Coconut-Mocha madness

You knew it would happen.

Seeing as how Starbucks started selling its Mocha-Coconut Frappuccino right about the same time I gave up carbs, it was inevitable that I’d come up with a low-carb alternative.

While I was on vacation, I looked at that giant poster showing the new flavor every time I went to the Bux for iced green tea. Given my affinity for Frappuccinos, I knew I needed to recreate it as soon as I got my hands on some sugar-free coconut and chocolate syrups.

On the day I went back to work, I hit Cost Plus World Market beforehand. I snagged the requisite bottles of syrup and rushed home to experiment.

What I ended up with that first time was more latte than Frappuccino — too much liquid, not enough ice. And it was too sweet. I used a serving of each of the syrups (which also contributed to the liquid content).

My next attempt was better: I cut back on the syrup and the water. But it still wasn’t perfect.

Back to the drawing board again. I cut the amount of water, added some unsweetened coconut milk and played with the number of ice cubes. The result? Delicious!

Served in the Starbucks glass left over from my iced tea, just to enhance the experience! 😉

It’s pretty close to perfection. I still haven’t figured out just the right amount of ice. The top is slushy, like a coconut-mocha Sno-Cone.

And I finally found something the Ninja Master Prep doesn’t do better than the Magic Bullet: Whip cream. Try as I might, I couldn’t get it to thicken properly in the Ninja. Maybe it was a matter of not trying to whip enough cream. I used 1/2 cup. It thickened up a little, but didn’t get fluffy the way I wanted it to.

Low-Carb Coconut-Mocha Frappe

1 teaspoon Starbucks instant coffee (about 1/2 pkt of Via)

1/4 cup very hot water

1 oz. sugar-free chocolate syrup

1/2 oz. SF coconut syrup

2 T heavy cream

1/2 cup unsweetened coconut milk

9-12 ice cubes

Dissolve coffee in hot water. Put in Ninja small bowl. Add syrups, cream, coconut milk and ice. Blend. Top with additional whipped cream (unsweetened or sweetened with a little Splenda).

All this delicious goodness has 1.3 net carbs (0.8 in the cream, 0.5 in the coconut milk).