Coffee Drinks Are My Weakness

I am a HUGE fan of coffee. Once the summer months arrive I get very excited to have the chilled coffee drinks from Starbucks and Caribou Coffee. I like Caribou Coffee more than Starbucks, but as luck would have it we have a Starbucks 2 blocks away from our house (the nearest Caribou is 20 minutes away!).

I could drink an iced coffee of some sort everyday…however they are not cheap and they are in no way healthy for you (SO MUCH SUGAR!!). Even the “light” versions of the drinks come with a hefty calorie count. I realize not everyone is concerned with nutrition but in this economy everyone should be concerned with what they are spending their money on.
I purchased a few Caramel Frappuccinos from Starbucks last week, my husband had hernia surgery so I was taking care of him as well as our 1 ½ year old son...they were needed. A medium drink was about $4.50 a hefty price tag but worst (for me) was the 390 Calories, 15 grams of fat, and an alarming 59 grams of SUGAR!
59 grams of sugar, in a single drink!? Are you kidding me?! That is equivalent to eating 3 packs of Reeses Peanut Butter Cups (6 total peanut butter cups!) at one time. Yum…but eww. That’s a lot of sugar!

Today the craving hit me so I decided to take matters into my own hands. We happened to have a bottle of liquid caramel syrup (no sugar added) that is used for flavoring coffee or for flavoring in desserts. Perfect!
I took out the Magic Bullet-yeah I know it’s from an infomercial and has a questionable name-but hands down best thing EVER! I LOVE IT! Once I had the Magic bullet out and found the appropriate blade I added about 1 ½ cups of ice, ½ cup of skim milk, ¾ cups of cold coffee (left over from being brewed this morning), 3 tbsps of the caramel syrup, and 3 tsps of Sugar in the raw. Then blended all of it for about 30-45 seconds.



It looked good…I take that back…it looked AWESOME. I was so excited about how it looked I was almost afraid to try it in fear that it would suck.
I gave it ago and was pleasantly surprised! It was obviously not as good as Starbucks however it is cheaper, healthier, and I didn’t have to leave my house!



Here are some tips if you plan on making it yourself. I used Sugar-in-Raw. I normally do not use white sugar at all (unless baking and it’s called for). So if you use white sugar normally go ahead and use that. If you are like me and prefer turbinado sugar you can use that too-it’s more course than white sugar so it took a few extra seconds for it to really get good and blended in the drink.
I used liquid caramel syrup that is made to be added to drinks and desserts, if you are not worried about calories/fat/sugar go ahead and use caramel syrup that you would put on top of ice cream. And as they do at the coffee houses add some whip cream on top as well (if you have it)! I found that the milked frothed up nicely for me and whipped cream was not missed!

There are SO MANY different flavors you can play with when making your own drink, chocolate, strawberry, cinnamon, etc. be creative, have fun, and enjoy!