Here’s What Happened When I Tried a DIY Flamin’ Hot Cheeto Frappe

After the Hot Cheeto Frappe by Bardot Bars and Coffee went viral on all of our social media apps, I just had to try this peculiar beverage.

 

After all, I may just be Frito-Lays' No. 1 fan when it comes to Flamin' Hot Cheetos. Seriously, I could devour these mouthwatering morsels for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

That said, I've never thought about blending them into my coffee before—not seriously anyway.

Because the drive to this coffee establishment would be quite a hike, I decided to dig into my own DIY recipe to see what this flamin' frappe tastes like.

Continue reading for my recipe and heated reaction:

I wasn't quite sure where to start when it came to whipping up a piping hot iced blended coffee drink. After scratching my head and snacking on a few stray Cheetos for inspo, I decided I would make a milkshake with the incorporated special ingredient and then add a shot of espresso courtesy of Starbucks.

After gathering all of the necessary ingredients, I went to work on crafting the frappe.

Ingredients

• 3 scoops vanilla ice cream
• 1 and a half cups milk
• Flamin' Hot Cheetos (roughly half a bag)
• 1 cup ice
• Vanilla extract
• Whipped cream
• Sugar
• Cayenne pepper (optional)
• Starbucks espresso shot (optional)

DIY Recipe

Step 1: Blend your Flamin' Hot Cheetos into a dust. Now, the thought crossed my mind that more professional establishments may use a Hot Cheeto powder but because that secret recipe is elusive as Spongebob's sauce, I decided to keep things simple.

I blended up my Cheetos in a food processor, but you can also pour them into a Ziploc bag and crush the chips with a rolling pin. I wasn't really working with measurements here, but I went ahead and blended up about half a bag.

 

Step 2: Pour your Cheeto dust into a bowl and add dry ingredients. This step is optional, but I decided to add a few shakes of cayenne pepper and a tablespoon of sugar to my dust to give it an extra dose of sweet heat. I wanted the flamin' flavor to come through, and had my suspicions that the corn chip base would dilute the heat.

 

Step 3: Add all of your ingredients to the blender. I decided to reserve some of my Cheeto dust to top off the drink at the end.

 

Step 4: Blend, blend, blend. After the mixture was combined I scooped a little spoonful to see if it needed anything extra. I decided to add more cayenne pepper and red food coloring to give it an appealing appearance.

 

Step 5: Pour and serve! To finish off the drink, I added whipped cream and Hot Cheeto crumbs, which provided texture for the creamy drink.

 

Reaction

Even though I'm a self-proclaimed Flamin' Hot Cheeto fanatic, I had my reservations about this drink.

I just couldn't fathom how the vanilla creaminess of the base would pair with the hot heat from the Cheetos. I trusted that this drink had to have some appeal as a professional coffee shop was committed to selling the frappe.

But just by looking at my masterpiece, I was thrilled with the outcome. Aesthetically it was super cute and the red food dye paired with the Hot Cheetos gave the drink the perfect light red hue. Still, I couldn't give my review without tasting the frappe.

Without further ado, I stuck my straw into the drink and took a big sip.

The flavors weren't nearly as strong as I expected them to be, which actually made the drink enjoyable. The milk and vanilla definitely diluted the spice, though it still came through to a favorable degree.

Another interesting note about this drink is that the corn base of the Cheeto chip blended with the milk made this frappe taste sort of like cereal. If you've ever had "milk and cereal" flavored ice cream, that's basically what this drink tasted like with the bonus Hot Cheeto spice.

All in all, this drink certainly isn't awful if you're a fan of experimental flavors and recipes.

That said, I definitely couldn't finish the whole thing. After a few sips I was ready to pass this frappe to a friend for their reaction.

I would recommend trying this DIY recipe if you're up for an adventure, but not as a solution to your daily caffeine intake.

 

If you roll deep with Starbucks then you probably try all of their limited edition drinks. Click HERE to find out what we really think of the Halloween-inspired Zombie Frappuccino.