The Testosterone Blueprint
Back to recipes

Mocha Protein Smoothie with Coffee, Banana and Cocoa

Iced coffee and breakfast in one glass: cold coffee blended with frozen banana, cocoa, oats and Greek yogurt. It tastes like a mocha milkshake but has 23g of protein and no added sugar. Five minutes with cold coffee ready.

Snack

5

Serves 1

A glass of creamy chocolate brown mocha smoothie made with coffee, banana, cocoa and Greek yogurt

Ingredients

  • 120ml/½ cup cold strong coffee (filter coffee, or a double espresso topped up with cold water), or decaf
  • 1 small ripe banana (about 80g/3oz peeled), sliced and frozen
  • 150g/5oz/⅔ cup 0% fat Greek yogurt (plain, strained)
  • 1 tbsp (6g) unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 20g/¾oz/¼ cup rolled oats (labelled gluten-free if needed)
  • 100ml/scant ½ cup semi-skimmed milk (2% milk), or unsweetened soy drink
  • A pinch of ground cinnamon
  • 3 or 4 ice cubes

Method

  1. Brew the coffee ahead and chill it, or use leftover coffee from the morning. Freeze the banana slices for at least 4 hours. Neither step is counted in the time.
  2. Put the cold coffee, milk and oats in the blender and blend for 20 seconds, so the oats break down before the thick ingredients go in.
  3. Add the frozen banana, yogurt, cocoa, cinnamon and ice and blend for 45 to 60 seconds, until smooth and frothy.
  4. Taste. If it is too bitter for you, add a few more slices of frozen banana and blend again. Pour into a glass and drink straight away; it thickens as the oats soak.

Why it works

A glass has about 23g of protein and 309 calories, with no added sugar and no protein powder. The sweetness comes from the frozen banana, and the protein from the Greek yogurt and milk. It makes a good drink after training.

Why the oats. 20g of oats blended into the base make it thicker and more filling, and add fibre. Blending them with the liquid first means they disappear completely, with no gritty texture.

Caffeine. One serving has about as much caffeine as a small cup of coffee. Food safety agencies in Europe and the US consider up to 400mg of caffeine a day safe for most healthy adults; in pregnancy, the advice is no more than 200mg. Caffeine late in the day can disturb sleep, so use decaf if you drink this in the afternoon.

Cocoa, not chocolate. Unsweetened cocoa powder gives a strong chocolate flavour with almost no sugar or fat. Much of the cocoa butter is pressed out when cocoa powder is made, so it has far less fat than chocolate.

Not gluten-free as written; use oats labelled gluten-free if you need to. For another post-workout drink, try the banana, oat and peanut butter recovery smoothie.