Green tea-chai-almond milk latte

My baby copy of Emerson's Essays, absolutely incredible.  That copy is from the 20's and falls apart a little every time I read it so it's almost a shame to read it and ruin the book, but it's impossible not to read.  Along with a Green tea chai almond milk latte...there's gotta be a way to shorten that...  The foam from freshly made almond milk is the BEST THING EVER!  Better than any coffee shops foam for sure!

Just make sure this doesn't happen...

To make a green tea chai latte, I used Stash chai green tea bags.  Boil 1/2 cup water, pour over tea bag in a big mug, cover and steep for 5 minutes.  Make the foam; in a sauce pan, heat 1/2 cup freshly made almond milk (recipe here) on medium low heat.  Watch it CLOSELY and stir occasionally (it could boil over in a second and that's an annoying mess to clean, and a waste of almond milk!).  When it starts to bubble and foam up, turn the heat off and with a metal whisk, whisk vigorously for a couple minutes until you have a good amount of foam.  Add 1 1/2 TBSP agave nectar and 1 tsp vanilla extract and whisk another minute.  Take the tea bag out of the water and squeeze all the liquid into the mug, discard tea bag.  Using a big spoon to keep the foam in the pan (much like you would if you were straining pasta), pour the milk slowly into the cup, try to pour all of the liquid milk into the mug and then spoon the foam on top.  Soooo good!!  Kind of reminds me of cereal milk, haha but it's sweet and delicious!  Even more amazing with organic coffee.  I use instant (strong) coffee and do the exact same thing, except timing it so the water is boiled at the same time the milk is done so I can just quickly stir the coffee and water and add milk so the coffee doesn't get cold.  In fact...I'm going to make this right now!!!!

By the way, I used to try to make lattes ALL-THE-TIME with soy milk and I could NEVER get the milk to foam up decently (even using a french press), it was always way thin and didn't last.  Also, the taste wasn't right.. I used to try to sweeten it with sugar, or even those store bought syrups and I would get stomach aches or have to pour it out because it was gross.  

This is the perfect recipe if you're looking to save some money or just have a cup of coffee in the convenience of your own home.  Seriously, I absolutely love going to coffee shops in the morning (and I'm surrounded by them where I live) but knowing I can just make my own and it will probably be 10 times better has changed my life a little.

I think next I'll try making the almond milk with some cinnamon sticks, vanilla bean and sweet spices, mmmMM!