Introduction

If you're hooked on mochas and you're tired of paying someone's salary at Starbucks, then you've come to the right place. With a few simple and inexpensive ingredients, you can make a mocha syrup just as good as (if not better) than anything you get at Starbucks or off the shelf -- and certainly better than the Starbucks Mocha Powder they used to sell.

Ingredients

You can pick up everything you need right here -- I've done all the work for you. Hover your mouse over the pictures to see the descriptions, then click to order through Amazon.com.

Mocha Syrup Ingredients - Click to learn more

Or, if you want to fend for yourself, just pick up some sugar, cocoa, dark cocoa (Dutch processed), vanilla extract (imitation is just fine), and vanilla syrup. Here's what you need:

Making the Mocha Syrup

Before you start, you'll want to make sure you have the basics: A sauce pan, wisk, rubber spatula, and a couple of squeeze bottles to hold the syrup when you're finished. Once again, I've done the work for you:

Tools You'll Need - Click to learn more
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Bring the water to a boil in the sauce pan. Mix the sugar and cocoa together in a separate bowl. Once the water reaches a boil, turn the heat off and stir in the sugar/cocoa mixture slowly with a wisk.

Stir constantly until any lumps are gone, being careful not to let the sugar or cocoa settle to the bottom of the pan. Using a triangle wisk will help incorporate any sugar or cocoa that gets stuck to the side or bottom of the pan.

After it's mixed thoroughly, and as it's cooling down, add the vanilla extract and syrup and stir again. Then pour the syrup into a large liquid mesauring cup (like the one shown above). You can get every last drop if you use a good rubber spatula.

Finally, after it's cool down a bit, carefully pour the syrup into the squeeze bottles and store in the refrigerator.

Making the Mocha

You'll need some good coffee, and an espresso machine loaded with fresh, filtered water.

Tools You'll Need - Click to learn more
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You'll want to experiment with proportions, but for a 16 oz (475ml) mug, I like to use a double shot of espresso, 2/3 of a double shot of chocolate syrup, and the rest 2% milk. My wife likes a 12 oz (355 ml) mug, with the same amount of espresso and a single shot of the syrup.

Now that you have your mocha, it's time to relax with a good book. Here are some suggestions:

Mocha Reading List
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Here's a shot of my son standing on a chair making mochas for the family. You can see the squeeze bottle with the mocha syrup on the counter just over his left shoulder. =)

Jacob making mochas