Frosted Mocha
Cold coffee and chocolate ice cream blended for just a few seconds, so it is thick, frosty and half spoonable, somewhere between a float and a shake. It takes two minutes and needs two ingredients.
At a glance
- Coffee : ice cream
- 1:2
- Active time
- 2 min
- Total time
- 2 min
- Makes
- 1 glass
- Serve
- Frozen, with a spoon
- Kit
- Blender
Ingredients
Note: Use the darkest chocolate ice cream you can find. Milk chocolate ice cream makes a very sweet drink.
Method
-
Ice cream and coffee in the blender
Put the ice cream, straight from the freezer, and the cold coffee in the blender.
-
Pulse, do not blend
Pulse three or four times, just until it comes together but still has soft chunks of ice cream.
That texture is the frost. Blend it smooth and you have a milkshake.
Pulse 5 seconds -
Spoon into a glass
Spoon it into a chilled glass, scatter the chocolate on top, and serve with a long spoon.
Why this works
The frosted texture comes from blending as little as possible. Ice cream is a frozen foam with tiny ice crystals, fat and air locked together. A brief pulse breaks it into soft chunks and mixes some of it with the coffee, but leaves most of the structure intact, so the result is spoonable and frosty. A full blend breaks it all down into a smooth liquid, which is a coffee milkshake.
Chocolate ice cream does the work of three ingredients. It brings the cold, the sweetness and the chocolate, so the coffee needs no sugar and no syrup. Coffee and cocoa share many flavour compounds because both are roasted seeds, and the coffee's bitterness makes the chocolate taste darker and less sugary.
The coffee must be cold. Warm coffee melts the ice cream before it reaches the blender and leaves a thin chocolate milk. Strong coffee, or cold brew concentrate for something more intense, holds its flavour against that much ice cream.
This is the simplest of the frozen coffee desserts on this site, and the quickest. For something smoother and more drinkable, the mocha frappé blends ice with chocolate and coffee. For the Italian approach, an affogato pours hot espresso over a single scoop.
Variations
- Mocha float: pour the cold coffee over the scoops in a glass, no blender at all.
- With espresso: a hot shot poured over the frosted mocha at the table, for hot and cold together.
- With hazelnut: a spoon of hazelnut spread in the blender.
- With coffee ice cream: half chocolate, half coffee ice cream.
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Questions
What is a frosted mocha?
Chocolate ice cream and cold coffee pulsed briefly in a blender, so it stays thick, frosty and spoonable.
What is the difference between a frosted mocha and a milkshake?
A frosted mocha is pulsed only briefly and has chunks. A milkshake is blended smooth and is drinkable through a straw.
Can I make it without a blender?
Yes. Mash the ice cream with the cold coffee in a bowl with a fork until it comes together, then spoon into a glass.
Can I use vanilla ice cream?
Yes, with a tablespoon of chocolate sauce. Chocolate ice cream is simpler.