As this article is intended to be about the above, I thought I should first give you some information on the benefits of Almond Milk.

When I first took a quick glance at the title of this, my next article, I mistook it to mean ordinary milk flavored by almonds. But I was wrong. It really did mean almond milk. Oops! I had to stop and do a retake. Yes, it means that vegan stuff that I knew virtually nothing about.

If you look further down, just glossing over what is to come, you’ll find the names of many different countries. Don’t worry – this is not nearly so much about the countries as to specific details about either the Coffee or something that happened in that particular country. So, just to reassure you, this is not going to be a travelogue.

I know a little about Oat, Dairy, Skim, Soy and Coconut milk – but nothing about almond milk. (I have visions of my bread falling on the buttered side and decide not to have bread today).

Let’s find out something about it. I’m going to have a look at the good and positive things first. Here are ten benefits of almond milk:

1. Calories

It doesn’t have many calories, so it is excellent for losing weight: I think it’s about 39 calories per cup compared to 120 calories per cup for cow’s milk 2%, and compared to skim milk, it’s about 80 calories per cup – that’s a massive saving!

I don’t bake – not even a crumb – but I reckon using it in baking would be great for calorie saving.

2. Metabolism

Do you think there’s a chance that almond milk is more popular because it boosts metabolism? It seems that all you have to do is to add some almond milk to your smoothie or cereal, and there you are – losing weight without really trying!

I don’t eat breakfast – not even a crumb – but this would be an excellent way to do it if I did.

3. Sugar

Unsweetened and low in sugar in its natural state, each brand is different, but none have sugar.

I’m impervious if it has no sugar that’s fine just as long as it doesn’t have a sour taste.

4. Calcium

I hear it’s a rich source of calcium. We all need calcium for healthy bones – so there’s another big plus.

I like the fact that it can be stored – that’s a big help because I don’t always plan ahead.

5. Nutrients

It strengthens bones – as I said; it also has vitamin E; Thiamin; Riboflavin; Magnesium; and calcium.

If I did eat breakfast, that would be one enormous booster for the rest of the day!

6. Vegan

It’s Vegan, as I said, it’s also dairy-free, gluten-free, and lactose-free. It’s also versatile, and, apparently, delicious.

I don’t know what I’m missing – this is one of the best vegan options on the market!

7. Heart Health

We know that almonds can reduce blood pleasure, so this is good for heart disease.

Plus, Vitamin E is excellent for heart health.

So as long as you know the difference between the taste of cyanide and that of almonds – you might increase your life span!

8. Antioxidants

Once again, I think we all know that antioxidants slow down the aging process, and that must mean almond milk because it’s loaded with antioxidants. They also help your respiratory system, immunity system, and better sleeping.

Now I’m beginning to wonder why I hadn’t heard of this before or even tasted it.

9. Carbs

Carbs? Almond milk doesn’t really have any – it’s almost carb-free when you hear one carb per 1 cup milk!

There has to be some serious reason why I’ve never heard of this. Maybe I should at least taste it.

10. Plant-Based

Plant-based foods are becoming more popular with people who find they have more energy, fewer gut problems, and are slimmer.

I think I must buy some, just to store it, in case someone needs it – like me!

Almond Milk Wins

I think it would be sincere to say that almond milk is extraordinarily useful and nutritional for you – not to mention it has hardly any carbs or calories. Not all plant-based kinds of milk are the same, and none of them get anywhere near almond milk in the competition for the milk with the most goodness.

Nut Based Coffee Creamer

Breaking news…. I’ve done my research and discovered that almond milk is a wonder food, and now I’m reading that I should use it in my Coffee – but that was the whole purpose.

I read that I should simply go out and buy a nut-based creamer for my Coffee and use the nut milk for all the baking I told you I never do, nor ever will, and in all my morning smoothies that I don’t have and never will.

What Can I Use It In?

Almond milk can be used in the following:

• Latte Recipes

• Breakfast Smoothies

• Oatmeal Recipes

• Instant Mash Potatoes

• Low-Calorie Scones

First Conclusion

Clearly, this Almond Milk is brilliant, and people should use it as often as they can. I’ve been really pleasantly surprised by what I’ve learned so far.

