The following is a clone recipe of the Starbucks Frozen Frappucino (credit to www.topsecretrecipes.com). I have modified it a bit by using simple syrup rather than plain granulated sugar and premixing all ingredients except ice. I keep a jar of the mix in the fridge and just pour over ice when ready to blend. It is crucial to have the right type of blender - large strong blades and a good strong motor are crucial. Some of the pricey ($100 and more) blenders that look really cool, such as the Waring bar blender, are less powerful than the Braun Mega Blend (or Power Blend?). I bought mine at Sam's Club for $30-35 and they are available online for that price.
I have used strong brewed french Roast with a few spoons of instant espresso added and have also tried it wiht real espresso (time consuming but worth it). It's reported that Starbucks uses double strength Italian roast coffee. Maybe they did at one time but now they're using a prepackaged concentrate that is mixed directly with the milk. They may do a terrible job with regular coffee but I still find that they do a better job with frozne drinks than anyone else. Some relatively upscale places are now using a powdered mix (has lots of great crap like non-fat dry milk powder, hydrogenated vegetable oil and corn syrup solids - mmmm!). They just mix the powder with water and blend - tastes better than it should but still isn't right.
Here's my dilemma - I can duplicate the taste of a frozen frappucino (but I get to control the sweetness and get more intense coffee flavor) but the blended drink still tends to separate when being consumed and requires ongoing stirring. I tried a bit of pectin (saw it recommended somewhere) and it was a disaster. I'm considering trying a bit of unflavored gelatine but am open to other suggestions. My daughter worked for a few months last fall in a newly opened coffee place in Poughkeepsie NY. They were using a vanilla flavored powder that seems to do the trick but they were just using a spoon or two and then using milk, espresso etc. for the rest of the drink. She can get me the source but it's only available in huge cans. Any ideas here folks? All suggestions and comments appreciated!
Coffee 3/4 cup double-strength coffee, cold 1 cup low-fat milk 3 tablespoons granulated sugar 2 cups ice
Make double-strength coffee by brewing with twice the coffee required by your coffee maker. That should be 2 tablespoons of ground coffee per each cup of coffee. Chill before using.
To make the drink, combine all ingredients in a blender and blend on high speed until ice is crushed and drink is smooth. Pour into two 16-ounce glasses, and serve with a straw. (www.topsecretrecipes.com) Makes 2 "grande" drinks.
Caramel For this version, add 3 tablespoons of caramel topping to the original recipe above and prepare as described. Top each glass with whipped cream and drizzle additional caramel over the whipped cream.
Mocha For this version, add 3 tablespoons Hershey's chocolate syrup to the original recipe and prepare as described. Top each glass with whipped cream if desired.
Here's my dilemma - I can duplicate the taste of a frozen frappucino (but I get to control the sweetness and get more intense coffee flavor) but the blended drink still tends to separate when being consumed and requires ongoing stirring. I tried a bit of pectin (saw it recommended somewhere) and it was a disaster. I'm considering trying a bit of unflavored gelatine but am open to other suggestions. My daughter worked for a few months last fall in a newly opened coffee place in Poughkeepsie NY. They were using a vanilla flavored powder that seems to do the trick but they were just using a spoon or two and then using milk, espresso etc. for the rest of the drink. She can get me the source but it's only available in huge cans. Any ideas here folks? All suggestions and comments appreciated!
Coffee 3/4 cup double-strength coffee, cold 1 cup low-fat milk 3 tablespoons granulated sugar 2 cups ice
Make double-strength coffee by brewing with twice the coffee required by your coffee maker. That should be 2 tablespoons of ground coffee per each cup of coffee. Chill before using. To make the drink, combine all ingredients in a blender and blend on high speed until ice is crushed and drink is smooth. Pour into two 16-ounce glasses, and serve with a straw. (www.topsecretrecipes.com) Makes 2 "grande" drinks.
Caramel For this version, add 3 tablespoons of caramel topping to the original recipe above and prepare as described. Top each glass with whipped cream and drizzle additional caramel over the whipped cream.
Mocha For this version, add 3 tablespoons Hershey's chocolate syrup to the original recipe and prepare as described. Top each glass with whipped cream if desired.
