If you’re a Dutch Bros Caramelizer fan you’re in the right place! This recipe guide will walk you through all you need to know to make one at home quickly and easily.
So how do you make a Dutch Bros Caramelizer at home?
Make a Dutch Bros Caramelizer at home by mixing together 2 shots of espresso, 6 ounces of chocolate milk, and 1 tablespoon of caramel sauce. Top with whipped cream and caramel drizzle and serve hot, iced, or blended.
Today we will cover how to make the Dutch Bros version of the caramel mocha that they call “The Caramelizer” hot, iced, and blended. As well as how to customize the caramelized at home to change its taste, nutritional values, and more!
Contents:
- What is a Dutch Bros Caramelizer
- What Ingredients You Need to Make a Dutch Bros Carmelier
- Dutch Bros Carmelizer Recipe
- Nutritional Info Dutch Bros Caramelizer
- Caramelizer Alterations, Substitutions, and Tips
If you’re a fan of the caramelizer, you may want to check out my other recipe guides on how to make a Dutch Bros Rebel, aDutch Bros Golden Eagle Freeze and a Dutch Bros Kicker at home.
How to Make a Dutch Bros Caramelizer at Home
What is a Dutch Bros Caramelizer?
The Dutch Bros Caramelizer is a sweet, creamy, espresso drink that is made of chocolate milk, espresso, caramel sauce, and whipped cream. The Caramelizer can be served hot, iced, or blended. It is similar to a caramel mocha at other coffee shops.
Ingredients that You Need to Make a Caramelizer
Espresso
Although the flavor of the caramel mocha is dominated by the sweet and creamy chocolate milk and caramel sauce it contains, the caramelizer at its base, is still an espresso drink.
Dutch Bros makes each of their caramelizers with two shots of espresso.
The reason that espresso is used in drinks like lattes, cappuccinos, and mochas is that these drinks include large quantities of other ingredients like milk and sugary flavoring. The strong, concentrated flavor of the espresso allows the barista to use a small quantity of coffee while preventing the coffee flavor from getting diluted too much in the drink.
If you were to just use regular American drip coffee, the drink would lack coffee flavor and taste more watery.
If you have an espresso maker at home, then your set! However, if you don’t have access to a fancy espresso machine you still have options to make a tasty caramel mocha.
A Moka pot is an affordable, small, metal, stovetop coffee maker that gives everyone an opportunity for espresso-strength coffee.
Another option for strong coffee is a Nespresso or Keurig coffee maker. If you’re going to use a Keurig to imitate espresso, I recommend an espresso K-cup that’s made with a stronger bean. You can find some below.
Another method of making stronger coffee is to use an Aeropress or French press with less water and more beans. Using less water and even letting the beans soak in the water for longer will lead to greater flavor extraction from the coffee and a stronger final drink.
Lastly, if all you have available is a drip coffee maker I recommend doing the following to make stronger coffee:
1. Use darker roast coffee beans
2. Grind your beans finer (this will pack them together more)
3. Use more coffee
If you're going to be imitating a Dutch Bros drink, I recommend using Dutch Bros' official coffee beans. You can find them at the link below.
Chocolate Milk
The next ingredient in the Caramelizer is chocolate milk. I’ve heard from Dutch Bros baristas that they use Borden whole milk mixed with Torani chocolate syrup.
Any kind of whole chocolate milk will taste the best, but 2% or skim milk will work fine as well.
Remember that if you’re going to make your Caramel Mocha hot, you’ll need to steam or heat up the chocolate milk before you add it to the espresso.
If you don’t want to buy chocolate milk and you have some white milk available at home, you can combine 1 cup of white milk with 2 tablespoons of chocolate sauce to make your own homemade chocolate milk!
You can also combine a dairy-free alternative like oat, almond, coconut, or soy milk with chocolate sauce to make your Caramelizer dairy-free.
Caramel Sauce
Now to put the caramel in Caramelizer (Is it pronounced “caramel” or “carmel?”)
Dutch Bros uses 1 tablespoon of caramel sauce in their caramelizer. That’s caramel sauce, not syrup. Yes, apparently there is a difference.
Caramel sauce has dairy and fat in it which gives it a richer flavor and makes it easier to mix and dissolve.
Ice
If you want to make your Caramelizer iced or blended you will of course need ice available.
Whipped Cream
Dutch Bros tops their Caramelizers with whipped cream.
Nutritional Info for Dutch Bros Caramelizer
If you’re curious about the number of calories, sugar, fat, or protein in the Dutch Bros Caramelizer, I’ve included the company’s official nutritional facts for the drink below.
Dutch Bros Hot Caramelizer
Dutch Bros Iced Caramelizer
Dutch Bros Blended Caramelizer
Dutch Bros Caramelizer Recipe
To make a Caramelizer at home:
- Add 2 shots of espresso to glass
- Add in 6 ounces of chocolate milk (steam/warm milk if serving hot)
- Add 1 tablespoon of caramel sauce
- Mix together (If serving blended, add ice to blender and blend)
- Pour into glass
- Top with whipped cream and caramel drizzle
- Enjoy!
That’s it! Now you can make a Caramelizer at home whenever you want! (whether or not that’s a good thing I’ll leave up to you)
If you learn better through videos check out the helpful Caramelizer recipe youtube short below
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/RgpM4Kpx9UM
Dutch Bros Caramelizer Recipe Tips
How to Make a Dairy Free Caramelizer
For the lactose intolerant, make your caramelizer dairy-free by substituting chocolate milk for a dairy-free alternative. I personally like using oat milk in my coffee because it still has the thick creamy texture and flavor that dairy milk does.
You can make your own chocolate oat milk by adding chocolate sauce to white oat milk.
Since the chocolate sauce contains skim milk and condensed milk to give it a creamy flavor, you will need to replace it with a no-dairy alternative like chocolate syrup.
To go dairy free you’ll also need to skip the whipped cream topping or find a non-dairy-based version.
How to Make a Low Calorie Caramelizer
To make a Dutch Bros Caramelizer with fewer calories you can replace the whole chocolate milk with skim or almond milk. You’ll also want to use sugar-free chocolate sauce/syrup and avoid whipped cream.
How to Make a Sugar Free Caramelizer
For a sugar-free caramelizer, use a sugar-free syrup replacement and unsweetened milk like unsweetened almond or unsweetened oat milk. Skip the whipped cream as well.
Thanks for your time! As I noted above if you want to try making other delicious Dutch Bros drinks at home, check out my recipes for the Dutch Bros Rebel and the Dutch Bros Golden Eagle Freeze.
This article was written by Josh, the founder, and owner of AngryEspresso.com. You can learn more about Josh on ourAbout The Team page.
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