I think we’ve already established that I am somewhat of a coffee addict, if “somewhat” were to mean “desperately needs coffee in order to even open her eyes in the morning, let alone function enough to maintain a blog.” I’ve loved coffee for as long as I can remember. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I’ve always associated the smell of coffee with my grandmother. She could drink the stuff until all hours of the night and it never kept her awake, something that I inherited from her. Of course, I’ve also always been a huge fan of ice-cream, to the point where I drive people nuts because it takes me twenty minutes to pick out which flavor I want. When I was approved for the Starbucks Ice Cream blog tour through Mom Central, I was of course ecstatic. It’s coffee and ice cream, together in the same cute little pint-sized package. What’s not to love?
Mom Central sent me coupons for two pints of Starbucks Ice Cream. My grocery store had a very limited selection, so I went with the Caramel Macchiato and the Mocha Frappuccino flavors. They taste just like the Starbucks drink for which they are named. Delicious! Although they’re awesome enough to eat right from the container, I love experimenting with coffee drinks. I may not be able to cook a decent meal, but one thing I can do is making rockin’ coffee concoctions. I worked in a coffee shop once upon a time for a few months (it wasn’t Starbucks, and it was a horrible experience), where I couldn’t eat any of the food for free, but I could have an unlimited amount of complimentary coffee. That was the only good thing about the job. From 10am to 4pm five days a week, I drank enough caffeine to keep an entire military division awake for a month. So of course, once I got my Starbucks Ice Cream home, I had to try out a few ideas floating around in my head. Since the store had a sale on Starbucks coffee this week, I also grabbed a bag of Sumatra blend to go with my ice cream. If you’re going to mix things into your coffee, it’s best to start with the strongest blend you can find. The Espresso blend seemed like the rational choice, but it was labeled as “Bold” while Sumatra was labeled as “X-Bold.” Here are two suggestions that I found quite yummy..
- Use Starbucks Ice Cream in place of your usual creamer. If you just throw in about a tablespoon, it wont make the coffee cold. I did this with the Caramel Macchiato, and it was delicious. Just a touch of caramel flavor and creamy goodness.
- Make a custom coffee beverage. I brewed a strong cup of Sumatra Blend, threw in two heaping tablespoons each of the Caramel Machiatto and the Mocha Frappuccino Ice Cream, added a squirt of chocolate syrup, and stirred it all together. If you want it to be colder, add some ice. This would be great with whipped cream on top, but I didn’t have any.
The Starbucks Ice Cream website also has loads of different recipes to try, including Coffee Bananas Foster, Mocha Cream Soda Floats, and Peppermint Mocha Ice Cream Sandwiches (I wish my store had the Peppermint Mocha flavor). If you like coffee and ice cream, you’ll love Starbucks Ice Cream. Even if you just love Ice Cream, they offer non-coffee flavors as well, like Signature Hot Chocolate and Strawberries and Cream Frappuccino.
I wrote this review while participating in a campaign by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of Starbucks and received coupons and a promotional item to thank me for taking the time to participate.
