the “Wonder Woman” of cooking!
You have done it again. THANK YOU for the work you put into this. I am now thinking of this recipe with my new cows (brown swiss) cream. After having holsteins and not much cream, I am looking for ways to use it. Definitely Decaf and most definitely NOT low calorie. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU.
On January 28, 2011 at 8:36 am
CindyP says:
We tried many different recipes…I’ve been drinking LOTS of this stuff 🙂 They were ALL good, but this recipe with the Starbuck’s coffee, sugar, cocoa, pectin and ascorbic acid is what hit it all on the head for flavor and consistency.
If I could figure out a way to keep the Starbuck’s Espresso grounds fresh (because you only use 1/4 cup at a time, which is 24 batches)and not go stale, I would continue using this coffee. I’m just too cheap to spend $8/pound for coffee! I’ll just start using my home roasted 🙂
On January 28, 2011 at 8:49 am
CindyP says:
Anything can be substituted in this to get what you want — skim milk for no fat, stevia or any other sugar substitute for sugar-free. I even used powdered milk…it was good, just had that hint of flavor that goes with powdered milk. It’s up to you!
And has anyone noticed–1 bottle of this is actually TWO servings? I just noticed when I looked for the sugar amounts.
On January 28, 2011 at 8:53 am
lisabetholson says:
Cindy the calories must be astronomical. I have drank them and love the flavor.
Have you posted your way of roasting coffee grounds? and where to get them?
On January 28, 2011 at 9:02 am
CindyP says:
lisabeth– click on the link in the post for roasting the coffee beans 🙂
On January 28, 2011 at 9:28 am
Larissa says:
OMG. Best EPIC FAIL post EVER. Cindy, you are my HERO in so many ways. I think I am MOST proud of you trying to drink the blended cooked milk. Truly. It is totally something I would do, except I don’t think I would have dirtied the blender. *giggles* I am lazy where you are so brave.
On January 28, 2011 at 9:46 am
houseful says:
I am on a low carb diet. I can have cream, but no milk. What proportion would you suggest for a cream and water combination in place of the milk?
On January 28, 2011 at 9:48 am
CindyP says:
housefull — oh i don’t know….I’ve never tried that. What do you normally do? 1/3 cream to water? Or for thicker, 1/2 and 1/2?
On January 28, 2011 at 9:56 am
ShellyBell says:
LOL – I love the description of the mess that awaited you in those jars! Great post and I am SO making my own frappuccinos!
On January 28, 2011 at 11:03 am
Country Girl @ Heart says:
Sounds delicious. It makes me wonder how Starbuck’s manages to can/preserve it safely.
On January 28, 2011 at 11:05 am
CindyP says:
Commercial processing is much different than home processing…think canned milk, mayonnaise. They use a steam processing that home canners just don’t have the capability of doing.
On January 28, 2011 at 11:10 am
Urbanite says:
Thanks for sharing the canning experiment results with us. Learning is not a fail in my book. You educated yourself. You educated us. No fail for you!
On January 28, 2011 at 11:43 am
lisabetholson says:
Ok Cindy, I guess I am going to buy coffee peas now as I love fresh coffee and would really enjoy making my own. Thank you again
On January 28, 2011 at 1:23 pm
Pete says:
Have to wonder if the lowfat component of the original just may be significant, perhaps easier to can? Hmmm… 😉
On January 28, 2011 at 1:52 pm
CindyP says:
No, Pete, that was the low-fat version that I tried canning…. You can make sweetened condensed with no-fat instant milk.
On January 28, 2011 at 1:58 pm
whaledancer says:
What if you pressure canned the coffee mixture, and then just stirred in the milk to serve? Like an instant frappuccino mix?
As to keeping the coffee fresh, a vacuum sealer will work, but if you don’t have one, putting it into an air-tight container and freezing it works fairly well. Of course, if you’re used to fresh roasted it may not measure up.
On January 28, 2011 at 2:04 pm
Julie Hardie says:
Thanks for posting this…I have always drank my coffee with sugar, hot coco mix with the marshmellows and a splash of milk since I was around 20 years old….Never been a fan of starbucks but still love me some coffee
On January 28, 2011 at 3:41 pm
Teresa says:
I cannot find ascorbic acid @ local drug nor GNC stores. Could I finely grind Vit C tabs and use accordingly? I checked the price on KAF – no way!
On February 15, 2011 at 10:22 am
CindyP says:
You DON’T have to use ascorbic acid. It is a touch of flavor, but I believe Starbucks uses it as a preservative.
I use it in other things as well, that’s why I had it on the shelf.
I buy it here, along with clear jels, lower sodium bouillon http://www.barryfarm.com/baking_supplies.htm
On February 15, 2011 at 10:40 am
Teresa says:
Thanks – I just want to do it “right”. Can I use Vit C/Citric Acid instead of Ascorbic? So much cheaper!
But-I want to do it correctly
On February 15, 2011 at 12:02 pm
Suzanne McMinn says:
Teresa, try it without the citric acid at all. I’ve been making these for Morgan and we decided we didn’t like the taste of the citric acid, so you might like it without it.
On February 15, 2011 at 12:16 pm
lisabetholson says:
Cindy, how do you store your coffee peas? I got some last week and still haven’t gotten to use them as yet?
Also I heard from a coffee brewer on Youtube that you shouldn’t buy Kona Blend coffee peas. The gentleman said because they are so expensive alone and the blend isn’t up to the quality of the Kona without the blend. I just thought I would put that in as I wouldn’t want anyone else to make that mistake like I did. Blessings to all.
On February 15, 2011 at 1:52 pm
CindyP says:
Teresa — sure, Vit C is the same as ascorbic acid. Here’s the excerpt from barryfarms from their ascorbic acid:
Ascorbic acid is found in plants, animals, and single-cell organisms. All living animals either make it, eat it, or die from scurvy due to lack of it.
Ascorbic acid is Vitamin C. It serves as a color stabilizer and nutrient.
Ascorbic acid helps preserve foods, prevents loss of color in meat and used to prevent oxidation in light colored fruits like peaches and apples.
When preparing fruit such as apples, pears, and peaches, as little as 1/2 tsp of ascorbic acid added to 4 cups liquid is enough to prevent about 3 lbs of fruit from browning.
lisabeth — my peas came in a plastic bag. I put the whole thing (bag and peas) into a large pail (one of those ones you get from the bakery–I get mine 60#s at a time).
On February 16, 2011 at 8:43 am
lisabetholson says:
Thanks Cindy, have you used more than one flavor, and if so which one?
On February 16, 2011 at 9:06 am
gardengal says:
I tried this with dark cocoa powder… very nice. Thank you for sharing.
On April 3, 2011 at 5:44 pm
E says:
Thank you so much for sharing your bads with the goods! I don’t usually have the courage to share my kitchen mishaps. Everyone thinks I’m a good cook because they don’t see how many times I have to experiment to get something right!
You are awesome!
On October 30, 2011 at 2:16 pm
Goose Hill Farm says:
Thank you so much for sharing this. I can’t wait to try it! <3
On August 4, 2022 at 5:23 pm