cardamom mint latte
a floral, refreshing, and EASY weekday brew (with oat milk and no added sugars).
Servings: 1
Time: <10 minutes
Recipe:
⅛ tsp ground cardamom (eyeball with 1/2 tsp measuring spoon)
4 mint leaves
If iced: 4-5 ice cubes (or enough to equate to ~¼ cup of water)
¾ cup full-fat oat milk, frothed
2 espresso shots
Iced:
Muddle ice, cardamom, and mint together in a glass. Your glass should be extremely aromatic.
To muddle mint, swirl the mint leaves up the walls of the glass. (See test #8)
Froth cold, oat milk, and add it to the glass. Swirl.
Add double shot of coffee.
Voila--water, beans, leaves, and oats!
Hot:
Muddle mint in mug. Your mug should be extremely aromatic.
To muddle mint, swirl the mint leaves up the walls of the mug. (See test #8)
Add cardamom to oat milk. Heat and froth.
Pour frothed oat milk into the mug.
Add double shot of coffee.
Voila--hot water, beans, leaves, and oats!
Non-negotiables:
Muddle the mint. Use oat milk for its creaminess and natural sugars.
Try experimenting with:
I use this cheap little container of ground cardamom that I bought years ago from Target, but if you have fresh cardamom pods, I’m sure the flavors would be even stronger. I’m not familiar with the conversion rate from pre-ground to freshly-ground though.
I’ve noticed the flavors grow stronger, the longer the leaves and spice sits in the latte. Let the drink stew for a bit, or drink slowly!
I know this recipe looks simple, but numerous tests went behind its development. Here’s a narrative from the past month:
Test #1: I’m no coffee connoisseur, but using an Aeropress for my morning brew has truly changed the way I drink coffee. Honestly, I think I had no coffee game to begin with though (see here). In these first tests, I used my Groundwork’s ‘B*tches Brew’—a dark chocolate and caramel blend—pressing the coffee into ice first. I then swirled in store-bought unsweetened vanilla almond milk, cardamom, and mint leaves into the glass.
What I got right: ⅛ tsp cardamom was perfect!
Needs Improvement: try diff type of alt milk, try it hot, add sweetener (?), milk into coffee or coffee into milk (?), perfect flavor extraction
Test #2: I tested the drink hot this time. I prefer my drinks hot because I down cold drinks way too fast. I carried over the ⅛ tsp cardamom: I eyeball ⅛ tsp with my ½ tsp measuring spoon. I used unsweetened vanilla almond milk (that’s all I had on hand) again. I frothed the milk, added the coffee into the milk, then swirled in cardamom and mint.
What I got right: ⅛ tsp cardamom, tastes good hot, coffee into milk
Needs Improvement: try diff type of alt milk, add sweetener (?), perfect flavor extraction
Test #3: I tried it hot again. While I cemented the cardamom measurement at this point, I wanted to fiddle with my flavor extraction. I tried blooming cardamom by pressing it directly with the coffee grounds. Therefore, none of the spice would actually end up in the coffee, eliminating any graininess; only the flavors would seep through the filter. But nope, this method did not work. I couldn’t taste any cardamom in the coffee.
What I got right: The longer the mint sits in the drink, the brighter the drink becomes.
Needs Improvement: try diff type of alt milk, add sweetener (?), perfect flavor extraction
Test #4: I went back to iced because LA was facing 100+ deg weather. So, in an effort to extract flavor without heat, I frothed the cold almond milk with the cardamom and mint. I hoped the agitation would rile up some more flavor. It didn’t work.
What I got right: N/A
Needs Improvement: try diff type of alt milk, add sweetener (?), perfect flavor extraction
Research #1: This idea originated from an IG story by @greeneyedarugula, who told me that she was inspired by Philz Coffee. So, as a Friday afternoon pick-me-up, I walked a couple blocks over to Philz to try their hot Tantalizing Turkish, a dark roast which boasts cardamom, mint, and tobacco. While I’m developing an espresso drink and Philz serves exclusively pour-over, I thought it might be helpful to use their drinks to play with alt milks and sweetener types. I ordered my drink: medium Oat milk and light Stevia. To no one’s surprise, the oat milk elevated the creaminess of the drink; however, I could have gone without the added sugar. My drink came with 2 mint leaves still attached to the stalk.