They use Carrageenan. This is a product that is made from red seaweed. You can get it from Coffee Wholesalers at : www.coffeewholesalers.com/coffeedrinksupplies.htm It sells for 4.95USD per 1/4 pound. Should be enough to last a while.
Thanks George - that's exactly what I was looking for. I'll check first to see if I can buy it locally at a healthfod store or some such place as the cheapest available shipping method costs more then the product itself.
For those trying the recipe... I'm going to try making the simple syrup with turbinado "raw" sugar instead of granulated white and will report back here on overall results once I've done that and incorporated the carageenan.
Thanks George - that's exactly what I was looking for. I'll check first to see if I can buy it locally at a healthfod store or some such place as the cheapest available shipping method costs more then the product itself.
Carrageenan is very hard to find for retail sale. I know, I've tried for some 4 years.
I was once given some "lab quality" carrageenan from a buddy who works in a food testing lab. That was it until this year when Barry Jarrett organized a "buy" of a commercial order (100lbs of the stuff) that he sold to alt.coffee participants. I got 2lbs and it will go a LONG way... you only need about 1/6th a teaspoon for a 14oz drink.
Anyway, my advice is, go with Coffee Wholesalers - I doubt you'll be able to find the right carrageenan (there are at least 4 types, and only one type works with cold milk) locally - I tried at least a dozen heath and specialty order stores locally in one of the health food capitals of the planet, with no luck. Barry is sold out, and probably won't be stocking it anymore, it was a one time deal for his store (Riley's Coffee). Chuck from Coffee Wholesalers has bought a fair stock, has it at a good price, and a little goes a long, long way.
Mark, you say you use ~1/6 tsp for a 14 oz drink. Chuck sells it in 1/4 pound packages. The o/c person in me is having a VERY HARD time ordering only 1/4 pound. About how may teaspoons would you estimate are in 1/4 pound?
Mark, you say you use ~1/6 tsp for a 14 oz drink. Chuck sells it in 1/4 pound packages. The o/c person in me is having a VERY HARD time ordering only 1/4 pound. About how may teaspoons would you estimate are in 1/4 pound?
Argh, you're gonna make me go all metric on you! :)
Okay, a teaspoon is 5mls (tablespoon is 15ml, an oz is roughly 30mls)
A quarter pound is roughly 110grams.
A teaspoon (5mls) of this stuff weighs roughly 2.4grams. My scale is probably not super accurate at that level.
So, doing the math, there's roughly 44 teaspoons of this stuff per quarter pound, or enough to build at least 176 14 ounce drinks, IF you use 1/4 tsp per 14 oz drink.
THANKS for doing that for me! I think I'm going to be ordering some this week, since the hot weather's here. (Eventhough I just placed an order with them last week...)
I have been wanting to make blender drinks for some time now. This post was my inspiration to start. A friend pointed me to Asian markets as a source of agar-agar which is a gelatin substance which comes from seaweed. I have had some sucess with it. The first stuff I got is combined with sugar so it does add sweetining to the drink and is probably not as strong in increasing the viscosity of the drink. As I understand it agar-agar comes from a different seaweed than the carrageen which Mark mentioned. In my layman level of understanding the carrageen which Mark mentioned reacts with the milk in the drink to gel while other carrageens and the agar-agar require heat. I put about 1.5 tablespoons of the sugar laden agar-agar into a steaming picher with about 1/2 cup of non-fat dry milk powder and stired it. Then I added about 1 cup of water and steamed it. I then stirred it again to get all the lumps out. I let it sit for the agar-agar to do its stuff while I pulled a double shot into a dollop of honey. Then I poured the milk - agar-agar concoction into the blender added the sweetened espresso and blended. After the coffee and milk stuff was mixed I added ice and blended again. I have also done it with decaf coffee and some choclate syrup for my wife. So far we both like the results. I am running out of the agar-agar so I bought some this noon. This stuff is different. It doesn't appear to have any sugar so my guess is that it will require less to get the same level of thickening. The brand of the new stuff is Telephone Brand and it comes from Thailand. I will experment with it tonight.
