Choco-Coffee Frappe

After a mid-afternoon trip to the grocery (we were out of eggs and butter, and that just wouldn’t do for an amateur baker like me), I was hankering for a cold drink. We hadn’t even finished putting away the grocery stuff when I started making choco-coffee frappe. So, if you’re wondering about the bottles of Blue Curacao and Kikkoman, and the bag of malunggay leaves in the photo, they have nothing to do with the drink. Just didn’t have the energy to clear the island before taking photos.

So, what is a frappe? It appears that a coffee frappe is not the same as a frappe. Coffee frappe is a froth (foam?) covered iced coffee drink while frappe may refer to a milkshake in New England, a non-dairy fruit and ice blender drink in Australia, or a fried dough dessert in Italy. What we have here is a coffee frappe or a frappe coffee, whichever the more politically correct term is.

Modern-day baristas would have us believe that a coffee frappe starts with espresso but if you read the first of the linked articles above, it would seem that a coffee frappe is an instant coffee drink. And that makes it very easy to prepare at home. Dissolve the coffee and chocolate in the hot water. Stir in the sugar. Pour the mixture into the blender, add the ice cubes, and process until smooth. Pour into tall glasses. Topped with whipped cream and have a wonderful coffee frappe experience without the unconscionable cafe price tag.

City slicker

The basic recipe says to pour 2 oz. of brandy, 1-1/2 oz. of Triple Sec, and 1 tbsp. of lemon juice into a shaker half-filled with ice, shake, strain, and serve. The photo above was the result. I tasted it and found the drink too sour, so Speedy decided to substitute orange juice for lemon juice. What you see in the glass on the left of the above photo was the result of the substitution. This time, the mixture was too sweet. And bland. As though the sweetness of the orange juice had taken the jolt out of the drink. When both glasses were half-empty, I poured the lemon juice mixture into the glass with the orange juice mixture and, this time, I found the balance to be just perfect.