Got (Soy) Milk?, morning fix of soymilk and coffee,
photo © 2010 by ybonesy. All rights reserved.
I picked up my milk habit in Granada, Spain, in 1986. There my morning ritual was to walk out the door, hop the narrow cobblestone road to the bar across the way, and order a tall glass of café-con-leche. Pepe, the bar owner, prepared it with hot milk and just a splash of strong coffee.
Milk became over the next 20-plus years my daily vice. In all respects it seemed to be a respectable habit. My nails grew strong, hair thick, bones firm. One would expect (and I do) that my two cups of milk-and-coffee a day kept osteoporosis away.
But there were downsides. The worst was at night as I lay on my back and drifted off to sleep. I’d wake up choking to what felt like a wet hairball in the back of my throat. Mucus was the culprit, and it wasn’t just at night. When I exercised I had to clear my throat like a smoker with a hack. I suffered from morning stuffiness and a drippy nose even when it wasn’t allergy season. And forget about allergy season! During those months I was a poster child for Kleenex.
But the worst of the milk side effects hit recently as I began to enter menopause. If you’ve gone through menopause, you know the symptoms. Sore boobs, hot flashes, mood swings (mine went from grumpiness to rage).
Women I knew told me that I ought to try soy milk. My sister-in-law said it had an instant calming effect on her. Soy beans contain isoflavones, which produce an estrogen-like effect on the body. Inspired, I gave it try.
At first I disliked it. The sweetened kind was too sweet; unsweetened tasted like liquid chalk. For a few months I tried almond milk, then coconut. Nothing stuck. I turned to green tea (since I drink black tea the way I drink coffee) but didn’t like that either. I fumbled through my mornings, lost. I lamented that I’d inadvertently dumped my coffee habit. I missed my ritual.
I don’t have all that many vices, and honestly, milk-and-coffee probably did more good for my health than bad. Maybe that’s why I kept trying to find the right non-dairy version of my old favorite beverage.
Persistence paid off—I have finally discovered the secret to making the kind of non-dairy leche-con-café that might even make ol’ Pepe proud.
I am now an avid soy milk drinker. The extra mucus is gone, as are a couple of extra pounds. I only rage once in a blue moon. But most importantly, I got myself a new morning ritual. Life is good.
Roma’s Menopause-B-Gone Soy Milk-and-Coffee Drink
Start with a good brand of unsweetened soy milk. Not all brands are the same. Soy milk is processed from soy beans, and as with other processed foods, the processing can take something that is healthy and make it unhealthy. So if you’re going to drink soy milk, you need to check out the soy scorecard.
Pour about a cup of soy milk into a glass saucepan (preferably with a pouring spout) and heat on low for about 3-5 minutes, stirring constantly. I add just enough local honey (no more than a teaspoon) to give the unsweetened soy milk a hint of sweetness. I’m not a fan of sweet coffee, and so I’m stingy with the honey. Just a bit. Helps with allergies, too.
Once the soy milk is good and hot yet not boiling, pour it into a curved mug that fits your hand just so. Add in enough strong coffee to top the drink. (I make the coffee beforehand in a French press.)
Walk into your writing room, sit down, take a few sips, and then write. A calm beginning to any day.
I love your recipe/instructions, YBonesy. :) Sounds delightful, nourishing, and delicious.
I wish I could eat/drink soy as I could use help with the hot flashes (which have truly been more like strong power surges lately and I’m afraid I may go up in flames one day…lol) and the mood swings. Unfortunately I can’t afford to up my estrogen levels (and have worked hard to lower them naturally). I do eat fermented soy products (miso, tempeh, etc.) once in a while because I like them and, as far as I know at this point, the jury is still out on them.
Morning rituals are such a lovely way to start the day, aren’t they? Mine is a glass of warm lemon water followed by a cup of green tea. Making the tea is a big part of the process. Measuring out the tea leaves and putting them in the pot. Boiling the water in my new glass electric kettle (I can watch the water boil — and in this case, a watched pot DOES boil). Pouring the water into the teapot and enjoying the steam as it rises (in the winter months especially). And finally, pouring the tea, holding the mug, and giving thanks for the day (and the tea!) while drinking. Schedules permitting, the morning tea ritual is my quiet time of the day. Sometimes I stand out on the balcony and watch what is going on around the pond while I sip. I’ve recently started The Artist’s Way “Morning Pages) so I’m incorporating that into my start of the day.
