Pregnancy cravings led me straight to the Starbucks line where I spent $5 on a single Matcha Latte or Peppermint Mocha. If we know anything about Starbucks, we know it’s not budget friendly and usually not very healthy. God only knows how much sugar goes in those drinks.
I knew this wouldn’t be a sustainable choice for my bank account, but the questionable ingredients also weren’t good for baby (or me!) so I started trying to figure out how to make my own warm, frothy drinks from home.
I ended up getting this Milk Frother & Hot Chocolate Maker, and it’s been a game changer!
I’ll preface this by saying you do have to get used to the flavor and texture a little bit, and some milks froth better than others. This definitely isn’t an exact comparison to the Starbucks drinks. In fact, when I made my first matcha latte I remember thinking it wasn’t as frothy or sweet as Starbucks, but it was good enough to keep me from going back for a while!
Because I was well aware the Starbucks drinks were filled with sugar, I started making my matcha lattes with vanilla soy milk. Vanilla because I know that’s the kind they use at Starbucks (which contributes to the sugar load) and soy because that’s the milk I like best from Starbucks.
I knew eventually I’d be able to work back down to unsweetened milk, but for now I just needed to switch to the homemade stuff even if it had more sugar than I liked to admit! Sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do.
I’m at the point now where I use unsweetened almond milk, and I don’t miss the professionally made drinks at all!
Matcha Latte
(Pour directly into Frother milk jug)
- 1 cup milk (I’ve been using Silk Unsweetened Almond Milk)
- 1 tsp matcha powder (make sure the only ingredient is matcha powder - a lot of them have added cane sugar)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract (my favorite is from Trader Joe's)
- 1/2 tbsp pure maple syrup (bonus points if it’s local, EXTRA bonus points if you can work to minimizing or even eliminating the sweetener!)
Hit the button on the Frother ONCE and wait for it to turn itself off.
I totally eyeball all of this other than the amount of matcha powder because I don’t want to overdo the caffeine — and I definitely fill the milk jug past the max fill line.
Next I needed to find an alternative for a Peppermint Mocha. I had zero clue that the only difference between a Peppermint Hot Chocolate and a Peppermint Mocha is the espresso they put in the mocha, but now I know. Good thing too, because I definitely wasn’t ordering it for the caffeine. In fact, even pre-pregnancy I barely ever had caffeine. So I went to Pinterest to find a healthy hot chocolate that actually tastes good.
Healthy Hot Chocolate
(Pour directly into Frother milk jug)
- 1 cup milk (I’ve been using Silk Unsweetened Almond Milk)
- 1 tbsp raw cacao powder (NOT cocoa powder)
- 1-3 dashes of cinnamon
- 1 pinch of sea salt
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tbsp pure maple syrup (bonus points if it’s local, EXTRA bonus points if you can work to minimizing or even eliminating the sweetener!)
Hit the button on the Frother TWICE and wait for it to turn itself off. Enjoy!
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