Cook Fast, Live Young: Mr. Coffee Helps You Save Bucks by Kicking Starbucks

If you bought a single ice blended coffee drink every morning for a year at one of the big coffee chains, at more than $3 for even the small sizes, you're talking more than $1,000. That's more than most people are paying each year for cable or internet access!

Several companies are trying to cash in on the phenomenon while easing the cost of your habit with home frappe machines--but how do you know if any of them are good? Well, this is one of those times where writing for a savings site has its advantages because, courtesy of Mr. Coffee, for the last few weeks my husband and I got to test out a Café Frappe machine (list price $79.99, but we found it at several places for at least $10 less).

The set-up was remarkably simple: Just take the machine out of the box and plug it in.  And the included recipes for coffee, tea, and dessert frappes (both regular and alcoholic) mostly require just a few basic ingredients and are incredibly easy to follow. The non-coffee-based drinks were especially great for me--since I'm not a huge fan, I left the coffee drinks for my husband to test.

All we needed to start was a quick trip to the supermarket.

Here was our grocery list in order to test out all the different types of frappes:

Ground coffee (we bought a medium-range brand for about $8)
Sugar (about $2 for a 5lb. bag, but we had plenty)
Chocolate syrup (about $3)
Chai and green tea ($3 each)
Cookies and cream ice cream ($2.50 on sale!)
Milk (about $3/gallon)
Kahlua (about $15 on sale)

So, if we pretend we bought the frappe machine at the full $79.99 and didn't have any of these items, our start-up costs would be about $120. Not inconsiderable, but I can say that at this point we've already mixed at least two dozen drinks (at $3 a pop, that's a total of $72 so far...) and we have plenty of everything left. Of course, if you just want to make traditional frappuccinos, your ingredient list could be shorter and thus cheaper. So at least on the money-saving front, it's certainly a success.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention that the blender the machine comes with--while not perfect for every blending need--could probably replace most people's stand-alone models without them noticing the difference. We've used it to make milk shakes and fresh fruit smoothies. For people like us with a kitchen that could easily be confused with a closet, this is fantastic.

But how are the actual drinks, you ask? Pretty darn good, so far. We've tested a variety of coffee- and tea-based drinks--some with alcohol and some not--as well as a few or our own experiments where we did away with coffee and tea altogether. All were tasty and fairly well-mixed. I say "fairly" because there seems to be a bit of a learning curve as to the amount of ice required and possibly even the size of the individual cubes.

What do I mean by that? Well, we tend to use traditional freezer ice trays, but when we tried to follow recipes that called for 14 to 17 cubes, we overflowed the blender and were left with clunky, chunky drinks. When we pared back on the ice, our drinks ended up having the texture of chocolate milk--great tasting, but not exactly a frappe. We've even considered buying a bag of ice to test out the smaller cubes (maybe 14-17 of those would work!), but haven't done so yet. This isn't a deal-breaker, just be prepared for a little trial and error.

One fair warning about the actual operation of the machine--be prepared to jump out of your seat every time the blender starts hacking away at those ice cubes. The process is blessedly short (probably less than a minute), but it is loud and intense!

All-in-all, though, we're quite happy with the machine and like the fact that it's smaller--and thus easier to clean--than our stand-alone blender. Since it's usually just the two of us, this machine is the perfect size for our needs.

Juliana Weiss-Roessler has ten years of professional writing and editing experience. For four years, she managed the web content for the star of an Emmy-nominated reality series. Currently, she is an editor for the geek girl e-zine PinkRaygun.com, a contributor to the career blog at Resumark.com, and owner of the food blog CookFastLiveYoung.blogspot.com. Follow her @cookfast on Twitter and learn more about her work at WeissRoessler.com.