PINTESTING: COPY CAT FRAPPUCCINO

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PINTESTING! Today is the day of the week that I try out a Pinterest something or other to share with you guys! :) Woohoo! 

To be honest with you guys, I was going through about 8 of those amazing Starbucks Vanilla Frappuccinos that you can get in the bottles from the grocery store. While they're MUCH cheaper (at under $4 for a 4 pack) than going to Starbucks (45 minutes away) for the "real" thing... I just wanted to maybe save a few bucks! So, I went on a pinning rampage last weekend and found some recipes for these amazing little buggers!

I searched high and low, and finally came up with a bunch of good (and easy, to me) recipes to try.

So far, I have tried one of the recipes. Unfortunately, I didn't take any photos along the way... 

This "copy cat vanilla starbucks frapp" recipe is from Tastyplanner.com. I thought this recipe looked super easy, so I wanted to give it a go! 

Here are the ingredients:

• 3 cups of water or 2 cups (if using espresso)

• 1 cup of espresso

• 3 cups of 2% milk (or skim if desired) -- I don't drink milk, so I was using Vanilla Almond Milk. 

• 3 tbsp vanilla extract

• 3 tbsp sugar or sugar substitute (I used Splenda)

• 1 gram Xanthan Gum (used for texture) or 2 Tbsp dry Pectin (used in original recipe).

They say that if you don't have espresso to make, you can double brew your regular coffee, and it should mimic espresso pretty well!

I went out over the weekend and bought myself a sweet pitcher-like jug just for trying to fix up some of my own "easy" vanilla coffee drinks! I was pretty excited. It was like, under $4. 

Now, for the directions, including my thoughts along the way in italics:

Make strong coffee by double-brewing, use instant coffee, or dilute espresso with water.  

Okay, easy enough, I thought to myself. So, the ingredients said 1 cup of espresso, and three cups of water, or two... I guess I'll use three. That just seems better.  I proceeded to add one cup (yes, folks), one cup of espresso powder into the filter of my coffee machine, and three cups of water to the water ... place. It came out like coffee-flavored syrup, but I went on. I poured it into my sweet new pitcher.

Dilute coffee with milk. 

Really? That seems dumb, don't I have to add sugar to this? Wouldn't it be better to add the sugar now, instead of after since it will melt easier when every thing's all hot? Yeah, that seems good, I'll add the milk later.  

Add sugar (or substitute) to mixture (preferably hot) and stir until well dissolved.   

Okay, well. Since my awesome pitcher has a sealable lid, I'll shake it up! Whoa, what's going on?? It feels like my pitcher is about to burst! Oh yeah, the hot pressure or whatever is going on. *opens lid and gets sprayed in the face with warm coffee* ooooftah. That was dumb. I guess I'll add the milk now. 

Add Xanthan gum (or pectin if desired) and stir (or blend using blender) until well mixed. If adding thickener, the resulting drink should have a creamy consistency. This gives the texture of cream with the fat of 2% milk!  

Ooookay, wow, this smells weird. Oh well, I will add in the pectin now. *shakes the bottle some more*. At this point, I had to try it out. Man. I just about gagged... It was AWFUL!

So, folks... As you probably have guessed... This didn't QUITE work out as expected. Also, don't put a WHOLE freaking cup of espresso beans into your drip coffee maker. LOL. Husband said it was a big mess in the morning. Good thing I did this on a Friday night, husband didn't have to clean it out before work! haha.

Final Verdict: Don't do this. It's awful. Maybe make some changes... If it turns out awesome, let me know! 


I did end up trying once again to create this recipe with some changes: 
I put in TWO tablespoons of espresso powder into the coffee filter, and still used three cups of water.  Then followed everything as planned, but also left out the pectin. I decided I didn't need that fake creamy texture. If I wanted that, I'll just add friggin' cream people. -- I tried it. Still awful... I added about a whole extra cup of sugar to make it palatable! I really didn't want to waste another thing of Almond Milk (those things get spendy), or any more supplies. -- When I am pouring myself some, I do a 1:3 ratio of this "frapp mix" to MORE milk. Yeah. haha. It's still not awesome. But as soon as this "frapp mixture" is gone, I will be trying a new recipe.

Something I think I may have done incorrectly: It says 1 cup of espresso. This really buggered me up. I was so confused. But now I am thinking it is 1 cup of MADE espresso... But then, I wonder what happens with all the water... Who knows.

Anyway, do you know great copy-cat Recipe for these nummy starbucks drinks?!

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