Cold Brew Pumpkin Spice Frappe (Vegan)

We take coffee pretty seriously at the Byrd house.

Ha, did I say pretty seriously? I meant to say we take coffee more seriously than most things. 

Example: Logan and I make breakfast together most mornings. It’s our heavenly, cozy morning ritual. I’m egg master (sometimes oatmeal master). He’s coffee master.

Logan measures our whole beans using this scale. He grinds using a fancy conical burr grinder that gives him a consistent grind every time. He uses a glass Chemex with unbleached square filters. He knows what temperature his water is based on the look of the boiling water. He reheats the water between pours (blooming the coffee first, then measuring out his current ideal water weight).

We time everything out so we can drink our coffee perfectly piping hot right as the eggs (and avocado toast) are done. Or, if we’re doing cold brew, Logan drops ice cubes into our glasses right before we eat (so that they don’t start melting immediately).

Maybe I didn’t mention that Logan also roasts his own coffee? We own an air bed roaster. It lives in our commercial kitchen. It’s big and shiny and loud. And, yes, we have a commercial kitchen. It’s where we’re doing all of our recipe testing for the (eventual) launch of Frolic Chocolate & Coffee. It’s very exciting. Also, it’s right next to my favorite restaurant. Cue me eating all of the Spanish potatoes with homemade aioli and drinking ALL of the sangria after long roasting sessions (this is my fantasy life, you guys).

We’re nerds. He’s more of a nerd about the technicalities of coffee than I am. I have a taste for when a cup is perfect. And I like to drink coffee (lots of it). He has this immense drive to make the best coffee ever. It’s pretty awesome to watch him grow, to test his batches (good and bad). We’re always learning. And we’re set to launch our coffee beans and brews and chocolate so soon.

So, this cold brew pumpkin spice frappe. It’s the frappe to end all frappes. It’s smooth cold brew coffee + pumpkin spices + cubes of frozen coconut cream + maple syrup. It’s so thick and creamy it edges its way towards milkshake zone. That’s a very good thing.

When developing this cold brew pumpkin spice frappe I had three non-negotiable goals: 1. Make it decadent, 2. Make it healthy, 3. Make it easy. It's the sort of thing you can put together in a snap in the morning before heading out the door. It satisfies the craving to blow a bunch of money on a fancy coffee drink. I legit think you could replace a frappuccino addiction with this bad boy. I'm all about cutting out that extra coffee shop spending when you can DIY.

I drink this as a two-in-one coffee & breakfast. It’s a lot like Bulletproof coffee due to the high fat content. Which, when you eat a mostly plant-based diet, is pretty badass. I find myself barely craving food until dinner after I have this in the morning. That’s not my goal or anything. But it does happen. It’s slow-burning energy at its best.

To make a lower fat version of this drink, sub the full fat coconut milk with low fat coconut milk or unsweetened Califia Farms Almond Milk (my favorite vegan milk brand!), and freeze into ice cubes.

It should be noted, there's no pumpkin in this frappe. You could add 1 tbsp pumpkin butter if you really want some pumpkin in there. But I find it's unnecessary. It tastes just like everything you love about pumpkin pie without the pumpkin. You guys, that's why Starbucks didn't have pumpkin in their original recipe. Because it's all about those spices!

I added some turmeric to give the drink a more pumpkin colored look (to trick my brain). It adds a subtle, woodsy flavor to the drink. That woodsiness meshes well with all of the autumn spices. (Plus it's anti-inflammatory! You could drink this after a work-out!)

Use the best possible cold brew concentrate or ready-to-drink cold brew that you can get. I’m a fan of Secret Squirrel concentrate and ready-to-drink — it’s low acid and chocolatey. Or make concentrate yourself with an oily, medium roast bean like Sumatra, Brazil Daterra or Mexico Chiappas with this method from Food52.

For cold brew, my current coffee to water ratio, courtesy of my husband Logan, is 1/2 lb coffee to 38 fluid ounces water. We grind our coffee semi-coarse, #30 on the Baratza Encore grinder. If that means nothing to you, the ground coffee looks like coarse sea salt. It’s the same grind you do for French Press. We brew overnight, setting the brew in the fridge for at least 12 hours, stirring the grounds once before we go to sleep. For the cold brew we drink at home, we brew in a Filtron and filter out the grounds with the included wool filter. But you could just as easily brew in a mason jar and filter through thickly folded cheesecloth (the filtration won’t be as fine as with a wool filter but it’s functional).

For ready-to-drink, dilute concentrate in a 1:2 ratio of concentrate to water. For a regular cup I use 4 liquid ounces concentrate to 8 liquid ounces water. Then I add a huge cocktail ice cube for a slow melt.

Cold Brew Pumpkin Spice Frappe (Vegan)

Recipe Type: Drinks

Author: Renee Shuman (Will Frolic for Food)

Prep time: 5 mins

Total time: 5 mins

Serves: 1 serving

Pumpkin pie spice + cococonut milk + cold brew coffee. Sweetened with maple syrup, this frappe is dangerously good! Make the coconut milk ice cubes overnight (or freeze for at least 8 hours). Shake your can of coconut milk before pouring the milk into the trays. You'll want to freeze at least 1 cup of coconut milk into 10 standard cubes.

Ingredients

• *4 fluid ounces best quality cold brew concentrate
• 10 frozen full fat coconut milk ice cubes
• 1/8 cup unsweetened almond milk + more according to your thickness preference
• scant 1/8 cup maple syrup + more to taste
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon ground dried ginger
• dash freshly grated nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon ground dried turmeric + up to 1/4 tsp more depending on how orange you want it
• optional: [url href="http://minimalistbaker.com/how-to-make-coconut-whipped-cream/"]vegan coconut whipped cream[/url]

Instructions

1. In the bowl of a high powered blender, combine the cold brew concentrate, coconut milk ice cubes, 1/8 cup almond milk, 1/8 cup maple syrup, cinnamon, allspice, cloves, ginger, nutmeg, vanilla extract, and turmeric.
2. Blend until smooth and creamy.
3. Taste and add more almond milk or maple syrup according to your preference, blending again to incorporate any additions.
4. Optionally, top with vegan whip.
5. Drink immediately!

Notes

Prep time doesn't include the time it takes to freeze the coconut milk ice cubes.[br]*4 ounces of cold brew concentrate = 8 ounces ready-to-drink cold brew. [br]To sub 4 ounces ready-to-drink cold brew, eliminate the 1/4 cup almond milk -- adding extra almond milk only to get to your preferred texture.

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