Notes: ditch unsweetened vanilla almond milk, use oat milk, needs more than 2 mint leaves
Research #2: I looked into the origin of cardamom in coffee, and it origins from traditional Turkish coffee—ergo “Tantalizing Turkish.” I learned that traditional Turkish coffee though is made through boiling water, extra fine grounds, cardamom, and sugar in a small pot. The drink is served with the grounds, which can be read like tea leaves! The most exciting outcome of this research: for 1 cup of coffee, they use ⅛ tsp cardamom. I’ve been using the correct amount of cardamom all along!
Notes: continue using ⅛ tsp cardamom
Research #3: I headed back to Philz to try their other drink that touts cardamom and mint—Philharmonic, a blend of cardamom, maple, and earth. I ordered the drink hot, creamy with oat milk (a step up from ‘medium’ last time) and no sweetener. Never ordering this again: I love Mother Earth, but she’s gross in coffee.
Notes: 4 mint leaves was perfect
Test #5: I went for a morning run, so I was craving an iced drink. Both my friend Rachel and original inspiration @greeneyedarugula separately suggested I try muddling the mint and cardamom like a bartender. I don’t have anything fancy like a real muddling tool or pestle, but I found clanking my glass straw around worked fine. I added and frothed cold, store-bought, full-fat oat milk. I had a new bag of beans from Cognoscenti Coffee, Nano Challa 2—a more fruity blend with notes of lime and peach. Fruity coffee is not my personal preference, but the barista recommended it. I couldn’t refuse his horn-rimmed glasses and cuffed jeans (see fifth slide here). But wow—I was so surprised! The fruity blend complemented the floral cardamom and the fresh mint. 3Fs: fruity, floral, and fresh. I got paid that week, so I splurged on a carton of oat milk. The oat milk really rounded out the 3Fs with its creaminess (incomparable to an almond milk). The oats’ natural sugars also provided the lightest but right amount of sweetness. Each cup of oat milk naturally contains 7g sugar.
What I got right: unflavored Oat milk, fruity coffee blend, muddling technique!
Improvements: N/A
Test #6: I needed to make certain that the recipe also worked hot. For this test, I was able to source a collection of friends’ ideas to finalize the hot recipe. An old childhood friend @dreamy.dough suggested steeping the cardamom and mint in milk over the stove. I thought that the idea was wonderful; however, my coffee habit is a morning rush, rather than a ritual. In 10 minutes or less, I try to throw together something before I head out the door. I was still inspired though by her idea, so I chucked my cardamom into my milk before heating my milk in the microwave. Oh my...I could have drank the cardamom milk by itself. The 1-minute in the microwave bloomed the cardamom, and it was so aromatic. If you do have time to make this concoction on the weekend, I would try to steep the spice in the milk over the stove. My good friend Nihar told me that he learned to muddle by clapping the leaves between his hands—“an old Indian technique,” he said. I can confirm that clapping leaves added a little rhythm to the recipe. Another old childhood friend Janice mentioned that she adds milk to mint, instead of mint to the milk, in her own lattes. I heeded her advice, pouring the warm, frothed milk into the muddled mint. The drink was sweeter hot: I’m assuming the heat slightly caramelizes the natural sugars in the oat milk.
Friend Taste Test: I do not trust my own taste buds, and I needed confirmation that this recipe was at least alright. (Is a symptom of a constipated inner child who craves validation?) I brought Janice the iced version of the recipe. Now, Janice is a big cafe culture connoisseur: she lived in Seoul for a couple years recently! She commented that the flavors all shined quite naturally, and the sweetness level was perfect. And with that admission, the recipe was ready to share.
Test #8: It’s November 4, around a month and a half since the recipe’s publication, and I’ve now improved my muddling technique for both the hot and cold recipes. This technique better perfumes and extracts the mint leaves. Instead of furiously smashing the mint at the bottom of the glass/mug, I used a back of a spoon to swirl the mint up the walls of the cup.
If you decide to test the recipe, I want your thoughts, so please tag me (@everythingalexcooks)!
