Ring in the New Year with Alternative Lattes!
Get your new year off to a good start, and stock your cupboard with delicious healthy latte options. It’s a great ritual to pair with a new health routine, and it keeps your actions consistent, which will help you stay on track to hit your goals.
If you’re pairing your superfood latte routine with a new self-care routine, make sure to read our previous blog post about starting a gratitude journal.
Our superfood latte powders are loaded with vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants that are great for health. And let’s face it–we all have to go off of coffee sometimes. These caffeine free lattes (with the exception of green tea matcha) will keep you balanced and alert.
What are alternative lattes?
Alternative lattes are a healthy, nutritious coffee-free latte. They come in a powder form, which you mix with a splash of water and top with hot milk or a non-dairy alternative.
Alternative latte powders are rich in vitamins and antioxidants to promote better health. Vitamins help our bodies carry out various functions to stay healthy, and antioxidants reduce oxidative stress on the body, which can cause illness in the long run.
One of the main draws of the superfood latte is the colour. It’s an exciting novelty to see lattes in unusual colours, like pink, red, green, and yellow.
Alternative lattes are a great solution for when you’re craving a frothy treat like a latte, cappuccino, or hot chocolate. The superfood latte powders are slightly sweetened with coconut sugar for a mildly sweet latte that makes the perfect healthy treat. It lets you have your latte and drink it, too!
Our very own Idle Tea line offers 4 alternative lattes variations. Let’s take a look at them all and explore their health benefits.
Beetroot latte
The Idle Beetroot Latte powder contains dried and ground beetroot, which gives the powder that rich magenta hue and earthy flavour. The hint of ginger gives it a pleasant spice and warmth.
Beetroot is a superfood because it contains a long list of vitamins and minerals with very few calories. It’s rich in folate, which helps with development and growth, and lowers blood sugar. It also contains manganese, a mineral that helps with bone strength and brain health. It also contains trace amounts of copper, which is also lauded for its brain health benefits. Beetroot is high in fibre, which aids in gut health and digestion.
This latte powder also contains butterfly pea powder, which is rich in antioxidants called anthocyanins, which relieve inflammation. Butterfly pea powder is also known for its beautiful blue colour, and it is used as an all-natural dye for textiles and in many tea recipes.
Matcha latte
The green tea matcha latte is famous for that beautiful bright green colour, and its subtle, grassy, sweet flavour. Green tea matcha powder is filled with antioxidants called catechins that reduce oxidative stress on the body, and may have anti-cancer properties.
While matcha does contain caffeine, it releases slowly and contains much less than a cup of coffee. It also contains L-theanine, a compound that keeps you alert, focused, and calm. Many people who get jitters from coffee prefer to drink green tea matcha.
Matcha doesn’t have to be enjoyed with milk, and is delicious on its own. Simply whisk the powder with a few tablespoons of hot water with a chasen (wooden whisk) to get a beautiful frothy matcha tea. To learn more about the benefits of green tea matcha, read our previous blog post about matcha powder.
Rooibos matcha latte
A rooibos matcha latte is simply rooibos tea that’s finely ground into a powder and prepared without straining. It has that signature sweet, mellow vanilla-like flavour. It’s sweetened with a touch of coconut sugar that’s just the right level of sweetness. This tea grows on a bush in South Africa, and South Africans have used it for medicinal purposes for centuries. The word rooibos means “red bush” in Afrikaans.
Like with green tea matcha powder, rooibos matcha is the whole tea leaf. When regular rooibos tea is strained, it contains some antioxidants, but as a matcha powder, it contains 10 times the antioxidants. The main antioxidants in rooibos matcha are polyphenols, which prevent inflammation.
Turmeric latte
The Idle Tea Golden Turmeric Latte powder makes a beautiful rich orange-yellow golden hue, also known as “golden milk.” With warm spices and ginger, it’s a similar experience to the chai latte, without the caffeine. It’s lightly sweetened with coconut sugar for a perfectly-sweet, all-natural sweetener.
Turmeric is bursting with antioxidants like curcumin, an antioxidant that reduces inflammation. Curcumin may even slow the aging process and reduce the likelihood of Alzheimer’s disease. Ginger also contains a strong antioxidant, called gingerol, with similar anti-inflammatory properties.
Read our previous post about drinking turmeric for health benefits to learn more about this incredible ingredient.
How to make a superfood latte:
Our superfood latte powders are easy to use and make a delicious latte that you can make at home. Make sure you have a carton of milk or a non-dairy alternative handy. To make your superfood latte even more delicious, froth your milk using a handheld milk frother or a blender.
Directions:
- Add 1 tsp of the powder to a mug or glass.
- Add in 30 mL of warm water to the powder, and stir to form a syrup.
- Heat 200 mL of milk or a non-dairy alternative to 160 degrees F, and pour over syrup. Stir.
- Dust with additional powder for garnish.
Drink to your health
Get your new year off to a good start, and stock your cupboard with delicious healthy latte options. It’s a great ritual to pair with a new health routine, and it keeps your actions consistent, which will help you stay on track to hit your goals.
If you’re pairing your superfood latte routine with a new self-care routine, make sure to read our previous blog post about starting a gratitude journal.
Shop our delicious Idle Tea alternative latte powders in Beetroot, Green Tea Matcha, Rooibos Matcha, or Golden Turmeric.
