Vanilla Maca Dirty Chai Latte

Okay confession time- I hated coffee until senior year of college. I know, it sounds weird, but I really did. The smell of it was way too overpowering, I couldn’t stomach the thought of drinking black coffee, and I wouldn’t even venture to try something less intimidating like lattes. My go to drink at a coffee shop was always chai tea lattes, or hot chocolate when I was a kid.

But then I discovered coffee, and I can proudly say I am now a big fan. I still can’t drink black coffee or any seriously strong coffee drinks but I am all for lattes, cappuccinos, and frappuccinos. I don’t even necessarily need the caffeine most of the time, but I love the morning ritual of making myself a latte and drinking it as I catch up on my blog reading.

My go-to morning coffee drink these days is an almond milk latte with stevia. It is so low in calories, yet so satisfying.

Lately, I have been experimenting with different twists on my latte base. This past Friday night I made some homemade pumpkin pie spice and chai spice mixtures, because that’s what a girl like me does on Friday nights. And also because I can’t find those spice mixtures here in Mexico. If you need a good recipe for both check out Nutritionella and Hello Veggy respectively. I didn’t have any cardamom so I excluded that from my chai spice mixture and it still tastes like chai, just FYI. Most of these spices should be things you have on hand already and making homemade spice mixtures is great if you run out of your store bought mixture.

I love dirty chai tea lattes since they mix two of my favorite coffee shop drinks, and I wanted to try one out using just chai spices, no chai tea and no sugary or chemical-filled syrups. It turned out pretty great! This drink has a little kick to it from the chai spices and you can customize your amount of sweetness using stevia. No guilt here with this morning coffee drink!

Finally, let’s talk about the maca. I have been trying to incorporate maca into my diet daily ever since I read that it is good for your skin. I had heard about it’s benefits for increased energy, but I did not know about its benefits for balancing hormones. Maca is also full of B vitamins, which is great for vegetarians and vegans. If you have never had maca before, start with a small amount and work your way up since you don’t want it to boost your energy and hormones too much at the start.

This drink is great on it’s own, but I added a frozen whipped cream disk that I made from my Vegan Peanut Butter & Jelly French Toast Sandwiches. Head on over to that recipe to see how to freeze whipped cream!

Vanilla Maca Dirty Chai
Serves 1 (makes about 11/2 cups).

2 tablespoons coffee grounds
½ cup vanilla unsweetened almond milk
½ teaspoon chai spice
½ teaspoon maca powder
stevia, to taste
whipped cream, optional and to taste

1. In your coffee filter add coffee grounds and chai spice. Mix slightly with a fork to incorporate.
2. Brew coffee according to machine instructions.
3. Add all ingredients into a small pot and cook on low heat until hot.
4. Top with whipped cream or a frozen whipped cream disk.

Nutritional Information (does not include whipped cream)
Serving Size: 1 Calories: 24 Fat: 1.5 g Carbohydrates: 4.8 g Fiber: .5 g Sugar: 1.2 g Protein: .9 g