Latte Love

When I started this blog I vowed to keep all non-family history nonsense off of it completely.  But today, I am making an exception because what happened to me this morning was mind-blowing.  

I don't drink coffee.  I used to drink copious amounts of coffee.  My addiction first started onboard the USS FLINT where it was used more like a drug to keep your eyelids open more than anything else.  It certainly was NOT tasty.  It was REALLY strong, and really hot.  Nicknamed "Mess Decks Coffee", it quickly becomes an addiction and I would say I was up to about two pots a day, consumed over the course of a 24 hour period.  

Because you see, I do nothing in moderation.

I quit coffee and diet soda when I quit drinking.  I needed to quit the diet soda too so I wouldn't get addicted to that as a substitute.  Wow, THAT was a miserable week.  Detoxing from alcohol, coffee, and diet soda at once is not something I recommend to anyone.  

Anyhow, after a few years of being coffee free I found this stuff.  Teeccino.  It's a pretty good herbal coffee substitute that brews just like regular coffee.  And it tastes all right with creamer or brewed black.  But the grounds are a different texture than coffee and my Keurig doesn't brew it well.  So, I don't drink it often.  

I don't miss coffee too much, and I'm certainly healthier without it considering the amount I was drinking.  I do pretty well all year long until Starbucks starts their holiday flavors.  

Then I just want to cry.

Oh how I loved the Pumpkin Spice and Gingerbread Latte's!  And my non-holiday favorite was always the Cinnamon Dolce Latte.  A lot of my non coffee-drinking friends substitute hot cocoa for coffee but unfortunately I don't like hot cocoa and although the rest of my family loves it, I rarely drink it.

Then one day last week, I happened to be shopping on Amazon when I looked at one of the products that was in the "more items to consider" section.  It was a coffee substitute.  I figured, what the heck, and clicked on it.

It's this stuff.

It's different than Teeccino.  It's an instant powdered beverage that you just dissolve in water, much like instant coffee.  Many of the reviewers said it was a little bitter, and more suited to espresso beverages than regular coffee.  And since I was deep in the throes of holiday Starbucks deprivation, it gave me an idea so I went ahead and ordered a bag.  It was about half the cost of Teeccino, so if it didn't work out it wasn't much of a loss.

Then I googled "coffee syrup" and it landed me right onto Starbucks website.  I had absolutely no idea you could order the same syrups online that they use at their coffee shops.  And BINGO!  Gingerbread!  I ordered a bottle of Gingerbread and a bottle of Cinnamon Dolce.  

When the bottles came in, I was really surprised.  I figured they'd be the same size as the little bottles you get at the supermarket, but they were not.  They are huge!  33 ounces, and with the same pump that they have in the stores.   I'm feeling pretty excited at this point.

And now, enter my Cocoa Grande maker.  This thing is really cool if your family loves hot cocoa the way mine does.  The homemade cocoa, milk, sugar and vanilla kind.  With this thing, all you do is toss the ingredients inside and hit the brew button and it stirs it all up, heats it all up, and then has a frothing dispenser that makes it all foamy and delicious when it dispenses into the cup.  

That got me sort of thinking, why couldn't I just use it to make a latte with that powdered coffee substitute?  I used milk, the coffee substitute, and the gingerbread syrup.

BAM!  A non-coffee latte of epic proportions was born at the Mack house today.  And let me tell you, it's every bit as delicious as the ones at Starbucks!  

 This was a game changer for me, folks.  As silly as it sounds, I'm pretty darn happy to have my holiday Starbucks back in my life.