If you want to feel blissed rather than buzzed (on caffeine), swap your morning cup of coffee with this adaptogen latte. Adaptogens are natural medicines that help your body adapt to whatever stress or anxiety life throws at you. So instead of sipping on a drink that results in that edgy intensity we sometimes experience with coffee, you’ll help your body heal from adrenal fatigue so you can feel more like yourself. If you’re ready for a morning reboot, read on.
Our adaptogen latte starts with chicory, New Orleans’ favorite bitter, caffeine-free pre-biotic herb that tastes and looks similar to coffee. Though it won’t give you that energetic boost that coffee will, this drink gives you the ritual of sipping something hot and bitter in the a.m. To take the edge off the bitterness, steep the chicory in hot water with high-fiber, high-vitamin dates that have a mellow, caramelized flavor.
After the chicory root is steeped out, the dates themselves, soft and plump from the hot water, are whirled into a blender along with oat milk, until the mixture becomes thick and foamy. Yes, oat milk has quickly become the trendy dairy-free milk du jour. Though brands like Elmhurst and Pacific Foods make oat milk, our absolute favorite, flavor- and froth-wise, is Oatly’s full-octane oat milk. Oatly claims it’s high in betaglucans, a fancy scientific word that basically means it’s good for your heart and helps maintain normal cholesterol levels in your blood.
We then stirred in reishi mushrooms, bitter fungi traditionally used in ancient Chinese medicine that are often brewed into a tea or mushroom coffee to boost the immune system. All of these strange ingredients together result in a beverage that smells like a graham cracker and tastes toasty. With just enough bitterness and sweetness, it’ll make you linger over your cup and keep sipping.
Adaptogen Latte
(Makes 1 drink)
Recipe Notes: If you can’t find chicory root at your local spice shop, head online to pick some up. Ditto for the reishi mushroom powder (we used the one from Om) if it’s not stocked at your local natural foods store. We like how sweet the beverage tastes, but add 1/2 teaspoon of agave nectar if you’d prefer it.
Ingredients:
- 1 tablespoon chicory root
- 3 pitted dates
- 1 cup boiling water
- 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons plain oat milk
- 1 teaspoon reishi mushroom powder
- 1/2 teaspoon agave nectar, optional
Instructions:
1. Steep the chicory root and dates in the hot water for 5 minutes.
2. Pour the chicory infusion into a fine-mesh sieve placed over a glass liquid measuring cup. Remove the dates from the spent chicory, and rinse the dates.
3. Place the dates and oat milk into a blender. Blend until smooth.
4. Stir the mushroom powder into the chicory coffee until combined.
5. Pour the date-sweetened oat milk on top of the “coffee,” and drink up!
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(Recipe and photos by Annelies Zijderveld / Brit + Co)
