Café Mocha at Home

For those of us who LOVE coffee, how many times do we wish we could make a coffee drink at home? How many times do we think “wish I could afford Starbucks” (or coffee dealer of choice)?

During RARE … and I mean RARE occasions, I get Café Mocha from the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf. I love it.

But, at $5-$7 a pop, it’s not realistic. In addition, the closest one is in a casino that’s about 12 miles away (round trip) from where I live.

Starbucks has a comparable Café Mocha, but normally I get either a Valencia Orange refresher or a Passion Fruit Lemonade Iced Tea when I’m there.

And, I try to go there only as a treat for a workout, as well as a “creative” moment away from home.

Even being a Gold member which allows for free refills – I still have to front nearly $4-$5 per cup, and I can’t pass up those $2 marshmallow dream bars (I suck at making gooey Rice Krispy Treats at home; last three times ended in disaster). That’s $6-$7 per visit :(

Sadly, finances have not allowed that … at least not right now they haven’t.

So, what to do? Of course! Make it at home!

Now I’m not taking credit for the idea. It was the result of a $0.56 Chocolate Mint Truffle hot chocolate packet I picked up at the Wal*Mart Neighborhood Market a few weeks ago.

On the back, as normal, were the instructions to fix it (best recommendations) … and a nice little hint: “can be used as a coffee creamer”.

Really? How the hell did I not figure that out sooner? Oy!

Since I have a lot of ground coffee that I’ve had for a few years, and I do have a reusable “K-Cup” … 

I put the packet of cocoa in my $1 Starbuck reusable hot mug (with a re-usable hot sleeve), popped the K-Cup in and brewed away … 

Not knowing if it was going to be sweet enough, I added a bit of sugar.

WOW!

That is all I can say! It was quite awesome. I was really impressed. Once that worked, I thought I’d try some other cocoas I had …

First one up was “Land o Lakes” Chocolate Raspberry.

Again, used the re-usable K-Cup with the “old” Dunkin Donuts ground coffee … **POOF** …

That was awesome as well.

Moving on … I tried the “Land o Lakes” Mint Chocolate. Again, success!

Now, just so you know, I didn’t do all this in one night or day. I wouldn’t have been able to sleep or think had I done it all in the same day. I actually did this over the course of a few days.

Everything you need to make a "Café Mocha" ... coffee, cocoa, K-Cup, Reusable Cup (with sleeve)

What level do you want your coffee to be?

What flavor? I personally like them all :)

Filter & re-usable K-Cup -- at least I can use that ground coffee I had stacked up

Re-usable cup, sleeve, re-usable K-Cup and DD coffee

Love this idea! 

You can put in as much or as little as you'd like

Coffee is filled and ready to be loaded [yes, I know I need to clean it, going to after this cup]

Loading it in the Keurig :)

The next try was some old packets of Swiss Miss Cocoa. We had Dark Chocolate, Milk Chocolate and Marshmallow.

You can always opt for this ... 

Ending up the Dark Chocolate worked, as did the Marshmallow.  Haven’t tried the milk chocolate as we only have one box. I tend to use what I have more of before moving on to other things I don’t have much of.

Decided to make the second batch of “marshmallow” without putting sugar in the coffee … and there was no real difference in taste, so I can omit the sugar, which is better health and weight-wise.

While the coffee is old (best before 4/2009), and the cocoa was best before 4/2010 … it wasn’t a bad experiment.  I learned that not all food should be tossed past a date stamped on it.

“Food safety experts are saying that you could be throwing away lots of money by tossing food from the fridge that is still good.

Some top safety experts say that just because your food says it's expired, doesn't mean that it necessarily is.

Companies put "use by" dates on their food voluntarily to tell you when it tastes best, not if it's going to make you sick.”

“As for pantry ideas that are either dry or processed; some may be good up to two years after the expiration date has passed.

Experts say to use common sense of course, if it looks or smells funny; toss it out.”

(http://www.ktnv.com/news/actionnewsthismorning/Expired-food-in-the-fridge-may-be-still-good-223340391.html)

You have to use “good sense” – if it smells funny, looks funny, is odd … yes, toss it … please do! Don’t keep it!

As for the coffee and cocoa?

I haven’t gotten sick and neither has my mom. I doubt there is much that could go bad with coffee and cocoa. Yeah, perhaps it’s not as “kick-ass” as it might have been … can you imagine if it were? O_o

But, this new experiment is a good way to get it out of the house.

After all …

I’ve tried flavored creamers in my coffee, and it’s still “eh”. I’ve tried using milk as opposed to water in the cocoa. Again, “eh”.

Cocoa and coffee? YUM!

I’m not advocating drinking/eating spoiled stuff. Please, if you don’t think it is safe … TOSS IT OUT!!

If you have fresh stuff … good.

Me?

I’m hoping this will be the last year that pack of Dunkin Donuts original ground stays in the cabinet, and definitely the last year of the cocoa staying around. I also have a package of coffee that had 2012 stamped on it. Hoping it’ll be gone by Christmas.

Anyway … getting back to “making it at home” …

At least I can have a nice, somewhat gourmet coffee drink at home. I can also have it when I take my mom to work. Winter is coming and I’m going to need to be prepared for those cold mornings.

Now, excuse me … I have another cup of Café Mocha calling my name :)

[Note: I tried the Ghirardelli Peppermint … that definitely kicked me in the butt! Good, but wow!]

Reference:

Lewis, R. (2013, September 11). Expired food in the fridge may be still good - www.ktnv.com. KTNV ABC Channel 13 - Las Vegas, Nevada - Local News, Breaking News, Weather. Retrieved September 15, 2013, from http://www.ktnv.com/news/actionnewsthismorning/Expired-food-in-the-fridge-may-be-still-good-223340391.html