Frozen Coffee Drinks and Smoothies

by Jason Duncan

Mar 11, 2008

I have been trying to avoid this for a long time but the day has come. We need a blender and we need to get set up with frozen drink mixes. When we were in Bozeman, we pretty much could get away with Italian Soda and iced coffee drinks. Here in Oklahoma, not so much. So, I really like what Caffe D'Amore is doing with the new Bellagio line of frozen drink mixes and I think that is probably what we are going to use. We also need fruit smoothy mix as well. I am pretty green when it comes to blender drinks mainly because I do not drink them myself. What is good? Who is doing something new and fresh? Are there good companies that we can use and not have to use fresh fruit (I know, that would make it much better but we are a catering company and not ready to do that quite yet)? If you have any advise, I would love your help! ..be bold
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  • Matt Milletto

    I tend to agree with Jared, that a neutral base is necessary to give a blended drink that milkshake like texture. Caffe D'Amore, Dr. Smoothie, Cappucine, Big Train, Torani, and many more companies make these powder mixes, and sauces. If you are looking for something that is a bit more health conscious check out Coffee Inventions products at http://coffeeinventions.com/

    Mar 11, 2008

  • Jason Duncan

    Thanks guys. I think I will go with a neutral base for our blended drinks. Can I do both fruit and coffee based with a base like that?

    Mar 11, 2008

  • Alex Galt

    I'd like to add something to this discussion (what great forum this is... so nice to be able to communicate with a number of other coffeehouse owners!). Years ago I lived in Jamaica Plain in Boston, back before it was totally gentrified. Don't know if El Oriental de Cuba is still there on Centre St, but I used to go there to get their 'batidos' when doing my laundry at the adjacent laundromat. These were just fruit blended with soft serve. Flash Forward to Summer 2007, I decided to revive these for our coffeehouse. I bought a soft serve machine, which we use with a Columbo non-fat frozen yogurt base (vanilla). It's pretty good stuff. We make our batidos with it (1 cup fruit to 1 cup fro-yo, blended), our espresso shake, chai shake, etc. We used to use ice cream for these, but the soft-serve is cheaper (once you pay for the machine), and it's made with skim milk so it's non-fat. For fruit smoothies, we use Dr. Smoothie stuff.

    Mar 13, 2008