The Cafe Frappe from Mr. Coffee is a frappe maker that includes the brewing and blending for a thick and rich iced drink from coffee and teas in one easy process.
Ease of Use/Performance: 20/25
Convenience/Storage 24/25
Appearance/Design 20/25
How much I enjoy 25/25
Total: 89/100
Mr. Coffee has a great treat in the Cafe Frappe for those iced drinks based on coffee and tea with a brewer and blender all in one machine. You can create blended drinks based on coffee and teas using milk, flavored creamers and even fruit along with all kinds of coffees and teas.
The Cafe Frappe makes blended coffee drinks as well as tea based drinks using the same coffee brewing system as common coffeemakers. The top of the Cafe Frappe is the coffee maker and the bottom is the blender with its blender pitcher and lid that is removable.
The frappe maker has three buttons on the front with LED indicators but before you brew you need some 4 cup paper filters or a plastic and brass permanent filter. The permanent gold tone filters are available at plenty of stores, I found mine at Kmart but other stores have them like Sears and Home Depot.
To make an iced beverage is pretty easy, you put the small basket filter inside the basket and load up your coffee or tea, about four tablespoons is average for most iced drinks. The water goes into the top area around the basket and up to the line that is near the back of the brewing area then just close the lid.
The pitcher turns about an inch to lock in place or take it off the base and you can also remove the base from the pitcher if you need to for cleaning. You fill the pitcher with some ice cubes and other ingredients like milk, syrups or chocolate. The Cafe Frappe comes with a recipe book with 32 drinks but these recipes are also available online and they are a great starting place for your iced drinks.
Once you have your ingredients in the pitcher you place the pitcher on the base and turn to lock into place and push the Power then the Frappe buttons. The machine will first brew the water through the shower head, the filter and into the pitcher then blends.
This is the only complaint I have, the machine can spit and spill contents around, not much but some, as it is blending which should have been addressed in design and testing. A simple plastic collar would have prevented this but they did not deal with it before releasing the Frappe maker out to the public.
A drink from beginning to end takes about 15 minutes with about three or four minutes for brewing and blending with the rest for setup and cleaning. I have never taken longer than this and can make a couple of drinks in about twenty minutes already having the ingredients out and ready from the first drink.
When the Cafe Frappe blends the machine can move around a bit and the contents may, but not always splatter around near the opening at the top where the coffee drip down. I found that if you just make sure you don’t fill the pitcher up completely full you have no problem with this but it does happen enough and is mentioned in other reviews and customer complaints.
While this is a small problem and one you can minimize it is enough to mention it, I think this is a simple thing and not worth worrying about. The Cafe Frappe does a great job of making those iced drinks and you can make a wide variety of coffee based and tea based drinks.
If there are still some ice chunks after blending you can use the pulse blend button and blend the drink some more, I found I only needed to do this when I did not add enough liquid to the drink. Many of the complaints I see on the web all relate to the balance of liquid and ice to the drink when you start.
If you add too much of both to the pitcher it will splash out, if you add too little liquid the cubes will not blend but if you add the right amount of ice and liquid it will blend smoothly and not splash out. It’s this correct balance that is needed and is the main thing I have seen in using my own Frappe maker to make the perfect iced drinks.
We have been making a wide variety of drinks like the ones included in the recipe book and we have gone beyond this for some homemade drinks using coffees and teas. You can purchased flavored coffees and some exotic teas, especially those fruit based teas and use these for the base of your iced drinks.
Flavored coffees like Irish Cream pairs well with some Creme De Menthe and ones like Chocolate Brownie Fudge go great with milk and chocolate to make a great dessert type drink. Teas also go well, one in particular is a raspberry tea from Cameron’s that tastes great as a berry iced drink but many of the teas work well. You can spend months, year even experimenting on your own.
One question I had and others who are looking into the Cafe Frappe as well, why not just use a blender, the answer is simple, speed and ease. To make a single drink without having to brew a full pot of coffee works great and my son is your typical user for this.
During the day he is off at school and during warmer weather he would come home and make a quick frappe for a refreshing drink. Without having to brew the coffee or tea separately he could make his favorite concoction and enjoy a tasty frozen drink for that after school pick me up.
The Mr. Coffee Cafe Frappe does make a great iced drink and for those iced cappuccino’s and other frozen drinks using a blender and brewing the espresso separately doesn’t work as quickly. Cleanup is as easy and rinsing in hot water and a little soap from time to time to make sure the blades of the blender in the pitcher are clean.
If you use paper filters cleanup of the brewer section is as easy as tossing the filter and grounds but the gold tone filter basket does require a quick rinse. Every once in a while, just like those coffee makers you should run some decalcifier or vinegar through the brewer to clean out deposits.
The pitcher, lid and base are dishwasher safe but like any blender blades or other appliances with sealing bearings cleaning this in the dishwasher may over time be a bad idea. Cleaning for the most part is usually just a matter of rinsing it out right away and letting it drip in the dish strainer or putting it back on the base.
I have enjoyed reviewing the Cafe Frappe and can honestly say it works very well even with a cleanup problem every now and then. The iced drinks I get are easy to make and very good with good coffee and tea bases for those refreshing drinks anytime.
I highly recommend the Mr. Coffee Cafe Frappe for a great all in one iced drink machine that works very well for those tasty refreshing coffee and tea based drinks.