However, I think my best plan is to ‘saddle up’ and buy a nut-based creamer’s container because I want this in my Coffee.

I have direction and purpose, so here I go to see what I can find.

There are over 100 different types of creamers: different makes, sizes, and shapes of containers, paper sachets, and prices. The contents vary, and in some coffee creamers, there could be dairy derivatives that contain fat and trigger allergies. These might also add a high cholesterol chemical mix that simply isn’t healthy for you. The beautiful thing is there’s usually someone there who will explain what’s what.

Once again, we must look carefully at the labels to see what they contain.

Change of Subject

Now, while we were looking at that list of uses for almond milk, I’m sure the mashed potato caught your eye – as it did mine. I couldn’t resist, so, as we’re going to be talking about Coffee just now and for the rest of this article, plus I’ll give you coffee recipes; I thought I’d just sneak the mashed potato story in here and get it out of the way, (and out of our minds) before we start. Let’s see what you think of this:

Historically Speaking

I believe Coffee goes back as far as the 17^th Century or even further. I know that in the 17^th Century, it became part of European cuisine. It was considered the correct thing to do: drink Coffee in the mornings in your home as part of your breakfast.

France

In 1867 it was written about in an English book and referred to as one of the breakfast drinks. In Europe, the term for it was the French phrase Café au lait – in other words, directly translated it was Coffee with milk. The lait being the milk part.

Early in 1980, it found its way to Seattle, Washington, USA, where it became trendy – and still is – yet it spread much more widely from there in the early 1990s. Café au lait was Coffee prepared with espresso steamed milk, and the term transformed into Caffe latte in the mid-’90s.

Italy

In Italy, it is drunk at home for breakfast only. It’s made on top of the stove in a pot into which a cup of heated milk is poured. The milk in the Italian version is not foamed or frothed as that is not the fashion, and sugar is added by the drinker – if at all.

Outside of Italy, foamed milk is used, and the latte is sweet to very sweet.

Serving Styles and Nicknames Across the World

The various serving styles have caught my attention, and I find them quite fascinating. I would like to share them with you and get your opinion:

• In East Asian countries you will find a latte made with matcha, and they call it green tea latte

• It’s served in a glass but on a saucer with a napkin (made out of cloth) to hold the very hot glass in some places.

• In Scandinavia, in Europe, it’s served in a bowl and called a café au lait.

• Getting more and more popular in the US and Europe, something called latte art is the start of the stylization of Coffee in a prevalent art form. They created it by pouring steaming, frothing, milk into the Coffee, and creating patterns on the top of the Coffee, such as hearts, trees, flowers, and other little symbols.

• When they make an iced latte, they don’t stir it. This way the Coffee seems to float on top of the white milk in a glass cup

• Another style of iced latte is known as a bootleg latte or ghetto latte or even poor man’s latte. It’s an iced espresso ordered in a larger than usual cup and filled up with the free milk from the condiment area where people help themselves. This style of drink has caused endless conversations because an iced espresso is infinitely cheaper than an iced latte.

• In North America, and South and East Asia, variants of local teas have been combined with milk – steamed or frothed – to make tea latte. Coffee and tea shops offer hot or iced latte variations of masala chai, matcha, and royal milk tea. Incidentally, interestingly an Earl Grey latte is known as a London fog!

• Other flavorings can be added according to the taste of the drinker; so, you can use vanilla, chocolate, or caramel, which are very popular.

• In South Africa, a red latte is made with rooibos tea and known as a caffeine-free alternative to traditional Tea of coffee-based latte. Sometimes as a sweetener, you can use Honey. Its distinct flavor comes through much better without milk.

• A version called the Sea Salt Latte is a traditional style latte made with a salted milk foam poured over an espresso-based coffee. A Taiwanese international café chain invented this.

Just to add a note here for you: I’m an import to South Africa from the UK, a great many years ago. One of the first things I was introduced to was Rooibos tea. It has no caffeine.

It is a wonderful tasting tea – I prefer it with no milk and no sugar, but I also love the Red Latte version, which is a real treat. Rooibos (red bush) is grown here, and it has so many healing properties that I think that’s definitely another story for another day.

