Wow, color me incredulous, but I thought coffee and espresso were already a plant-based beverages!

But of course, this is Starbucks we’re talking about and we all know Starbucks as primarily being a milk vendor that flavors heaps and heaps of milk with some coffee flavor. Considering milk is definitely not a plant-based beverage, they would be talking about things like almond “milk”, soy “milk”, and coconut “milk”. Well, they’re adding a fourth “milk” this year to their plant based, vegan friendly lineup, and that would be oat “milk”.

Starbucks also makes a vocal deal about how their iced espresso beverages are hand shaken (oh, for the days when their espresso was hand built, using a doser grinder, a tamper, and skill barista hand, and a traditional espresso machine). For this year, they’re rolling out two new iced espresso beverages, the Iced Brown Sugar Oatmilk Shaken Espresso, and Iced Chocolate Almondmilk Shaken Espresso.

It makes sense that Starbucks is expanding their iced coffee and iced espresso offerings; the company claims that cold coffee sales are up 45% over the last four years.

I will be honest, I am really curious to try the oatmilk variety. I love oatmilk, a variety I’ve gotten in the recent past reminds me just a bit of a childhood drink, malted milk. I always felt that flavor of malted milk would play incredibly well with coffee and espresso.

The chocolate almond “milk” variety, I have another confession: I make that for my partner all the time. It’s the only coffee drink they’ll have, to be honest, but I make it hot, moka style. In fact, here’s the recipe for you to enjoy.

ZussyK’s Almond Mocha

• 250ml of your favourite chocolate almond “milk”
• a traditional double of espresso (I aim for a nice 60g double shot)
• Your favorite Polish porcelain latte mug (naturally!)
• Hand whipped cream (heavy cream, sugar, vanilla extract)

I make the cream before hand and it can keep in sealed container in the refrigerator for a day or two. The trick is to not over whip it, but to bring it to a not really stiff, sticks to a spoon consistency that can pour with patience.

I find almond milk, especially the chocolate variety, doesn’t like getting above 60C, so don’t aim for steaming it too hot. Avoid creating foam (it’s hard to anyway with almond “milk”)

Brew your favorite double shot, steam the choco amo good stuff, and spoon in your whipped cream on top. Heaven.