Within the last few years more espresso bars and coffee shops have begun to experiment and create new and exciting variations of these iced espresso drinks. A good commercial blender can make granitas, smoothies, margaritas, frozen coffee, Italian Frappes and Ice Blended drinks. As in making a quality cappuccino or latte, making any one of these cold drinks requires accuracy and consistency. Ice blended mocha drinks lead the pack of these chilling coffee drinks in the billion-dollar specialty coffee market. Nearly all gourmet coffee shop or coffeehouse in major metropolitan areas whips up its own version.
Some places use regular coffee, others begin with espresso.
Ice cream or frozen yogurt shops blend their own frozen products with coffee and chocolate powder. Created at a Starbucks employee convention a couple of years ago in Los Angeles. This creation has doubled the company's cold coffee drink sales nationwide. Frappuccino may be the most popular ice blended coffee drink, its not the best tasting. Due to the presence of Starbucks across the country, consumer awareness of iced coffee mocha drinks has grown significantly.