First Experiences with the Pink Latte Everyone is Talking About

From my own personal experiences reading food blogs on a near daily basis, this headline was a little blown out of proportion. However, I was enamored by the enthusiasm from the one the only Dr. Oz regarding this new super-latte, as he compared it to the bulletproof coffee trend.

Picture this: Maryland, 2017. (Can you tell I’ve been watching a lot of Golden Girls over the past few months…) I was at my parent’s house for an Easter celebration last week, and I happen to catch an episode of Dr. Oz right after LIVE with Kelly. Dr. Oz was getting all jazzed about the latest trend in hot, health-boosting coffee-inspired trends.

You may have a tough time figuring out what the pink comes from, its not Red 40 or cranberries… The color and benefits come from BEETS!

And it was bright pink, which lent itself to being an episode airing so close to easter. If you’d like the full experience, feel free to watch the full segment by clicking HERE.

Once I got back to Minneapolis, I knew I had to take a whack at this new trend. I gave it a try last Wednesday and after I was not too impressed with my results. I then gave it a try again today shifting around a few different aspects. And, I would’ve tried it again earlier if it wasn’t for another pink drink that I had to review last week. I’ll give you a sneak peak into my processes:

First Try:

TBH, my first try did not end up how I expected at all. I used about a cup of canned beets, and a little less than a cup of almond milk along with one tbsp of honey. I whipped that up in the my Nutribullet Pro for 15 seconds or so. Then onto the stove it went until it began to boil.

After the liquid was hot, I strained the liquid with a wire mesh strainer. To that mixture, I added more almond milk that I buzzed through the Nutribullet on its own for 30 seconds. So, that means I added cold to hot. There was not much of a bubbly head on it. To garnish, I dusted ginger and cinnamon on top.

My issue with my first try was due to textural consistency. I believe it was due to a combination of my method of straining the beet mixture and the ratio of beets to milk. I could not finish the whole thing… that’s how bad the consistency was on my tongue. But you know what they say: “If at first you don’t succeed, try again, t-t-t-try again.”

Second Try:

Five days later, spur of the moment, I decided to give the beet latte another shot. Here are the things that I changed:

• I made a more concentrated beet and almond milk mixture to begin with about 1/2 cup of beets and 3/4 cup of almond milk. At this point, I also included a few pinches of both cinnamon and ginger.
• When I was straining, I was very gentle with my strainer. I was not trying to push it through the fine holes (I think this would be a great job for cheesecloth, but I’m all out at the moment).
• To this deeper pink strained mixture, I added steamed almond milk from the espresso maker (note: it didn’t have a bubbly head because I am still not good at steaming milk).
• I stirred in the honey at the very end because I am forgetful. Next time I will add it in with the blended mixture.

Conclusions

What did I learn, you don’t have to have SO MUCH beet action for this recipe. You won’t get all of the nutrients if you don’t drink it, so make sure to make it tasty. And I drank the entire mug of my second latte, so that is a big deal compared to the first one that I made, which I only choked down half of. Try number two was DELISH.

As I was writing this afternoon, I’ve been doing a bit more research on this. I may have to make some dried beet powder and use that instead of whole/sliced hydrated beets. It may be a fun, easy way to make this drink.

Ok Dr. Oz, I finally understand why you were so excited about this latte. In the comments, what food/drink trends have you been getting into recently?