5/12/2010

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

7 comments:

  1. I haven't tried your recipe yet, but was so excited to find it. I used the nescafe coffee syrup also and was so disappointed when they stopped selling it. I used to make the best frappaccino's with it! Can't wait to try your recipe. Thanks for sharing.
    Liz

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  2. Oh Liz! This makes me so happy! I am imagining you feel like I did when I found the one I based this off of! Please come back and tell me what you thought :)

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  3. HI....glad to come across this receipe. Gonnna try it this weekend while camping at our "Cove".
    Will get back to you with the results and maybe some "culinary changes" that I might try.

    LaserBudd

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  4. Oooooooo........ I wonder if this would work using Splenda instead of the sugar. Could this yummy concoction still be yumm-o in a sugar free version? ;-) Thanks so much for posting this!!!!

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  5. I can't wait to try this recipe! I love Ice Java, and it is still sold in Canada. It is expensive to have it shipped, though, so it would be nice to make my own.

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  6. Can I substitute Splenda Scoops for the sugar?

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  7. I have no clue about Splenda, sorry! I would say try maybe a half recipe with the Splenda and if it works out you'll know but if it doesn't you aren't out too many ingredients. Not that anything here is too terribly expensive. Good Luck!

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