The Mocha Frappe I Just Keep Making {Easy, 5 ingredients with ice}

It's summer and I can't resist sipping a frozen coffee drink.  There is something magical about a caffeine jolt encased in blitzed ice to refresh one's soul on a hot summer's day. It melts away exhaustion. What's even better is when those sips total 55 calories. This mocha frappe has 55% less calories, 59% less sugar and 52% less carbs than the Starbucks equivalent. Those stats are based on 12 ounces of my recipe in comparison to 12 ounces of there's.

It took many tries for me to nail down this recipe for an easy mocha frappe at home. This recipe has only 5 ingredients, including the ice.  All the ingredients can be found at the local supermarket or made easily at home. I wanted a smooth texture with the right balance of coffee and chocolate. I tried unsweetened cocoa powder, hot chocolate mix, chocolate syrup, and various combinations. This recipe uses just chocolate syrup because the powders yielded a chalky residue on my tongue. This mocha frappe is refreshing, chocolatey and coffee flavored and really easy to make. It can be made for a morning commute, an afternoon pick me up or an after work perk up.

If you like chocolate and coffee blitzed together give this a try. You'll love it!

TIPS:

• The coffee through the chocolate syrup ingredients in the recipe can be combined the night before and chilled in the refrigerator until ready to use. 
• Unsweetened almond milk can be used. Add 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract to the milk.
• Any milk will work but the calorie count will need adjusting.
• Chilled espresso or double brewed coffee can also be used.
• You can drizzle a little chocolate syrup down your glass for "effect" but extra syrup isn't calculated into the nutrition information provided
• Memory tool for quick assembly: coffee and milk is 1 to 1 ratio. Flavors are 1T each. And Ice is also 1. 
• If you want to make cold brew this is my go to recipe. 
• This recipe works in a blender or bullet shaped blender [use the blend button, if you have a ninja].  

Makes 1 8 ounce serving.
55 calories / .6g fat / 12.8g carb / .3g protein / 10g sugar

INGREDIENTS:
1/4 cup cold brew coffee, espresso or really strong coffee*
1/4 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
1 tablespoon granulated Swerve**
1 tablespoon Hershey chocolate syrup [45 calories per tablespoon]
1 cup ice, approximately 6 standard ice cubes

DIRECTIONS:
Put ingredients starting at the coffee into the blender first and ending with the ice. Blend until completely smooth.

*I used Trader Joe's coconut water cold brew for a coconut flavor but any strong coffee will work. If using a standard drip coffee maker double the amount of coffee so it brews strong.
**You can use any sweetener you like including maple syrup, granulated sugar, coconut sugar. Choose a sweetener that measures 1:1 to granulated sugar for the best results.