I don’t know if you’ve made Almond Milk Latte – I haven’t as yet, but I do have the recipes for both hot and iced, ad I understand they are both easy to make:

Almond Milk Latte Hot:

• You need strong brewed Coffee, Espresso or Chai Tea.

• Almond Milk

• Vanilla Extract

• Almond Extract

• Sugar

• Maple syrup or Honey

• All Natural Flavoured Coffee Syrups

If you’re going to make flavored latte recipes, they say it’s better to use all-natural syrups. There is no point in going healthy by swapping out milk or cream for almond milk, but then adding chemicals to the flavored latte recipes.

Some Tips On Using Almond Milk in Coffee Recipes:

Almond milk is a non-dairy food, so we cannot expect it to behave like dairy produce.

• When you’re making hot Almond Milk for a Hot latte, don’t forget just to heat
  the milk or else it will separate and look curdled.

• You can substitute coconut milk for almond milk if you’re making a frozen latte. It has the same calories and a more robust flavor, which, when cold, really comes through.

• You should freeze the almond milk if you wish to be creative and make almond milk ice cubes.

Hot Almond Milk Latte, Recipes:

Here are five hot flavored recipes for lattes. They begin with unsweetened low-calorie latte recipes.

These coffee recipes here are under 50 calories, and they use only natural ingredients. All these recipes can be made in five minutes or even less!

The coffee recipes you’ve been waiting so patiently for are below:

• Hot Almond Milk Latte Recipe

• Hot Vanilla Latte Recipes (almond-flavored latte)

• Hot Pumpkin Spice Latte Recipes

• Hot Chai Tea Latte Recipes

Iced Almond Milk Latte Recipe

Make these exactly the same as the hot ones except, don’t heat up the milk, take the milk, freeze as ice cubes, and put them in before serving.

This is the same for every Iced Recipe.

Different kinds of milk

There is other plant milk:

• Cashew milk
• Coconut milk
• Hemp milk
• Nut milk
• Oat milk
• Pea milk
• Rice milk
• Soy milk
• Walnut milk

They all have their various uses – although I should imagine you could use a few of them here for a latte. I would try Cashew milk, Coconut milk, Nut milk, Oat milk, Soy milk, and Walnut milk, so that’s quite a few opportunities for different flavors.

When I Was a Child

When I was a kid – had you mentioned any of these kinds of milk – or indeed – coffees and lattes – I would have thought you’d lost your mind!

Even to drink Tea with the adults was a big thing, and I’m fro the UK where Tea is the national drink – or it used to be.

The First Time

The first time I had a coffee, I think I was in my mid to late teens. It was made at home and quite horrid. I was supposed to sit and drink it with my mother and feel grown up because she regarded it as a treat. Coffee wasn’t for kids.

I sipped mine disdainfully, and at my first opportunity, I took it to the kitchen and ditched it down the sink. Why? It was watery, milky, awful with just the faintest taste of Coffee coming through. It was ghastly.

Paris

A few years later I went to Paris and had Café au Lait, and it was terrific, and I wanted to keep drinking it. Still, it was terribly expensive – even by my mother’s standards, so we promptly left, and I tried to sulk so that she’d take pity on me and buy some more, but she was resolute, so I had to drink the cheap wine.

I hadn’t even reached the age of 21 years by that time – I think I was around 18 or 19 years. By the time I was 21 years, I’d been to Paris several times and had enjoyed Café au Lait several times but was never allowed more than one glass of it.

Sometimes it was brought directly to the table, and other times, they prepared it for you at your table.

Greece

Many years later, when I was staying briefly – for a few months – in Greece, I visited Turkey and had their Coffee, which is entirely different. First, it arrived in the smallest of cups (a demitasse), and secondly, it was very thick and extremely strong, and it was difficult to stir in the milk. Yet, it was really lovely, and I enjoyed it.

A Demitasse

A demitasse or half cup (tasse is cup and demi is half), but I always thought these small cups in Turkey were even smaller. It was accompanied by a small silver intricately designed container full of Turkish delight. This is one of, if not my most favorite, sweetmeat. How nice!

Turkey and Turkish Coffee

Anyway, let’s continue discussing Coffee.  The cups were beautifully painted and looked fit for a Queen. The Coffee was halfway up the cup and seemed to be some kind of black sludge; the empty part of the cup was for milk.

