Coffee Fix

Once upon a time (like 7 years ago maybe) Nestle/Nescafe came out with a marvelous product called NECTAR OF THE GODS "Ice Java" which was basically chocolate syrup with coffee in it. You could mix it hot or cold and I lived on it mixed in cold milk as my morning beverage. They had three flavors as I remember:  Mocha, French Vanilla, and a plainish one I never liked. My favorite was the vanilla which was surprising since I am not a big vanilla person, but it was yummy and of course I loved the mocha. There came a time when I had trouble finding the vanilla and eventually could not find it at all and the plainish one had disappeared long before that. I guess it was about a year ago that I couldn't find the mocha anywhere anymore either. Oh there were a few cases on eBay, but honestly, if I had to live without it, I would be okay. I started brewing coffee and espresso and making my own iced stuff and life went on.

A few days ago I was procrastinating on cleaning the house playing on the computer and typed "Ice Java" into google. Among the eBay ads and amazon pages long since expired was a message board with a phone number you could call to tell Nestle to bring it back. And then the clouds parted, the sun shone down, and the angels started singing I saw something that said, "homemade ice java recipe" and I clicked on it. BAZINGA!! Here is the recipe from the message board:

MOCHA SYRUP

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 1/4 cups sugar

a little salt

1 1/2 cups water

2 Tbsp. coffee crystals (you could even use decaf if you needed to)

1 tsp. vanilla

Put cocoa powder, sugar and salt in a pan. Stir. Add water; stir really well. Let come to a boil. Turn heat low. Simmer about 5 minutes, stirring all the time. Add coffee crystals and stir. This will make a thin syrup. Let cool; add vanilla. Put chocolate syrup in a jar with a lid. Keep in refrigerator.

For hot chocolate:

Use 2 teaspoons syrup, 1 cup milk and heat.

For cold chocolate:

Use 2 teaspoons syrup and 1 glass cold milk.

I read through a few of the replies and decided to go with one person's suggestion of more coffee and less (or no) vanilla. I used the whole 2 ounce jar of Folgers crystals. It makes about 24 ounces of syrup and I am so excited to have this back in my life!! It is great for hot summer days when a hot coffee just doesn't hit the spot and it has a wait time of as long as it takes you to stir it in, no creamer needed. Enjoy :)

***UPDATE***

I found this lovely stuff at a big fancy grocery store in Tyler and the last time I made the Mocha Syrup I used half of it and half instant coffee. SOOOOOOO yummy. My next step will be to use Dark cocoa; I'll let you know!

***FURTHER UPDATE***

I used the dark cocoa with nice results. It makes it look less like chocolate milk though. Kind of a grey tint to it. More people say, "What are you drinking?" LOL