Ja, it's redundant!

Yesterday was National Chocolate Milkshake Day. Yeah, it's a thing. There are multiple, random, mostly food-related holidays every day. When my midlife crisis flares up, I tend to look to these daily reminders that we're just making this stuff up as we go. Like the Indigo Girls sang it best, they "help me take my life less seriously."

That's about as deep as this post is gonna get. I was thinking about where in Oakland to get a chocolate milkshake. And I can think of a few (off the top of my head, Park Burger is probably my favorite). But, frugal as we have to be right now on one income in ridiculously expensive Bay Area, I didn't want to spend $20-25 on milkshakes for the fam'. So my holiday approach went bargain as I fondly recalled Arby's Jamocha shakes. Specifically, they remind me of summer vacations as a teenager spent with my maternal grandparents in Winnemucca, Nevada. My grandmother was retired by then but my grandfather was still working full-time. He'd come home for lunch most days, occasionally bringing take-out with him. I always looked forward to the oddly satisfying combination of roast beef and coffee-flavored chocolate. It's right up there with a frosty and fries from Wendy's.

I don't do red meat anymore but I do do coffee and chocolate. So what does "jamocha" mean, anyway? It seems to be a hybrid of java (meaning coffee) and mocha (meaning coffee and chocolate). So the "ja" is redundant, especially given how mild the coffee flavor is. But who cares?! It's delicious and fun to say! Sadly (or maybe not), the nearest Arby's in San Leandro is now closed permanently. So if I wanted a Jamocha shake to celebrate National Chocolate Milkshake Day, I was going to have to DIY this project.

Internet to the rescue! I found this top secret recipe online. The only thing I did differently, since my kids would be having some and after dinner to boot, was use decaf coffee and freeze it in little silicone cups (an ice cub tray would obviously also work but our fridge's icemaker has made those redundant so we tossed them years ago).

Break up the coffee cubes in the blender for a few seconds first, then follow the directions from there. I couldn't exactly do a side-by-side taste test but if memory serves me, this was pretty accurate. Cheers!