23 Nov Pumpkin Coconut Latte (Sans Coffee)
Move over Starbucks! As much as I love the atmosphere you’ve created across the globe to allow a place for visitors and community to gather, some of your concoctions don’t give me the warm and fuzzies. While your hot drinks are brilliant creations of flavours, the ingredients leave me, well… a little under-satisfied.
If you stop at Starbucks, I’m sure you know what I mean. The drinks are creative and tempting that are sadly loaded with all kinds of sugary syrups and artificial flavours. I also do know that sometimes the atmosphere or brand just pulls us in. I really do get it. If you find yourself addicted to the culture, that’s one thing. If you’re addicted to the sugar in those sweet iconic cups, perhaps I can help sway you to make your own with healthier ingredients, like with this Pumpkin Coconut Latte.
I laugh when I hear advertisements in the fall for ‘Pumpkin Spice Latte’s’, because that’s really what it is… pumpkin spice! There’s no pumpkin in it at all.
If you want the real deal or if you just prefer healthier options, here’s my version of a real pumpkin drink. I admittedly hack the latte part, because mine does not include coffee. Not to say that you can’t add coffee to this recipe instead of hot water, I just don’t drink the stuff. I haven’t in years. I sometimes wish I could. I just lost the taste when I stepped away from it many years ago. You couldn’t even pay me to drink a cup, sadly not even in Italy in the best cappuccino and expresso cafes when they look like art. Interesting, but true.
In this recipe, I personally used real pumpkin that I had left over from cooking an enormous Cinderella pumpkin. You can read about Cinderella pumpkins here as well as get my Pumpkin Cashew Pie recipe here and/or my Pumpkin Apple Mocktail recipe here if love pumpkin as much as I do. While I used real pumpkin this recipe, a canned pumpkin purée will work just as well.
What you need
2 Tbsp pumpkin purée
2 Tbsp coconut milk
1 tsp maple syrup
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 vanilla extract
1 c boiling water
sprinkle of nutmeg (optional)
What you do
- Blend everything together in a magic bullet or blender until frothy
- Then warm lightly on the stovetop in a sauce pan without boiling. Hot heat will cause the coconut milk to separate, so warm lightly on a medium setting
- Serve with a light dusting of cinnamon and/or nutmeg, if desired
Feel free to use coffee in place of hot water or I’m sure a shot of expresso would work well too.
Or check out my full octane (caffeinated) Pumpkin Spice Latte Recipe here
Mmmm, mmmm, mmmm!
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