Miroco milk frother for healthier beverages that taste amazing including Pumpkin Spice Latte!

I will admit I am a serious coffee enthusiast. I don't drink coffee all day long because I know its not good for me an it disrupts my sleep so I limit it to two *generous* sized cups for the day and try to avoid it past 4 pm. I love it all year round hot or iced and I am a serious sucker for lattes. I am also admittedly a total snob about coffee, especially lattes and am not a huge fan of Dunkin, Starbucks...basically any chain coffee place. There is a local coffee shop in town that I love and indulge myself with occasionally but other than that I am happy to just make my coffee at home where I can control the ingredients. I'm pretty basic about things, just give me a decent tasting cup of coffee with half and half. No sugar, no syrup, no weird creamer, and for crying out loud absolutely NO SKIM MILK!! I will sub in whole milk for the half and half sometimes but that's as far as it goes, people!

But when the weather starts turning cooler as it has been lately I start lusting for lattes. I just get uncontrollable temptations to swing by and get one after work, or before work, or during work, or just because it's Monday, or Friday, or Wednesday, or payday.... This is all well and good except for the price factor. The frugal person I am cannot justify daily $5 drinks. $150 a month for frothed milk and espresso?! Nah. I love them and I am happy to spend that much on a quality beverage to support a local business every once in a while but...I can't make it a daily habit. This makes my latte loving heart so sad!

What's a latte lover to do?

I have explored the options for at-home espresso and latte perfection before *sigh* but I don't want a giant expensive appliance on my countertop nor do I have the room. Of course, we all know if its not out on the counter you're not going to use it much. It's going to become like the food processor where I avoid recipes that I have to use it for because I don't want to dig it out. If this sounds like you and you feel me here, I'm about to change your life because I am going to show you an amazing little appliance that is the best thing since sliced bread for frothed milk lovers.

Get ready to fall in love!

It's called the Miroco milk frother. I had researched how to froth milk at home before. The wands, the french press method, the whisk method, meh....I was skeptical at first. But this little gadget had me at hello! I came across a video of someone using one online and was instantly like OMG?! What is that and where can I get it?!?! Thanks to Amazon I had my hands on one in a few days time for around $37. Not bad.....so long as it does what it says! At first I was disappointed. Highly. My milk did not froth whatsoever. I was so sad! and mad! I called Amazon and talked through troubleshooting with the customer service representative. Turns out your milk will not froth properly if it is not fresh. The milk I had, although not spoiled, had been opened for a while. Also, it was local farm fresh milk that is not homogenized and is only lightly pasteurized so that may have something to do with it, too. Weird, I know. Not sure the science on this but if you do please inform me! So I decided to buy fresh, brand new milk and try it out before returning the frother with a heavy heart. It worked beautifully this time! Mountains of froth! I have since decided to try the local milk again just after opening and it worked better so I guess it just has to be very fresh.

You can froth with dairy and non-dairy milks

I have since enjoyed frothed half and half (my fav), coconut milk, almond milk....truly its been a frothing extravaganza over here. I found myself tempted, at one point, to try chicken stock in the frother. Just kidding (not really, though, lol). I'm just so amazed with it. The Miroco frother works with all types of milk. I will say if you want copious *mountains* of froth you must use dairy milk preferably full fat variety. But non-dairy milks work too, just not quite as much luxurious froth.

Some other details on this product. The Miroco milk frother that I purchased has 4 settings:

1. Hot dense froth
2. Hot light foamy froth
3. Hot, no froth
4. Cold froth.

Here are some other things I LOVE about this milk frother:

• The extremely small footprint on my counter. It's about the size of a coffee grinder/Yeti travel tumbler.
• It cleans up like a dream. Just rinse it out after use and wipe dry with a paper towel of kitchen towel. Done!
• It makes me want get out of bed in the morning so I can have delicious frothy coffee at my disposal without leaving the house.

Ways to enjoy

Here are some suggestions for use but you are really only limited by your imagination. Anything you can think up will probably be amazing and if you come up with something fantastic, please leave a comment below or post it on instagram and tag me @sageessencebotanicals. I would love to hear about it. I've been enjoying:

• Regular old everyday coffee. Can't go wrong with fresh hot coffee topped with milk or half and half frothed on the dense foam setting. A boring but comforting go-to. I like to top with ground cinnamon for fun.

• Iced coffee. Pour milk or half and half frothed on the cold setting over coffee with ice cubes added. *Yawn* yeah I know, but trust me its not your typical iced coffee, it puts Dunkin' to shame.

• At-home latte. Here's where we mix it up. So, I don't have an espresso machine because as I mentioned before I not willing to sacrifice countertop space or the funds. If you have one, that's great. Here's how old school Italians and broke girls like me make espresso at home: Moka pot. You may have seen one of these before. No, it's not real espresso. No, it doesn't have crema. But if you're a latte lover in need of a fix it gets the job done. Make your coffee in your Moka pot first. Pour some into your mug and add some syrup such as maple syrup or your own homemade syrup of choice and stir. Then pour in your frothed milk. You can do it the other way around if you want and pour the Moka pot coffee into the milk but I have found it reduces the amount of foam slightly.

My Moka pot

• Macchiato. No, not like the ones at Starbucks. Make yourself some "espresso" in your Moka pot and top with a bit of frothed milk made using the light foam setting.

• Hot chocolate. Mix a few tablespoons cocoa power and/or a square of 70-80% dark chocolate, water, and a pinch of salt together and heat til almost boiling. Stir til smooth. Add in maple syrup, sugar, honey, or skip the sweet stuff. Top with frothed milk and a dash of cinnamon. Or if you don't want froth this time (not sure why you wouldn't) you can just use the heat only setting without froth. What a treat.

• Chai latte. Brew some chai tea of your choice. Top with frothed milk. Delicious. Have you read the ingredients on a powdered Chai latte mix lately? Scary stuff, friends. Best to make your own.

• Sugar Free option. If you like vanilla creamer here is something to try. Add a dash of vanilla extract and a drop or two of liquid stevia to the milk before frothing. It tastes similar to vanilla creamer. I don't really care for stevia in coffee for some reason. I mostly don't like sweet coffee and although I like stevia a lot in other things and use it frequently, I just don't like it in coffee that much but I found that just adding a touch of it to the milk was pretty tasty and might satisfy someone who loves creamer but is trying to cut back on sugar. Liquid stevia like this one is a safe, natural alternative to sugar or other chemical-laden sugar substitutes that make me cringe just thinking about them. Stevia is WAAYYYY sweeter than sugar so when I say a drop or two I literally mean ONE or TWO drops or it will become way too sweet.

• Pumpkin Spice Latte. Yes, we are going there in this post. Tis the season, right?

Add milk and coffee and this is all you need to make a delicious pumpkin spice latte at home

Here's how I make mine for a single serving:

Brew some Moka pot coffee and pour about 1/2 cup into a mug

Add to it:

2-3 Tablespoons pumpkin puree

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon or so pumpkin pie spice (adjust to taste)

2 teaspoons maple syrup (or more depending on how sweet you like things)

Stir together well.

Top with milk frothed on the dense foam setting and dust with cinnamon

Sip and savor! You just saved yourself about 30 grams of sugar and at least $4.

This frother would make a great gift for someone (or yourself!) especially that person who has everything, I bet they don't have one of these babies. Are you obsessed with lattes, too? What are your favorite fall drinks?