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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