3 Dairy-Free Lattes

If you’ve ever wondered how to make a dairy-free latte at home – you’ll wanna save this recipe! I’m sharing three of my favorite healthy latte recipes with you – a classic latte + pumpkin spice latte + peppermint mocha. Plus lots of swaps so you can make even more variations (like honey lavender, gingerbread, and a classic mocha!)

Hi I’m Lauren – Holistic Health Coach behind Free Your Fork and I’m here to help you with healthy living without obsessing.

I help people make simple swaps for real food recipes, safer beauty, and a healthier home. 

Today we’re whipping up some dairy-free lattes!

The biggest complaint I hear from people going dairy-free is that they think almond milk tastes too watery in their coffee. Or they don’t like the taste of oat milk. Or really just don’t want to add making homemade nut milk to their weekly to-do list. Believe me. Been there. Done that. 

Homemade nut milks (like this hazelnut milk recipe from the blog) are the best for lattes. They have a higher fat content because they’re made with more nuts - holding up better mixed with coffee the way regular creamers do. But if you don’t have a homemade style nut milk available for purchase and don’t want to make & strain homemade nut milk - I wanted you to have another option.

When I was recommending my favorite storebought almond milks I realized that the fat content in them wasn’t consistent - so some people were making it and it was coming out too watery, because well… the almond milk brand they used was too watery! This way you just need coconut oil + cashew butter.

This is the latte I whip up almost everyday in my blender - it's just so versatile and I love being able to mix up the flavors season to season with a few simple swaps. It's super easy to travel with just these few pantry staple ingredients + a latte whisk and still have a dairy-free option when I'm away from home.

Below each recipe I’ll list some of my favorite storebought swaps in case you just want a pour-n-stir latte option too. And of course - loads of ways you can customize the ingredients to make more than just these 3 latte variations.

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Base Recipe: How to Make a Cashew Butter Latte

This is your base recipe - the one you can add all kinds of fun ingredients to and recreate your favorite seasonal or flavored lattes. I made it with pantry staples so that it would be easy and consistent to make at home.

The cashew butter might sound like a weird ingredient but hear me out - cashew milk is just soaked cashews and water blended together. Cashew butter is just cashews that have been blended. If you add a hot liquid (like hot coffee - which is just hot water with steeped coffee ground in it!) - and blend blend blend. You’ve basically taken a delicious, small batch shortcut to homemade nut milk. 

You’ve got two option for these recipes - use a latte whisk or use a blender. If you use a blender it will come out the creamiest (with less chance of cashew butter in the bottom of your mug) but if you use hot coffee & a decent quality latte whisk - that works just fine too. Not everyone shares a home with people who don’t mind the sound of a blender at 6 am so I included a method and ingredients that work well for both.

INGREDIENTS

• 14 oz fresh brewed coffee (hot)
• 1 tbs cashew butter
• 1 teaspoon coconut oil
• Sweetener of choice (I use liquid vanilla stevia drops to make a vanilla latte)

(1) LATTE WHISK METHOD

1. Fill your coffee cup up only about a third of the way with coffee (important so if doesn't splash!)
2. Then add cashew butter + coconut oil + sweetener of choice
3. Blend with the latte whisk until well combined + until you have a slightly foamy top
4. Slowly pour the rest of your coffee into the cup, I pour mine to the side to not disturb the foam top as much. Then enjoy!

(2) BLENDER METHOD

1. Add all ingredients to blender and blend on high until you see the mixture looks creamy and lighter in color.
2. Pour into a cup and enjoy!

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DAIRY-FREE PUMPKIN SPICE LATTE

INGREDIENTS

• 14 oz fresh brewed coffee (hot)
• 1 tbs cashew butter
• 1 teaspoon coconut oil
• 1 tbs maple syrup (or other sweetener to taste)
• 1 tbs pumpkin puree
• dash of pumpkin pie spice 

METHOD

(1) LATTE WHISK METHOD

1. Fill your coffee cup up only about a third of the way with coffee (important so if doesn't splash!)
2. Then add cashew butter + coconut oil + pumpkin + maple syrup + pumpkin pie spice + sweetener of choice
3. Blend with the latte whisk until well combined + until you have a slightly foamy top
4. Slowly pour the rest of your coffee into the cup, I pour mine to the side to not disturb the foam top as much. Then enjoy!

