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.
One of the most disappointing moment for some vegans is trying to get a hot creamy drink. Sure if you go to a coffee shop they almost always have soy milk (heck even almond milk sometimes!) but you might not be able to advance past a simple latte. See, most baristas are unaware of all the ingredients in their mixes. Although I read that Starbuck’s tea lattes are vegan, most smaller shops use powders that have whey in it.
Although I find that some chai tea mixes by Tazo (used at Starbucks) and Zhena’s Tea, they tend to be very sweet. In fact I have to mix them with unsweetened almond milk, and still find them to be too sweet. Not to mention, they are technically not vegan as they contain honey. I then go on a frenzy of making the perfect vegan chai teas. Most have resulted in being dumped in my kitchen sink.
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.
