Caramel Latte! Paleo Style

A quick (yes a little vague) recipe I developed.

Starbucks Caramel coffee

Almond milk

Maple syrup

I brewed about 2 cups of coffee, poured equally into three mugs. I threw probably 2/3 cup of almond milk into the microwave for a minute. Whipped with probably a tablespoon of maple syrup, poured equally over the mugs. I prefer to mix my latte just enough so that the coffee and cream are mixed but the foam is still mostly cream.

Let me know what you think!

Staying Paleo at Starbucks

We have all run into the situation where you need a quick coffee. It gets a little bit trickier at Starbucks with all the lingo that sounds like foreign language.

1. Normal Coffee

You are pretty safe with any black coffee. Just watch decaf coffee because the decaffeination process usually uses potentially harmful chemicals.
If you need a form of cream go with whole milk, it is the lesser of the evils. They also offer soy for our lactose sensitive friends if you are willing to consume a bean product.

2. Chocolate Beverages (Hot Chocolate)

These are full of sugary syrups and sweetened cream. It's best to avoid these.

3. Espresso Beverages

Espresso or Americano (espresso with water) is the best choice, but it is not for the faint of heart as they are strong. If you are willing to drink milk these are safe : Cappuccinos (espresso with milk), lattes (espresso with more milk than a cappuccinos), and Espresso con Panna (espresso topped with whipped cream). Also, anything that is added to them (vanilla, caramel, mocha, etc) is generally full of sugar.

4. Frappuccinos

Frappuccinos are coffee or tea blended with cream, syrups, and ice. As much as I love these, they are full of sugar even if they aren't sweet (Green Tea Frappuccino has 33g of sugar in 8oz). I would avoid these all together.

5. Smoothies

Starbucks advertises real fruit smoothies which that is true, but they put whey protein and fiber powder in them too. Besides that, they too have enough sugar to put you in "sugar-coma".

6. Teas

All pure teas are paleo (except passion, they add syrup to it), watch out for the latte and lemonade versions because they have added sugar. Also opt for the full leaf version (if available) because of the lesser quality of bag tea (see my earlier posts).

7. Refreshers

These are sweet beverages with caffeine derived from coffee without the coffee flavor. Starbucks says they are fruit juice, real fruit, and their green coffee extract. Which is all paleo right? Not so fast, the "real" fruit juice is concentrate with added to sugar to reconstitute.

8. Food

Most Starbucks food is sweetened or contains wheat, the only exception I could find was their fruit blend.

If there is any other Starbucks goodies you want to learn more about go to www.starbucks.com (where I did my research).

UPDATE
I have tried the "light" Frappuccinos, they use a sugar free syrup and have less overall sugar. This is a good choice to splurge on if need be.

A Paleo Macchiato?

This morning I woke up with an urge that would (when I wasn't Paleo) drive me to the nearest Starbucks. How good does a Macchiato sound? For non barista people a macchiato is pretty much a chocolate latte. Because I don't eat refined sugar and no one else on the web had an easy paleo recipe, I invented my own.

I microwaved (I know it's not technically paleo, but it is so convenient!) about a 1/3rd cup of half and half milk for 1 minute. I poured it into my milk frothing cup, added 1 heaping tablespoon of cocoa powder and 2 tablespoons of maple syrup. You can then use the milk frother to whip everything together into a fluffy cloud. Add as much brewed coffee as you want and be sure to mix everything again. Enjoy!

Let me know how yours turned out on the comments below.