(2) BLENDER METHOD

1. Add all ingredients to blender and blend on high until you see the mixture looks creamy and lighter in color.
2. Pour into a cup and enjoy!

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DAIRY-FREE PEPPERMINT MOCHA

INGREDIENTS

• 14 oz fresh brewed coffee (hot)
• 1 tbs cashew butter
• 1 teaspoon coconut oil
• Sweetener of choice (I use liquid vanilla stevia drops)
• 1 teaspoon cacao powder
• 1 drop of peppermint essential oil (I get my quality ingestible oils here)

METHOD

(1) LATTE WHISK METHOD

1. Fill your coffee cup up only about a third of the way with coffee (important so if doesn't splash!)
2. Then add cashew butter + coconut oil + cacao powder + sweetener of choice + peppermint EO (I get my essential oils here)
3. Blend with the latte whisk until well combined + until you have a slightly foamy top
4. Slowly pour the rest of your coffee into the cup, I pour mine to the side to not disturb the foam top as much. Then enjoy!

(2) BLENDER METHOD

1. Add all ingredients to blender and blend on high until you see the mixture looks creamy and lighter in color.
2. Pour into a cup and enjoy!

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Swaps for Healthy Living Without Obsessing

Storebought Options + Swaps

• You can use a high-fat content homemade style nut milk instead of the nut butter / coconut oil combo if you want to just pour and add sweeteners/ spices. When buying a homemade style nut milk from the store - look for a fat content of at LEAST 9 g per cup. I’m betting if you have an almond milk that you use for cereal or smoothies sitting in your fridge and it’s in a big carton - it’s sitting close to 2-3g per cup. That’s why it tastes watery -because it has a lot of water in it!
• The brands I like that get closer to a dairy creamer’s taste + feel + texture are Three Trees + New Barn. If you’ve got one that’s close to that same fat content try it out - you can always add a little coconut oil to it to boost the fat content & give it a similar feel.
• To make bulletproof coffee - you can use ghee in place of / in addition to the coconut oil. Whipping coconut oil into it will help the cashew butter incorporate better AND gives you a little boost of healthy fats + brain health supporting MCTs. Win win.  
• I wouldn’t swap almond butter for cashew butter - you can do it but the taste is a bit different. Cashew butter has more of a natural sweetness and plays better in this application. But go ahead and give it a whirl if you prefer almond butter (or don't do well with legumes) and see what works!
• Sweetener Alternatives: I use stevia drops because of my own blood sugar management + diabetes family history - but coconut nectar, coconut sugar, agave nectar would all work well here. For a list of other natural sweetener swaps make sure to download a copy of my Real Food Swaps here!

Classic Latte Swaps

• Sweeten with maple syrup to make a maple latte
• Sweeten with honey to make a honey latte
• Add a drop of lavender essential oil + honey to make a honey lavender latte (here's where I get quality, pure essential oils from)

Pumpkin Spice Latte Swaps

• Use cinnamon instead of pumpkin spice if you don’t have it
• Omit the canned pumpkin puree if you’re in a hurry because spoiler alert its pumpkin SPICE not pumpkin latte! Pretty sure the starbucks version doesn’t even have actual pumpkin in it - so if that’s what you’re going for go ahead and leave it out, it'll be authentic to the original!
• Use a dash of ginger powder and omit the pumpkin puree to make a gingerbread latte!

Peppermint Mocha Swaps

• You can swap cocoa powder in for cacao powder if you like - cacao powder has a lot of antioxidants in it and I often have that in my cabinet. If you like more milk chocolate type of flavor go with cocoa powder for sure! If you like an earthier dark chocolate vibe then go with cacao.
• If you like things more chocolate-y go ahead and bump up the 1 teaspoon to 1 tbs of cocoa powder. Cacao can start to get bitter if you add too much so keep that in mind if that’s what you’re using
• To make a classic mocha - just omit the peppermint
• Don’t have peppermint essential oil? You can use peppermint extract instead. If you are looking for a quality, pure essential oil - here's where I get mine from

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