My Blended Experience
This girl has not always been a huge coffee drinker. In fact, I always thought coffee was absolutely disgusting and couldn’t stand the taste of it. I thought people were absolutely CRAZY for being addicted to something that tasted so gross.
Then I moved to Minnesota. The land of ice, snow, blizzards, and freezing cold temperatures.
What was one to do, but drink warm drinks, right? I would sit in my office and just be shivering. My hands would literally turn white (granted my heart medication had something to do with that), but I lost all feeling and could not even function for a few minutes because I was so cold. I would spend time running them under warm water to regain feeling and before I knew it, I was back in business.
I was a little intrigued though why all of these teachers rapidly walked to the teacher’s lounge every morning for a refill on their cup of joe. Someone had brought in a flavored coffee and some creamer and everyone was talking about how good it was. I kept getting reminded that I should try this goodness, so I caved. I tried just a bit, but boy oh boy was it good! Do you think I could remember what it was? By all means no, but it was good. I realized too, it saved my hands that day as I did not have to constantly try and warm them up.
Thus began my coffee drinking. Am I addicted? Not at all – in fact, I am not supposed to really have lots of caffeine because of my heart condition, so I only buy decaffeinated coffee (if you can still call it coffee!). All I have to do is add a little creamer and I’m all set.
Then lo and behold I received a few gift cards to Caribou Coffee. I am one of those blank stare people looking at the menu wondering what in the world to get because I do not understand the menu, what it means, or what an item would even remotely taste like. I decided to get a blended coffee (had to learn what that was) and try something new. Well, I LOVED IT! I ended up using the rest of my gift cards for that exact drink – a blended “something”.
Well, in Minnesota it also gets quite hot (believe it or not!) I decided to try and make my own concoction of a blended coffee one day. I had old decaf coffee sitting in the pot and decided to not let it go to waste. This is where my homemade blended experience began:
I poured the old coffee in a blender, threw in my normal amount of creamer, found some caramel ice cream syrup and chocolate syrup in the fridge, put a bunch of ice cubes in, and blended. I was rather hesitant because I thought there was no way it would taste good because let me confirm, I truly do not know what all those fancy words under the title of a blended drink mean.
Well, after I took a sip, I realized it was DELICIOUS! It was the PERFECT cool drink to take out on the porch and sip on while I worked on this blog.
BUT I KNOW MY BLENDED DRINK NEEDS A LOT OF WORK. I am sure it could be even better. That is where I am calling YOU to participate!
Do you make your own coffeehouse drinks at home?
Whether warm or cold… I am looking for YOUR favorite recipe that you would be willing to share!
If you would be so kind, would you please comment below and share your favorite concoction? I am wanting to try a few different ones, so feel free to share!
I don't blend my coffee like this, but I do like iced decaf in the afternoons on a hot day. I use leftover coffee, and ice cubes I've made from coffee. Delish!
That's an EASY way to make a nice and cool drink in the summer! Thanks for sharing Mary!
OH MY GOSH!! I am smiling through this ENTIRE post! First…I never drank coffee until I was a teacher (that ended 15 years ago). I started drinking coffee because…well, living in MN and being a teacher…it's what you do. I also have NO idea what to get at a coffee shop. I end up with gift cards and just don't know what anything is! And now…I think I might have to try your "blended bliss" because the temps are going UP in MN – finally – and I now have a beautiful deck to enjoy on Saturday morning. I'm so excited to try some concoction tomorrow mornng – Thanks for the inspiration and the smiles 🙂
You had ME laughing! Wow, are our experiences similar! Way to go cold MN temps! Give the little concoction a try – it definitely needs some tweaking, but definitely worth a try! I am so glad you got a kick out of this too Teresa! I'm glad we can relate 🙂
Well, I finally found my blender over the weekend…and this morning I put my leftover coffee in the freezer so I can be ready on Saturday morning for my blended bliss coffee…now that we are in the Dog Days of summer in MN…not that I am complaining after Polar Vortex Winter. 🙂
I had to chuckle about the "polar vortex winter" – wow, that was crazy! Watch it, in 6 months we are going to be shivering if we even THINK about blended blisses 🙂
You asked for recipes which is hard, I really don't have A recipe I use for either hot or iced or blended. But I thought I would share some ideas. I like creamy/ bold coffee, often a hard combo to find. "Creamy" does not mean lots of sugery creamer, but more milky. If drinking hot, the answer is to warm the milk, but all of this turns coffee into a project! One tip I have (hot or cold) is to use powdered milk, unmixed. Put a couple of tablespoons of dry milk into your hot coffee, or over ice before you pour coffee over and flavor is AMAZING. Creamy, not just milky without watered down, and also not that weird dried milk taste.
When I blend drinks I struggle with the ice and watered down taste. So making my science experiment coffee & then freezing into ice cubes & using those later is the perfect answer.
This summer (off for the summer too) I have experimented with making my own creamer. A simple search will yield you LOTS of results. I like this option because it also allowed me to play with fat free/sugar free options. Using dried milk with these (and adding more milk to water ratio) allowed for a richer flavor, and could use Stevia or other natural sugar options. One hint I would have if you do the "make your own" route is to cut recipes in half or when you get to the flavoring 1/2 & make two flavors. So you don't end up with a quart of something you don't like. Also DIY creamer can be frozen into ice cubes (make sure to seal in bags or seal ice cube trays) to allow you flavor choices whenever you want. Another advantage to home made creamer is simple ingredients rather then a weird list of chemicals. Enjoy your coffee!
Heidi…thank you SO SO much for sharing your experience with blended drinks/coffee! I am so about creamy as well and I never even thought of using non-fat dry milk! You have amazing tips and I am so glad you took the time to share these because I am definitely going to put them to use 🙂