My healthy alternative to coffee

Cover photo: Cup of ginger latte

My spices of choice:

Ginger, cardamom and cinnamon

I came late to coffee. I didn’t enjoy the thick, bitter brew from the percolator my parents always had going at the house. It was the smoke of their cigarettes and the sound of the bubbling coffee that shook me awake in the mornings. I liked water (plain, cold, tap water), and when it was cold outside or I was feeling a bit ill, some hot herbal tea.

30 years later and I had my first cappuccino, and experienced the fresh smell of roasting coffee…this altered my opinion somewhat. My brother and I were hanging out the summer after I left the Navy, and he is a big aficionado of the bean. We would stop several times a day at cute, local coffee shops to fill his addiction. I tried a latte…and I was a convert.

However, I couldn’t afford the fancy lattes when I went back to university, so I started drinking drip coffee.

Then, in the Middle East I tried Arabic coffee with the addition of cardamom….mmm. I do now love a good cup of joe.

However, I still only drink one or two cups a day…as I’m not a great sleeper to start with. So I have developed a different brew for the evenings, that is both healthy and suppresses my craving for coffee.

Ginger Latte

Mix together:

• 1/3 cup of boiling water

• 2/3 cup of hot milk

• 1/2 teaspoon of ground ginger

• 1/4 teaspoon of ground cardamom

• 1/8 teaspoon of ground cinnamon

Of course these measurements aren’t exact, but measured by eye to my particular taste. You get a hot, creamy drink full of delicious spice. Try it. You can adjust the flavours to your taste.