Beginner's Iced Coffee

I use the word "beginner" because I'm barely entering the world of liking coffee.  This is my idea of coffee:

40% milk

25% sugar

25% mocha/caramel flavor

10% coffee.

                   

over ice. 

According to my husband, that doesn't count as coffee. I'm trying though!  If coffee is an acquired taste for me, I have to start somewhere, right?  Thank goodness I've found some recipes I like!




A few weeks ago, I started making mocha frappe's to give me some pep while I trudge through the hardest semester of college I've ever encountered.  ( I mean really, why did I think full time mom, full time school, and a part time job was a great idea? Oh well, I'm swimming drowning in it now! )  Anyways, I based my recipe from   this recipe from Food.com and it turned out fairly well, I just use more ice and less mocha.

However, my biggest issue is, sadly, having to clean the dang blender.  I know it is easy, but I'm usually making my frappes rushing to work or to assist me with a huge paper or late night reading.  Who's got time to clean the blender RIGHT THEN with all that other stuff going on?  Not me.  So I sadly let it set out, making it a chore to clean.  Tonight I solved my problem by cutting out the middle man: the blender.

I keep hearing people talk about iced coffee and how WONDERFUL it is.  I'm not exactly a coffee novice, but coffee + ice cubes is the general idea, right?  So I decided to take my frappe recipe, shake the ingredients in my tumbler cup, then add ice cubes.  No more blender for me!

The recipe I use is:

1 cup milk
2 tablespoons of sugar
1 tablespoon of instant coffee granules
.5-1.0 tablespoon of unsweetened cocoa powder.

1. Add ingredients to large cup with a lid.
2. Add lid, cover strawhole with finger, and shake-shake-shake to blend.
3. Add ice to taste.
4. Enjoy.

Of course, coffee is something people have very specific "tastes" for, so try out a bunch of things to figure out what recipes work best for you.  I do encourage trying out at-home recipes though, so much cheaper than mainstream coffee-drink vendors =]  Hopefully I'll graduate to something more "Intermediate Warm Coffee" during the chilly winter!