So lately I’ve had an absolute obession over iced coffee. I’ve never been much of a coffee drinker, in fact a couple of years ago I wouldn’t even touch it. I decided that when my dad and another family that we are friends with started to try cappuccinos that I too would start drinking coffee. However, I forced myself to drink because I didn’t actually like the way it tasted. Then I came across Starbucks Frappicinos (the ones in the glass bottle) and would only drink those for the longest time. Then after moving up to Massachusetts I began drinking different things from the Starbucks menu, but wouldn’t touch other coffee stores. That however has all changed…A couple of weeks I went with some friends to a local coffee shop called “The Little Coffee Bean” which serves New England Coffee My favorite coffee there is a iced coconut hazelnut iced coffee, and let me tell you IT WAS AMAZING!!!! So my new found love made me decide to try an iced coffee from Dunkin Donuts, which guess what?…I loved!

So my favorite flavors of coffee are:

• Iced Blueberry Coffee (from dunkin donuts)
• Iced Coconut Hazelnut (from both dunkin donuts and the local coffee shop)
• Iced French Vanilla (this one is only from the local coffee shop)

I love trying new flavors to see which one I like and don’t like.

My favorite drink from Starbucks is the Carmel Macchiato. Since my dad has an espresso/coffee maker I decided to search around the internet to find a recipe that was close to how the one from Starbucks tastes. Here is a good one that I found:

• 1/2 cup of espresso (Most espresso cups have a 2 and 4 on it, you want to make enough to fill to the 2 line. This measures out to a 1/2 cup)
• 2 tablespoons of vanilla syrup (I use Torani French Vanilla)
• 8 0z cold milk (I use fat free but if you would like whole that is fine too)
• Smucker Caramel topping
• Ice
• 16 0z cup

First make you espresso. While your espresso is brewing, in a 16 oz cup add 2 tablespoons of the vanilla syrup, 8oz cold milk, and ice. You want a lot of ice so I usually fill the cup 3/4 of the way with ice after I put the syrup and milk in the cup. After the espresso is done slowly pour it over the ice. Drizzle with caramel topping. And enjoy!

You can also make this hot by just not adding the ice and using frothed milk.

I have really been craving an Orange Julius, but I think the closest one is about 40 minutes away, and I am not driving 40 min. just to get a smoothie. So instead I Googled for “Orange Julius Smoothie Recipe,” but I didn’t find one that I really liked or I didn’t have all of the ingredients. I decided to take a couple of the recipes and combine them to make my own. And I came up with this recipe:

Banana Smoothie Recipe:

• Two bananas
• 6 oz. of Vanilla Yogurt
• 3/4 cup of either orange juice or apple juice (the first time I used orange juice, the second time I used apple juice)
• About a cup and a half of crushed ice.

Place all of the ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth. This probably makes around 26 oz., this is an estimation because I am not sure exactly how much it made. Enjoy!!