I am super excited about sharing this recipe. I first tried a black sesame latte at Paris Baguette, which probably was not even close to being vegan or healthy, but it came in a cute little cup (I just had to share via Instagram!) Their website gives no calories, no amounts of sugar, and no ingredients. Which is a pain. My local HMart has a few sesame soy milk boxes that I like snacking on, but corn syrup and oils are added to the milk.
I experimented for awhile with my blender and stovetop and found a possible combo- tahini and whole black sesame seeds. The taste was similar but not quite the same. For awhile I was pretty happy with blending two tablespoons of black sesame seeds with a cup of milk for a solid 2 minutes to get smooth texture. It was good, but people really need a high speed blender to grind up those small seeds. I wanted to make a recipe accessible to everyone.
Then I was looking up a recipe for vegan red bean ice cream, which meant I found a bunch of recipes for other “asian” ice cream flavors. Black Sesame was one of them. The recipe used black sesame paste, which I knew existed but remember being hard to find. But I figured I would give my HMart a try, and found it.
This was EXACTLY what this latte needed. It is smooth, full of flavor and didn’t pack on calories. If you need to find it, go to an Asian food market and look in the section where most pastes and sauces are. And search every-single-jar. My hint will be that there will probably be black jars next to pale beige jars for regular sesame paste (or tahini). It is much cheaper to buy through your Asian food market, mine was about $8. The jar is suppose to have 42 tablespoons in it, which means I can make 42 lattes!
If you don’t have any Asian food markets, you are try looking at health food stores. Kevala makes a black sesame tahini and you can get it from Amazon. If you like supporting local stores I am sure your local health food store will be happy to order a jar for you. Like all organic food, this will be more expensive. And if you really like the stuff, you can buy 8 pounds.
And my last advice on how to get sesame paste is to make your own. It is pretty simple, toss seeds into a food processor and blend till the seeds are crushed. I don’t like to do think since compared to other nuts, sesame seeds are small and harder to uniformly crush. It is also worth noting that sesame paste is different from sesame tahini, as tahini are from raw sesame seeds. But the taste should be fairly close.
- 1 cup soy milk or milk of choice *
- 1 tbsp black sesame paste **
- 1 tsp to 1 tbsp agave ***
- black sesame seeds opt
1 In a blender, on high, mix the milk, black sesame paste, and agave until thoroughly mixed. The blending will give the foam on the latte.2 Pour into a small pot and heat to near boiling. Do NOT let the drink boil, as this will affect the flavor. You can use a microwave, but the flavor is compromised.3 Pour the heated milk into a cup. Do not scrape off the sesame stuck to the bottom of the pan as they are burned. It should wipe off easily for cleaning.4 Sprinkle some sesame seeds on top to make you drink look fancy as fuck. Or don't. Drink and enjoy.
* I suggest using soy milk as it will keep the foam the longest. But any milk will do.** If you are in a jam I suggest using regular tahini or 2 tbsp of black sesame seeds. Blend well if using whole sesame seeds.*** Make as sweet as you like. I used a tsp for regular milk, and a tbsp for unsweetened milks.
:D
Do you get a sendiment at the bottom of the cup? I did! Wondering if this is normal. I steamed my milk in the espresso frother.
Jennifer
I always have various amounts of sediment on the bottom of the cup. I think it depends on the quality of the black sesame paste that you buy, and if you use a high speed blender (vs a regular one) I think black sesame seeds still have their hulls so I don’t think they get broken down as easily.