However, whenever I looked, there was never any milk served, and I had to ask for it. I must tell you that I grew quite fond of that type of Coffee for a while. It was very thick and very sweet, and to get to the bottom of this tiny little ornate cup, I would try to end up spooning it out.

A Strange Experience

However, I must tell you something strange. The small brown man who brought my Coffee would nod to a tall thin man nearby when I had drunk my Coffee as far as it would run down the cup and not sit all sludgy at the bottom. This tall thin man would leap up out of his chair, approach me and firmly grasp my cup and turn it upside down into the saucer. Then we would sit and wait until the sludge had moved a little. Then he would gaze thoughtfully into the cup and read my fortune.

A Turkish Fortune Teller

The first time this happened, I was up, and out of my chair so fast it made my head spin. It gave me such a fright with him springing up and grabbing my cup like than. I was shaking for quite some time afterward. No-one had warned me. The small man who’d served me was there and nodded to me. He had a little English, I thought, but it was the same few sentences repeated to appear more.

No English

Anyway, it turned out that this man was trying to tell my fortune. The tricky thing was, he didn’t speak any English, and I didn’t speak Turkish. When he’d finished, I clearly had to dip him. I brought out some small change, and he shook his head in the negative, so I brought more change and, after the negative head shaking, we got to the positive head nodding, and he pushed away some change – giving it back to me. It was a very curious procedure, and I enjoyed it enormously.

Back to Turkey from Greece

I stayed in Greece for six months and crossed over to Turkey every two to three weeks. Every single time I was in Turkey, I found a restaurant, ate a meal, and ended with the demitasse of Coffee and the fortune teller. I tried three other restaurants and went back to the original place and the tall, mysterious fortune teller, and eventually, our respective performances were perfected through the following months.

New Acquaintances

Over time, the small man would approach my table, and while serving me, he would cautiously advise me on what materials not to buy and what would be a bargain. The tall fortunate teller also got to the point where he would sit instead of standing, and he would sit more closely to me and make sounds of approval or disapproval according to his feelings about some things. I never understood his words, but I came to understand his expressions and enjoy the rituals of another culture in time.

Getting the Message

I eventually got some message that I would have lots of ups and downs for a while, but things would work out very well for me in my old age. I was glad to hear it, I suppose, but isn’t that the general story of life?

Return to the UK

I finally returned to the UK, and I had brought with me the utensils required for making Turkish Coffee, which I’d purchased in Turkey. I invited my friends and acquaintances to enjoy the experiences and the Coffee, and many of them wanted to come back for more as they were enjoying the whole experience. I had not only the very long-handled utensils but also a set of demitasse to make things appear more authentic. Some of my friends thought I’d ‘gone over the top’ with all my purchases just for a cup of Coffee, and others decided they were tea drinkers through and through.

Never Forgotten

When I finally left and got back to the UK, I thought about those experiences for a while before I put them away and went on to partake in and enjoy some new cultures and rituals. Clearly, I never forgot this one.

Almond Milk

We’ve talked a lot about Coffee, so I think it’s time to return to Almond Milk. After all, if only for the sake of relevance, we did begin with Almond Milk. Here are a few facts about it.

Contents of Almond Milk

It contains less than 2% almonds, and the rest of it is simply water with some vitamins added together with minerals and sweeteners and thickening agents. It’s basically a drink that’s made from ground almonds and water with other additives and is a very popular alternative to cow’s milk.

Tea

I’ve drunk all types of Tea prepared in so many different manners, and one could become confused about whether or not you really are being served with Tea. However, caffeine is my favorite poison. 

Coffee Forever

The first time I took a sip of Coffee (made properly) I was hooked. The second time, I knew it would always be my preferred drink. I cannot resist an excellent cup of Coffee, well made. I’ve tried all manner of coffees and enjoyed them all. By now, I’ve realized I will never give up drinking Coffee.

The Next Step

After reading this, I hope that many of you will go out and try some of the recipes and different coffees I’ve mentioned in this article. I hope you’ll go and try them and find that you thoroughly enjoy them and become appreciators of Coffee – just like me. The world is for exploring and tasting and testing and generally enjoying all that it provides. Coffee is one of those pleasures to be enjoyed to the full.