Skinny Gingerbread Tea Latte

This one is for all my fellow tea loving mommas (or not mommas)! I have said it before and I will say it again, I am not really a coffee person. Not to say that I don’t drink coffee, on a cold morning when the baby is up at 5:30am I grab for a strong cup of Joe but I really prefer tea. So with my preference to tea I set out to mashup my favorite holiday flavor with my favorite warm beverage AND I left out all of the extra unneeded sugar to make a Skinny Gingerbread Tea Latte. 

When I was searching around on the world wide web all of the Gingerbread Lattes use gingerbread syrup, aka sugar and I didn’t want to go down that path. My objective was to still make a good tasting latte without the extra sugar and calories. 

So using my Homemade Gingerbread Spice the latte actually came together fairly quickly. 

The Ingredients

Tea. For this recipe English Breakfast Tea/Black Tea works best, you can also sub in a decaf variety or maybe even a Rooibos tea if you really wanted. You will need either a tea bag or a teaspoon of loose leaf tea and an infuser. (I am in love with these ADORABLE Tea Infusers that I found on Amazon). 

Molasses. Molasses is the byproduct of sugar production, it is basically the syrup that is left once the sugar crystals are all taken out of sugar cane juice. So it is still slightly sweet but has a distinct smoky taste. A teaspoon of molasses is roughly 17 calories, which compared to a serving of the leading brand of gingerbread flavored syrup is 90 calories. Talk about a win! 

Gingerbread Spice Mix. So I hate when a simple recipe calls for another whole recipe but you guys I promise this one is worth it. Go quickly make up a batch of my Homemade Gingerbread Spice, it is only 5 simple spices you probably already have and then that way you will have enough left for multiple lattes and for flavoring other delicious goodies like muffins or pancakes! 

Milk. I am still a fan of classic cow’s milk, use skim milk for a truly ‘skinny’ latte but any milk will really do (I often use whole because that is what we have for our son’s). A few paragraphs down in the method section I will dig into how to get a truly frothy homemade latte! I have not tested this recipes with milk alternatives so use your own judgement if you want to use a different kind of milk! The milk is where the bulk of the calories in this drink come from but if you are only using 3/4 cup of skim milk thats only about 69 calories!

So stop holding your breath because that means there is only 86 calories in this Skinny Gingerbread Tea Latte! If you were to go to a coffee shop like Starbucks your drink would be almost double. I don’t know about you but during the holiday season when cookies and decadent food is in abundance I will take half the calories in a delicious warm beverage any day! 🙂 So let’s look at how easy it is to make your Skinny Gingerbread Tea Latte at home! 

The Method

In a small saucepan you’ll whisk in your molasses, spice mix, and water. Bring it to a simmer and take off the heat. Add your tea and steep 3-6 minutes depending on how strong you like your tea. I will note that I usually enjoy a shorter steep in a plain tea but for a latte I will do a longer steep for a stronger tea flavor once its mixed with the milk. 

While your tea is seeping you will prepare your milk. Now to get a great homemade latte you will want to froth your milk, I have discovered a few good ways to do this without having a fancy machine.

First off I like to bring my milk to a room temperature or even slightly warm, I add my milk to a measuring cup and microwave it 30-60 seconds. You can froth it cold as well, it just will drastically cool down your drink (which maybe you like, my husband doesn’t like his drinks super hot). And now to froth. 

One option is to shake it in a jar. A super easy method, add the milk, get the lid on tight and shake hard until you are happy with the amount of froth. I have done this method many times, it works best in a bigger glass jar. You want to make sure that the milk isn’t over the halfway point giving the milk enough room to mix with the air and get frothy. 

Another option is a blender. A single serve type blender works best for this method (especially because you don’t want to clean a full blender for a little milk). Blend until froth appears!

And my favorite method an immersion blender. Now I had been wanting an immersion blender for forever and finally I bluntly asked my husband for it before our last anniversary. I wanted it for soups and sauces, I did not realize I would use it almost every day for the best homemade latte ever. Just blend the milk with the immersion blender, going up and down for about 30 seconds to get the frothiest milk!

Now to put that latte together. Transfer your brewed tea to a large/oversized mug (this recipe makes approximately 14 oz). There will be some residual spices at the bottom, the spices stay at the bottom when you are drinking but if they really bother you you could strain them out. Slowly pour the milk and froth over the tea, and there you have it your very own homemade Skinny Gingerbread Tea Latte. 

TIPS & TRICKS 

• This could be made with coffee, although I haven’t tried, you will just want to make sure you dissolve the molasses into the hot coffee 

• You could alternately just whisk boiling water with the molasses to dissolve and add the tea and spices to steep 

• I love my Immersion Blender, here is the one I have: 

Yield: 14 ounces

Homemade Skinny Gingerbread Tea Latte

Print

a low calorie warm holiday tea latte full of gingerbread flavor

Prep Time 1 minute

Cook Time 5 minutes

Total Time 6 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 cup water
• 1 teaspoon molasses
• 1 teaspoon Gingerbread Spice
• 1 teabag or teaspoon black tea
• 3/4 cup skim milk

Instructions

1. In a small saucepan you'll whisk in your molasses, spice mix, and water. Bring it to a simmer and take off the heat.
2. Add you tea and steep 3-6 minutes depending on how strong you like your tea.
3. While your tea is seeping you will prepare your milk. Bring milk to a room temperature or even slightly warm, add it to a measuring cup and microwave it 30-60 seconds. (You can froth it cold as well.)
4. And now to froth. Use one of the following 3 methods.

• shake it in a jar. Add the milk to a large glass jar, get the lid on tight and shake hard until you are happy with the amount of froth.
• standard blender. A single serve type blender works best for this method but not necessary, blend until some froth appears!
• immersion blender. Blend the milk with the immersion blender, going up and down for about 30 seconds to get the frothiest milk!

To put latte together. Transfer your brewed tea to a large/oversized mug (this recipe makes approximately 14 oz). There will be some residual spices at the bottom, they do stay at the bottom when you are drinking but if they really bother you you could strain them out. Slowly pour the milk and froth over the tea.

Notes

Nutritional data is automated, final nutritional information will depend on ingredients used and any changes made.

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

1

Serving Size:

14 ounces
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 86Total Fat: 0gCholesterol: 4mgSodium: 87mgCarbohydrates: 18gFiber: 0gSugar: 14gProtein: 6g

Did you make this recipe?

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Peace & Love

Lauren, The Schmidty Wife