Hot drinks

for cold weather

If you’re new here, welcome! I write, every Wednesday, about my journey on a healthier and mostly plant-based diet. With illustrations. There are two paid newsletters a month that both include printables (an illustrated recipe on the second Wednesday of the month and a ‘Veg Letter’ on the fourth) and at least two free newsletters which could be on any (food-related) subject, the rest of the Wednesdays in a month.

I almost forgot to write you a newsletter today. Oops! I had to do a sleep study last night which involved having various gadgets attached to me and some tubes up my nose, and it seems to have completely wiped me out. Maybe that and the fact I got almost 20,000 steps yesterday and almost 10,000 steps today getting to and from the train station and then to and from the clinic (I also went visiting my aunt and cousins for the first time in a crazy long time, which was nice).

One of the questions on the sleep study questionnaire was whether you drink caffeine. And then I got a latte from a coffee shop on the way to the train this morning to try to wake me up, and so I thought I’d write about hot drinks.

Autumn (and winter) is made for hot drinks, I think. Hot chocolate especially. My vision of a perfect autumn late afternoon or early evening is sitting on the sofa with a book, a steaming mug of hot chocolate (with or without trimmings) and candles burning – and maybe the fire lit, too, though we try not to do that very often now because it’s very bad for the environment (soooooo comforting though – and a radiator does not give that same feeling of comfort, I find).

I’m a tea person, definitely. I can live without coffee, but I really really miss my tea when I’m travelling and don’t have access to a kettle. The best tea is brewed in teapot, from tea leaves. But I am too lazy to do that most of the time, and make do with tea bags (we get Clipper Fair Trade tea bags). And for coffee, my default is Co-op instant! Though I make it into a cheat’s cappuccino by zapping a small jug of milk and frothing it with the cheap frother I bought from Amazon. I will brew up a cafetiere of proper coffee sometimes at the weekend. I have a cup of tea first thing, then a coffee and generally another tea later in the day.

The rest of the day I tend to stick to herbal teas. We’re big Pukka Tea fans here. I think mostly I bought them for the gorgeous packaging to start with, but they taste great, too. ‘Relax’ is very good for some low-level destressing; ‘Revitalise’ is great when you need a bit of zing; ‘Lemon, Ginger and Manuka Honey’ is lovely when you’ve got a cold; ‘Night Time’ is a lovely bedtime drink - and plenty more.

We also like some of the Twinings Superblends teas, too - my favourite is probably ‘Metabolism’. And then any generic mint tea is good when you have a dodgy tummy!

One of the hardest things for me when trying to live fully plant-based, or vegan, is milk. I have tried a fairly wide variety (including some made from peas that were very good except for an after taste that I really couldn’t deal with).

What I settled on was soy milk to go with my tea and oat milk for coffee (especially the barista versions!), and almond milk for milk shakes. I really like coconut milk, too, especially in tea, but I find it tends to give me a bit of a bad tummy, so don’t have it very often.

There are a few other hot drinks I like sometimes. Broth when I’m having a diverticular flare-up - made from Marigold Bouillon powder or Marmite. Hot lemon and honey when I’ve got a sore throat. Hot chocolate - OK, that’s not terribly unusual (and the Galaxy Vegan Hot Chocolate is very nice, though so’s a proper cocoa made with some almond milk).

But my new favourite special drink is mushroom mocha. This is a spoonful of Co-op coffee and two spoonfuls of a mushroom hot chocolate powder that our local mushroom people sell at the farmer’s market. It’s made from lion’s mane powder, cocoa and coconut sugar. And that’s it. You need whizz it up with the frother to get it to mix properly and then I add frothed warmed milk to the top, too - lovely with soy milk or almond, I find, though would probably work with most plant milks (and cow’s milk, of course). It’s a lovely warming and rich drink. And I swear it boosts my brain energy. My daughters say that’s probably a placebo effect, and they may well be right, but I am quite happy with a placebo if it has the right effect on me!

Are you at tea person or a coffee person? Do you stay away from caffeine entirely? Do you have any favourite herbal teas? Have you had any mushroom coffee or hot chocolate? Do you have a favourite plant milk? (No judgement here – would be very hypocritical if I did - if you are still happily drinking cow’s milk.) What special hot drinks do you like? Or are you someone who can’t stand hot drinks at all. I remember I had a colleague many years back who wouldn’t drink any hot drinks at all. I honestly couldn’t understand that!

Next week is VEG LETTERS week for paid subscribers, and I am one behind, so it will be a double veg letter week. No clues yet. Mostly because I don’t know myself!