Phil
phaelon56 Said:
The following is a clone recipe of the Starbucks Frozen Frappucino (credit to www.topsecretrecipes.com). I have modified it a bit by using simple syrup rather than plain granulated sugar and premixing all ingredients except ice. I keep a jar of the mix in the fridge and just pour over ice when ready to blend. It is crucial to have the right type of blender - large strong blades and a good strong motor are crucial. Some of the pricey ($100 and more) blenders that look really cool, such as the Waring bar blender, are less powerful than the Braun Mega Blend (or Power Blend?). I bought mine at Sam's Club for $30-35 and they are available online for that price.
I have used strong brewed french Roast with a few spoons of instant espresso added and have also tried it wiht real espresso (time consuming but worth it). It's reported that Starbucks uses double strength Italian roast coffee. Maybe they did at one time but now they're using a prepackaged concentrate that is mixed directly with the milk. They may do a terrible job with regular coffee but I still find that they do a better job with frozne drinks than anyone else. Some relatively upscale places are now using a powdered mix (has lots of great crap like non-fat dry milk powder, hydrogenated vegetable oil and corn syrup solids - mmmm!). They just mix the powder with water and blend - tastes better than it should but still isn't right.
Here's my dilemma - I can duplicate the taste of a frozen frappucino (but I get to control the sweetness and get more intense coffee flavor) but the blended drink still tends to separate when being consumed and requires ongoing stirring. I tried a bit of pectin (saw it recommended somewhere) and it was a disaster. I'm considering trying a bit of unflavored gelatine but am open to other suggestions. My daughter worked for a few months last fall in a newly opened coffee place in Poughkeepsie NY. They were using a vanilla flavored powder that seems to do the trick but they were just using a spoon or two and then using milk, espresso etc. for the rest of the drink. She can get me the source but it's only available in huge cans. Any ideas here folks? All suggestions and comments appreciated!
Coffee 3/4 cup double-strength coffee, cold 1 cup low-fat milk 3 tablespoons granulated sugar 2 cups ice
Make double-strength coffee by brewing with twice the coffee required by your coffee maker. That should be 2 tablespoons of ground coffee per each cup of coffee. Chill before using. To make the drink, combine all ingredients in a blender and blend on high speed until ice is crushed and drink is smooth. Pour into two 16-ounce glasses, and serve with a straw. (www.topsecretrecipes.com) Makes 2 "grande" drinks.
Caramel For this version, add 3 tablespoons of caramel topping to the original recipe above and prepare as described. Top each glass with whipped cream and drizzle additional caramel over the whipped cream.
Mocha For this version, add 3 tablespoons Hershey's chocolate syrup to the original recipe and prepare as described. Top each glass with whipped cream if desired.
I tried the plain agar-agar. (Telephone Brand) About 1/2 tsp does as much thickening as 1 tablespoon of the sugared stuff. At first I got a bit carried away and used too much. It choked my blender.
Phil
PJK Said:
I have been wanting to make blender drinks for some time now. This post was my inspiration to start. A friend pointed me to Asian markets as a source of agar-agar which is a gelatin substance which comes from seaweed. I have had some sucess with it. The first stuff I got is combined with sugar so it does add sweetining to the drink and is probably not as strong in increasing the viscosity of the drink. As I understand it agar-agar comes from a different seaweed than the carrageen which Mark mentioned. In my layman level of understanding the carrageen which Mark mentioned reacts with the milk in the drink to gel while other carrageens and the agar-agar require heat. I put about 1.5 tablespoons of the sugar laden agar-agar into a steaming picher with about 1/2 cup of non-fat dry milk powder and stired it. Then I added about 1 cup of water and steamed it. I then stirred it again to get all the lumps out. I let it sit for the agar-agar to do its stuff while I pulled a double shot into a dollop of honey. Then I poured the milk - agar-agar concoction into the blender added the sweetened espresso and blended. After the coffee and milk stuff was mixed I added ice and blended again. I have also done it with decaf coffee and some choclate syrup for my wife. So far we both like the results. I am running out of the agar-agar so I bought some this noon. This stuff is different. It doesn't appear to have any sugar so my guess is that it will require less to get the same level of thickening. The brand of the new stuff is Telephone Brand and it comes from Thailand. I will experment with it tonight.
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