​Elixir Mock Lattés (or Mockttés)

Adding in Strengthening and Tonic Herbs—Deliciously

While not the most convenient way to use powdered extracts, making elixir lattés (mockttés) is one of the more fun ways to use them—especially as we move into the colder months.

Many people are drawn towards roasted flavors (chocolate, coffee, and even breads and beers), and many associate the colder months with these flavors.

This recipe will provide you with a coffee alternative, one that is restorative and replenishing, in stark contrast to coffee, which adds heat and dampness to the body, and relies on utilizing and depleting Jing for energy.

There are two ways of making this recipe: By making the base milk yourself (preferred method), or by using a store bought milk-alternative or an animal milk.

Take the recipe in whichever direction is best for you. Remember that dairy can exacerbate phlegm, and many people come down with colds in the fall.

Making the Milk

This step you can skip if you would rather use a store bought milk alternative or if using an animal milk. This is my favorite recipe to date for making almond milk, and it is highly addicting (you've been warned).

By substituting almond flour for whole almonds, the amount of work is greatly reduced, and from start to finish the project takes well under 10 minutes (including clean up). I always make a full batch of this recipe, which you can too by just doubling the ingredients.

The recipe relies on the use of a high power blender, but a normal blender will work well too (it just may take longer to blend to a silky-smooth consistency).

Ingredients

• 1/2 Cup almond flour (ok to use almond meal or whole almonds);
• 1/4 Cup shredded dried coconut (ok to use fresh coconut meat, just double the amount used);
• 1/2 Tablespoon vanilla extract;
• 1/2 Tablespoon maple syrup (ok to skip or to use your sweetener of choice—dates work great here);
• Pinch of salt;
• 16 Ounces of water.

Recipe

Combine all ingredients into a blender and blend until you achieve a silky-smooth consistency.

If you are using whole almonds or almond meal (with the skins on), you will need to blend longer and possibly strain through a nut-milk bag or piece of cloth to remove those skins.

This is why I prefer to use almond flour, because the skins have already been removed.

I blend this until warm, using the soup setting on the Blendtec.

Adding the Herbs

While the milk is delicious in its own right, what makes this an elixir mocktté are the tonic herbs which go into it.

To achieve the roasted flavor we all love, this recipe calls for Dandy Blend. Dandy Blend is an instant, coffee alternative made primarily from roasted dandelion root, chicory root, and beetroot.

It is the best coffee alternative I have tasted, but any will work here. Dandelion root is an interesting ingredient in a tonic latté, as dandelion helps mitigate the damage that coffee causes (an accumulation of heat—inflammation—and dampness).

Ingredients

• 12 – 16 Ounces milk of choice;
• 1 – 1 1/2 Tablespoons Dandy Blend (or other roasted, instant coffee alternative);
• 1 – 1 1/2 Teaspoon Cloud Mushroom Turkey Tail Extract;
• 1/4 Teaspoon Buddha Blend Reishi Spores and Extract;
• 1/8 Teaspoon Himalayan Shilajit Extract Powder;
• Maple syrup (or other sweetener) to taste;
• Pinch of unrefined salt.

Possible additions, substitutions, and omissions

Substitutions

Substitute Buddha Blend Reishi Spores And Extract with Twelve Rivers MycoMedic Extract Powder or Turkey Tail Extract Powder.

If you are, or have been, a coffee drinker, Twelve Rivers adds to the latté the medicinal mushroom Fu Ling ( Poria cocos), a medicinal that drains dampness and is especially useful in cases of heat and dampness caused by coffee.

Additions

Build an immune tonic by adding in 1/2 teaspoon Siberian Chaga Extract Powder, 1/8 teaspoon Elevated Astragalus Extract Powder, and doubling the amount of Reishi called for.

Other possible additions:

1 teaspoon of Mountain Harvest Pine Pollen Powdered 10:1 Extract

Cocoa powder

Spices such as cinnamon, cardamom, clove, and star anise.

Omissions

Shilajit has a strong flavor. If you are not used to the flavor you may want to use less than the called for amount, or omit it completely. With that said, it is an important ingredient in the recipe/formula, and ideally it would be included, even if done so minutely.

Recipe

Place a smaller saucepan over low heat and add the milk. Let warm, stirring frequently using a small whisk (or other utensil). Once warm, add in the other ingredients as desired, continuing to stir frequently.

Let warm to just steaming, whisking frequently and rapidly to produce a nice froth.

Serve, enjoy, nourish, and nurture.