Making a tangy and sweet frappuccino at home is so simple and budget-friendly
When I first tried a strawberries and cream frappuccino, I was on my way home from university following a long day of classes. A single Starbucks resided on my campus that—fortunately for me, not so much for my wallet—was located within walking distance to the main bus terminal. This meant that I was constantly picking up a macchiato or iced latte while I waited for my bus.
One day, while waiting in line for my typical caffeine fix, I was greeted with a new addition to the menu: a strawberry crème frappuccino. Without a second thought, I ordered the drink and anxiously awaited for my name to be called. I was excited to try the fruity beverage but that excitement didn’t deter my suspicion that the drink could potentially be an overly sweet concoction unworthy of my five dollars. And boy was I (kind of) right.
The drink appeared to be strawberry purée stirred into the classic Starbucks vanilla frappuccino, which wasn’t bad at all. Rather, it just wasn’t what I was expecting. So what exactly was I anticipating, you may ask? In all honesty, I was envisioning the fruity cold drink to be more in line with a strawberry milkshake—artificially flavoured and a little too thick to slurp up with a straw. Instead, I spent the entirety of my bus ride home smoothly sipping down gulps of strawberry that although sweet, was surprisingly good.
Flash forward to the present day and I still find myself ordering the sweet coffeeless beverage whenever I pass by my local Starbucks. However, when the pandemic hit and the world turned inward, satisfying my strawberry cream cravings wasn’t as easy as it had once been. So I decided to get creative and develop my own take on the fruity, chilled beverage that I could effortlessly whip together in the comfort of my home. Plus, all the cash I’d be saving by making my own grande frappes was even more of a motivating factor.
So without further ado, I give you the simplest strawberries and cream frappe recipe that pays homage to the classic Starbucks beverage without the hefty price tag.
To start, you’ll need to gather your ingredients. This recipe has a short list, namely fresh strawberries, vanilla ice cream, milk, sugar, ice and strawberry sauce. You’ll likely have everything you need for the refreshing drink at home as I devised the recipe based on items I already had in my kitchen. However, if you do need to buy some of these ingredients, rest assured that they’re all super easy to find at your local grocery store and won’t cost you any big bucks.
As for the instructions, it’s as straightforward as can be. Simply throw all the ingredients directly into a blender and mix away. If you find that your frappé is too liquidy, consider adding in another scoop of vanilla ice cream. Or conversely, throw in a few more strawberries to thicken up the drink. If the frappé is too thick, enlist the help of milk (one tablespoon at a time) until you’ve reached your desired consistency. Once you’re happy with the thickness of the beverage, grab yourself a pretty serving glass and drizzle strawberry sauce down the sides. Pour in your pink concoction, add a straw and garnish your drink with a fresh strawberry.
All that’s left to do from there is find the perfect chair to lounge in and sip down notes of tangy strawberries and sweet vanilla. Doesn’t that sound lovely? That’s a rhetorical question, the answer is a definite ‘heck yes!’
The recipe
Prep TIme
5 Minutes
Total Time
10 Minutes
Serving
1
Ingredients
4 – 6 chopped fresh strawberries
½ cup of 2% milk (or your choice of alternative)
1 tbsp of sugar
½ cup of vanilla ice cream (equivalent to one generous scoop from an ice cream scooper)
1 tbsp of strawberry sauce (store-bought is totally cool)
3 – 4 ice cubes
Instructions
- Begin by roughly chopping strawberries into bite-sized pieces and placing them in the blender.
- Add three to four ice cubes, preferably crushed to help blend easier.
- Next, pour in milk, a generous scoop of vanilla ice cream, sugar and strawberry sauce.
- Blend mixture until completely smooth, making sure there are no chunks of strawberries or ice.
- Line the inside of your serving glass with more strawberry sauce and pour in your beverage.
- Cut a slit in a fresh strawberry lengthwise and use it to garnish the glass. Serve and enjoy!
Want to see the recipe in action? Take a look at the how-to video below!
We really hope you give this refreshing drink a try. Be sure to let us know what you think of it! Snap a photo of your finished delicious product and tag us on Instagram @paper.and.lore for a chance to be featured in our Instagram stories.
Happy drinking!
Paper & Lore 