Homemade Starbucks Peppermint Mocha Frappuccino
Today we are making a Homemade Starbucks Peppermint Mocha Frappuccino! The delicious Starbucks peppermint mocha is a popular drink that combines the flavors of peppermint, coffee and chocolate in this delicious blended frappuccino! Starbucks website describes it as A delectable blend of chocolaty-pepperminty perfection in every cool sip—Frappuccino® Roast coffee, mocha sauce, peppermint-flavoured syrup, milk and ice, topped with whipped cream and dark-chocolate curls. If ordering this to make it vegan at Starbucks, you can swap out the milk for a non-dairy option, and skip both the chocolate shavings and whipped cream.
Although Starbucks drinks are decadent and leave you wanting more, frappuccinos are also full of sugar and not budget-friendly for an everyday drink. Plus, sometimes you can only get seasonal drinks, so maybe your favorite drink isn’t even available year-round. That’s just another reason why it’s fun to make copycat homemade frappuccino recipes!
So in this Starbucks copycat recipe, we’ll be making a healthier, vegan version of this drink – no peppermint syrup or mocha sauce required either. For today’s homemade drink we use pure maple syrup as a sweetener, a combination of frozen and liquid oat milk for a creamier base than using all liquid, cacao powder for antioxidants and a deep chocolate flavor, and a few other ingredients.
Why You’ll Love This Homemade Starbucks Peppermint Mocha Frappuccino
Winter Coffee Year Round: Peppermint drinks are worth the hype every time the holiday season rolls around, but they just disappear off the face of Starbucks’ marketing budget the rest of the year, or so it seems?! But using holiday flavors in every season taste delicious, especially when you pull up a drink to make at home that you might not be able to buy at Starbucks if it isn’t a specific time of year. Peppermint recipes in the summer? Sometimes, that’s just the vibe!
Substitutions: Wet Ingredients
Oat Milk: Substitute oat milk with any other non-dairy milk of choice. Taste test the milk before using in the recipe. If it tastes good plain, then it will work for this drink. Unsweetened almond milk, cashew milk, soy milk or even coconut milk may work here. Full-fat, canned coconut milk in this recipe will make a much richer recipe with a coconut taste as well.
Coffee: Chilled black coffee from the refrigerator is used here. This provides the mocha flavor when combined with the cacao powder, for the chocolate-coffee taste. You can also use an espresso machine to make one shot of espresso, which will taste like very strong coffee.
If using espresso, use just 2 tablespoons espresso and 2 tablespoons extra oat milk, instead of a quarter cup of black coffee. Another alternative is to substitute cold brew in the same ratio as the chilled black coffee.
Vanilla Extract: For best results, pure vanilla extract, without added artificial colors and dyes (like caramel color). You can use artificial vanilla flavor as well. However, it may come off as more bitter and not as smooth or sweet as the pure version.
Maple Syrup: Pure maple syrup is the sweetener in this recipe – this is not pancake syrup! Pure syrup only has one ingredient on the label. You can also use agave nectar or another liquid sweetener of choice, noting that they all vary slightly in flavor.
Substitutions: Dry Ingredients
Cacao Powder: This is the raw, unprocessed counterpart to cocoa powder. Cocoa powder is easier to find, as this is the type of powder commonly used in baking brownies and other chocolate desserts. You can easily substitute cacao for cocoa, or find cacao in health food stores. It’s considered a raw ingredient because it hasn’t been subjected to the same heat as cocoa powder has. Because of this, it is said to have more antioxidant properties.
Candycanes: Some candycane brands from the grocery store are not fully vegan. This is due to some food colorings being derived from beetles. You can check this page to find out which brands are. Candy canes may not be as easily found until it’s closer to the holidays though, depending on which store you go to.
Homemade Starbucks Peppermint Mocha Frappuccino Recipe Notes
- Gay Lea brand makes a vegan coconut whipped cream that comes out of an aerosol can, which is perfect for this recipe! You may be able to find other non-coconut-based, dairy-free whipped cream products, such as Reddi Whip’s almond-based whip.
- Top the recipe with crushed candycanes, mini chocolate chips, whipped cream or any desired toppings!
More Starbucks Copycat Recipes & Coffee Drinks
If you make this Homemade Starbucks Peppermint Mocha Frappuccino, then leave a comment and star rating! Don’t forget to tag your photos @peanut_palate on Instagram. Enjoy!
Homemade Starbucks Peppermint Mocha Frappuccino
Equipment
- High-speed blender or food processor
Ingredients
- 1 cup frozen oat milk ice cubes
- 3 tbsp cacao powder
- 2 tbsp pure maple syrup
- ¼ cup liquid oat milk chilled
- ¼ cup black coffee chilled
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- ⅛ tsp peppermint extract
- ⅛ tsp pink salt
- vegan whipped cream optional topping
- vegan mini semisweet chocolate chips optional topping
- vegan candycanes optional topping
Instructions
- Prepare the oat milk ice cubes by freezing oat milk into ice cube trays the night before, or for at least 6 hours until fully frozen. Once these are ready, move onto the next step.
- Blend together all ingredients for the frappuccino in a blender, except the optional toppings.
- Once blended, taste test and add additional sweetener, if desired. Then pour the drink into a tall glass.
- Top with vegan whipped cream, chocolate chips and crushed candycanes. Enjoy!
