I really like Starbucks' Frappuchinos -- heck, being a Java Junkie I like pretty much anything coffee-flavored. While I was taking some vacation days last week, I finally got around to trying to find a recipe to make them at home.

Searching the web resulted in a bunch of differing recipes, some of which were truly bizarre (goat's milk? you're joking, right?)

So I went all "America's Test Kitchen" on it and made a bunch of batches until I got it right. (It was hell having to drink all those test batches, but someone had to do it).

Here's the result that I'm pretty pleased with:

Home-made Mocha Frappuchinos

• 1 c milk
• 1 c brewed coffee
• heaping 2-cup measuring cup of ice
• 3 T white sugar
• 3 T cocoa mix (not cocoa powder!)

1. Put it all in a blender and go to town.

• I brewed the coffee on the strong side in a french press
• I used 2% reduced fat milk
• The cocoa mix can be omitted for a non-Mocha variant
• Splenda works just fine in place of the sugar