I love creamy hot drinks. Hot Chocolate? Chai? Lattes? Yes to all please. But sadly the less I try to consume dairy, the harder it is to find new drinks. Sure, most coffee shops carry soy milk, and occasionally almond milk, but if you aren’t getting a standard latte, dairy sneaks in easily. Most sweet drinks use powder mixes that not only contain whey, but also a big list of mystery ingredients. So I decided to make a collection of vegan sweet drinks to experiment with. Not only is it cheaper to make these drinks at home, you also have total control of what goes into them.
We start this series with a Korean Sweet Potato Latte. It technically isn’t a latte since it contains no espresso, but that doesn’t stop people from calling a green tea latte a green tea latte (so why stop there?). In fact, there are many Asian flavored lattes that usually contain no espresso. In Korea this drink can be found all over, but it reaching international drinkers via Holly’s Coffee.
The scary thing about most of these Asian lattes are the calories. The sweet potato latte is a whopping 445 calories at Holly’s Coffee. *shutters* That is more calories than what eat before a run! My version has about 100 calories, or less. I would love to try the original since I want to see how this drink can get to that many calories?! Maybe it’s made with whole milk? Lots of sugar? Maybe its the amount for a large?
The trick is getting a korean sweet potato. No, I’m serious! I had been experimenting this drink for months with some okay results. The problem was that I was using the standard orange American sweet potato. Asian or Korean sweet potatoes have a chestnut sort of flavor, which is very different from the orange ones we eat. The flesh is white and more of the consistency of a “white sweet potato.” I should try this recipe out on those, since they are more readily available.
- 1/4 cup Korean sweet potato *
- 1 cup almond milk **
- 1/4 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp-tbsp sweetener (optional)
1 Cook your sweet potato before hand. It is pretty much like any potato. Some people will chop it up in cubes and steam, or boil the potato. I pokes some holes, placed on tin foil and baked for about 40 minutes while baking cupcakes.*** I like to bake two at a time and save them for each morning.2 In a blender put in the almond milk, potato, and cinnamon. Blend until smooth.3 Dip your finger in and taste. Add sweetener as needed, depending on your milk brand you may or may not feel that you will need more sugar. I used unsweetened almond milk with a packet of stevia for sweetness.4 Pour the drink into a pot and heat up. You COULD use a microwave but I found that it creates a gritty texture to the latte. If you are using animal milks or soy milks do not let boil!5 Pour the drink into a cut little cup and top with a little sprinkled cinnamon if you want to look super fancy.
* As stated in the blog, I suggest using an Asian/Korean sweet potato. The recipe uses about half of a small sweet potato- roughly 4oz or 1/4 lb in weight.** You can use any milk, but almond milk works more with a traditional sweet potato latte as they are often topped with sliced almonds*** I like to bake two at a time and save them for each morning. You'll thank me for this advice after making this the first time.
