The Mocha Frappe is a frozen coffee drink that’s so easy to whip up at home! All you need are 4 ingredients, plus ice.

You don’t need to venture out of the house when you’re craving a frappe: try this sweet and frosty homemade Mocha Frappe! It’s as easy as 4 ingredients, ice, and a blender. This one comes out fluffy and chocolaty, with a subtle bitter coffee finish. It’s irresistibly sippable and takes just 2 minutes to blend up. Usually we tend toward more classic coffee drinks…but this one is just too good!

Ingredients in a mocha frappe

A frappé is a frozen coffee drink of blended instant coffee, sugar and water or milk. It was invented in Greece in the 1950’s by Dimitris Vakondios, who worked for coffee company Nescafe. So it’s no surprise the classic frappé was made with Nescafe instant coffee! A similar drink at Starbucks is the Frappuccino: it’s sweeter and creamier and made with espresso.

This mocha frappe recipe takes inspiration from the classic, and adds a twist of chocolate similar to the drink you can find at McDonalds. This one tastes better, in our opinion! It’s sweetened just enough, and it’s chocolaty and frothy. Here’s what you’ll need (or head to the recipe below):

• Instant espresso powder
• Milk
• Sugar
• Cocoa powder
• Ice

The magic ingredient: instant espresso powder

The important ingredient in a frappe? This mocha frappe uses instant espresso powder. It’s ideal for a frappe because it adds coffee flavor without watering down the drink. We tried a few variations with coffee, but instant espresso powder brought just the right bitter flavor. Espresso powder is key to get that mocha flavor (since a Mocha is made with espresso, not coffee.)

The instant espresso powder we used was Delallo brand, but there are lots of other great brands out there. Side bonus: you can also use it for desserts, like tiramisu! Often chocolate cake recipes call for espresso powder because it brings out the chocolate flavor (like this chocolate zucchini cake).

Toppings for a mocha frappe

It’s not necessary to top a mocha frappe with whipped cream: and we’re not huge sweet coffee drink people, so we typically don’t. But it does make it look so much more festive! Here are a few options for toppings:

• Whipped cream: Homemade whipped cream is infinitely better than the store-bought stuff; and easy to make, too
• Chocolate sauce: It’s fun and festive with a little drizzle
• Chopped or shaved chocolate: Chocolate shavings also look great
• Sprinkles: Why not?
• Festive straws: It’s all about the presentation! We like these striped paper straws.

Variation: vegan and dairy free

Want to make a vegan or dairy free mocha frappe? It’s easy: just use oat milk instead of dairy milk! Oat milk is our ideal for coffee drinks because of its creamy texture and neutral flavor. We much prefer it to something like almond milk or soy milk. But feel free to use whatever non-dairy milk you prefer.

What to do for the topping? Make Vegan Whipped Cream! It’s easy and comes out perfectly fluffy (you just have to think ahead a few hours).

More coffee drinks

Love making coffee drinks at home? Here are some of our top coffee drinks and espresso drinks to make: