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

  • Nick Cho

    Remember... you don't really need a drink-mix to do an ice-blended coffee drink!

    Espresso, milk, ice, choose your sweetener, and voila! That's all you need.

    The drinks do have a tendency to "separate" a bit, but you deal with that in two ways: adjust your recipe, especially how much you're blending the ice... and you can explain to your customers, "Our drinks have no emulsifiers or stabilizers... to keep things pure."

    Or, you could score some pectin or carrageenan (natural emulsifiers you could add a bit to each drink).

    Good luck!

    Mar 11, 2008

  • Jason Duncan

    Hey Nick,

    Thanks for the info. I was planning on using a vanilla base and using espresso/flavorings from there but your ideas like a good one (and easier to deal with). I will try it out.

    I just need to figure out which blender will be best for us. We have to use 110v.

    Mar 11, 2008

  • Nick Cho

    http://www.lollicupstore.com/equipment-blending-machines.html

    :-)

    Mar 11, 2008

  • Bruno

    Instead of using milk + ice, I strongly recommend that you use 50% of cold milk and 50% of vanilla ice cream (and sugar to taste).

    This way your iced coffee won't be watered and besides, it will be far more creamy.

    Mar 11, 2008

  • Jared Mockli

    I generally like using a neutral vanilla base for blender drinks. I think they offer a nice balance and texture. They are very simple to use, and often you can by your blenders right through your powder supplier.

    As for the fruit smoothies, there are a number of companies that offer a great product. A few that I can think of off the top of my head are:
    Dr Smoothie
    Jet Tea
    Torani (Frusia)

    Mar 11, 2008

  • Ward Payne

    Can't help but rely on offering the full menu to stay in business myself. On that note: Dr. Smoothie smoothie mix and Deep Vanilla Creme. The smoothies are 100% fruit and the vanilla creme we use to create anything we need, including some fairly healthy drinks (happy to share). The vanilla is also low in calories compared to other mixes, and since we add the espresso we can vouch for the coffee. I hate all the promo material they use, but it's great product. Also, ask for a sample of their Chai Tea powder.

    Mar 11, 2008

  • Amy La

    Hey, I saw your post and thought I'd let you know what we're doing. We go all home made except for adding carrageenan to keep the drinks form separating. We make an espresso/sugar base that we refrigerate, then each drink has a shot of that, milk, ice, syrup or chocolate sauce, carrageenan and blend. We can also pull a shot of espresso instead and increase the amount of syrup and make a sugar free version, or sub soymilk - it's nice we can offer these options for the non sugar and non milk people. The mixes can be temptingly easy and cheap (and tasty) but I like knowing exactly what is in our drinks.

    Mar 11, 2008

  • Brady

    We're all-homemade too now, for the same reasons Amy gave (do you really want to serve your customers SAND?). I honestly like the taste better anyway. Carrageenan is something we haven't tried yet though - we may look into that. Gotta polish-up the blendy drinks, the kids will be out of school soon...

    Mar 11, 2008

  • Jason Duncan

    Guys, this has been great. Thanks for all of your input. Where would one get Carrageenan? I think going homemade sounds great and probably something we will try out.

    Ward - thanks for the advise! I would love to get your thoughts on recipes. This is new for Evoke and something we really did not want to have to get in to.

    Thanks again!

    Mar 11, 2008

  • Amy La

    I picked it up here, but don't see it on their list (you may want to contact them directly):
    http://www.coffeewholesalers.com/coffeedrinksupplies.htm

    Health food or natural product stores may carry it too.

    There are other gums that can do similar things, such as xanthan. I do not recommend pectin, if gave an odd flavor to the coffee drinks.
    http://www.bobsredmill.com/catalog/index.php?action=express

    If you have the freezer space and the cost works out I love making coffee shakes with ice cream and a milkshake blender, which may be a good option too (especially if you don't want to use a thickener).

    Mar 11, 2008