due to demand for the return of my oh-so-popular frugal friday posts (okay, so my cousin jennifer said she missed them) i have decided to comply and write a short and sweet one for you all today.
i enjoy frou-frou girly drinks at starbucks. i'm not much for strong cups of black coffee or plain old cappuccinos with no added flavor. give me a vanilla latte or a mocha with lots of whipped cream and i'm a happy girl. i can't remember the last time i stopped at starbucks for a coffee....its got to be at least 6 months ago because at times like this, the only treat i don't feel guilty about indulging in is a 99c ice cream cone at mcdonalds once in awhile. one drink at starbucks equals like 6 ice cream cones and that's just not cool.
with the holiday season upon us, my taste buds have been craving the sweet satisfaction that only a peppermint mocha can bring. unwilling to part with so many precious grocery dollars, i decided to do a little at-home experimentation to see if i could duplicate the yumminess in my own kitchen. to tell you the truth, i could have just gone out and bought one of those peppermint mocha flavored creamers, but being the good frugal girl that i am, i wanted to see if i could manage to make something out of the ingredients i already had at home.
first, i brewed a small pot of decaf coffee that i found in the cupboard. it was already opened and the freshness was questionable, but that's the only option i had since i'm staying away from caffeine. i put a bit of tristan's whole milk into a very large mug and stirred in quite a lot of hershey's chocolate syrup. i added the coffee to my "chocolate milk" mixture and then carefully poured in a couple drops of peppermint extract. (unfortunately, i wasn't careful enough and accidentally dripped some of it onto the counter. the fumes from it cleared my sinuses immediately and caused my husband to holler at me from upstairs, wondering what the smell was all about)
was my homemade peppermint mocha attempt a success? well, in a blind taste test i can assure you that 10 out of 10 participants would be able to tell my drink from the starbucks original. a duplicate it was not, but a festive, tasty drink that cost me mere pennies, it sure was!
6 comments:
HAHAHA! I have done that so many times.
Those coffee flavored creamers are awesome. Set aside $3 and get one on your next grocery trip. btw- I use the creamer instead of the "cream" when making naniamo bars and mmmmm does it taste good. (eat one bar and send the rest to work or somewhere other than your fridge)
~Shannon
Yay! I feel special!
Thank you.
xox
Next time just stir a candy cane in it for a few, then taste it!
Check out this website for what looks like a good replica! Those drink are so expensive, it is hard to justify! But oh so good... :)
http://www.recipezaar.com/Starbucks-Peppermint-Mocha-202183
I realized after reading the recipe further that it requires purchasing an espresso machine... that's not very frugal :-(
haha, thanks sarah! it does look like a good recipe, but i think i'll still try it only with coffee instead of espresso...i like what it said about not using extract, but using the peppermint syrup instead. i'll have to give that a try!
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