Robin, really nice rituals you use to start your day. You make that cup of tea sound meditative and peaceful. I know a lot of hot tea drinkers. I love iced tea but am more of a coffee drinker in the mornings. I don’t know why I never took to hot tea much. I wonder if it’s an acquired taste.
ybonesy, great post on the soy milk. I’m going to have to try out your new drink one weekend morning. I do like soy milk and am not opposed to drinking it at all. But I’m a HUGE milk fan. I never had the side effects that many people get from drinking milk. I don’t know why. I just love it.
BTW, my favorite kind of milk is Organic Valley’s skim milk. And it looks like that is the brand of soy you drink. I believe their milk is 100% better than a lot of other milks out there. And their half and half is the best. It stays fresh longer, too. Liz and I met some of the Organic Valley people at their booth at the Minnesota Garlic Festival last year. They are the nicest people.
Liz is more apt to keep soy in the fridge. Or goat milk. Or maybe Kiefer, a kind of liquid yogurt. She tends to be more of a healthy eater than me. The menopause symptoms I had were more lack of energy and tiredness. Maybe I was irritable (I’d have to ask my friends). 8)
Hey, do you eat much ice cream? I wondered if you had found a good milk substitute in that area. Coming from a dairy family, Liz is big on ice cream. And growing up, my Mom liked to have a bowl before bed. It’s just always been around our freezer. I’ve been trying to eat healthier and lose some weight. Always looking for new tools to try. Milk can be high cal. Lots of protein.
ybonesy, I totally have the same problem with milk, only on a larger scale. Had to give it up altogether. I really like Almond milk, particularly heated up with cocoa powder and agave nectar, for a “hot chocolate” drink!
I haven’t ever tried soy milk. There’s just something very wrong about plant milk.
A friend told me her mother refused to serve children milk because she believed that God intended people to not drink milk after they finished nursing. Maybe my friend’s mother knew something after all.
Ha, Bob. Your comment reminded me of those weeds called milkweed. I used to pluck them as a kid and wonder whether the insides were like regular milk. Good thing someone told me they were poisonous (I don’t know if they really were, but that was what someone said) else I probably would have tasted them.
loisgirl, your agave-sweetened hot chocolate sounds yummy. I like Almond milk pretty well. I stayed with it for a good month. But it was the positives on the menopause piece that finally tipped me over to soy milk. I’ll try making hot chocolate with soy milk using your ingredients.
QM, I love keifer and used to use it sometimes for my granola back when I had granola. Now I use Greek style yogurt–it’s a staple in my fridge.
I eat some ice cream but not daily or even weekly. I’m more apt to eat fruit bars (popsicles made of fruit), esp the decadent coconut one covered in dark chocolate and almonds. Wish I could recall the brand. I get it at the natural food market (a co-op) so I bet it’s super healthy. Ha!
So, no, I wish I had a recommendation on a good non-dairy ice cream brand. I’ve seen several–rice dream (oh, that reminds me that I tried rice milk, too, and it wasn’t bad) and one made of soy.
I do still like and eat regular cheese, and of course, the yogurt. I think it was the large quantities of milk in my coffee that tipped me over the edge in terms of the bad side effects.
Other than in coffee, I never could just get a big glass of milk out of the fridge and drink it. I think my mom might have had an aversion to milk, as she did to eggs and some of the other foods from the farm. She can’t eat chicken, either. So, that might have had something to do with my not really liking milk until I learned to drink it with coffee.
Robin, lovely lovely ritual. I hear warm (or hot) lemon water is a purifying drink when taken first thing in the morning. Do you use it that way or to get any particular benefit?
I go through phases where I’ll drink tea in the mornings instead of coffee. I’ll drink Earl Gray or English Breakfast Tea, and take them both with a bit more honey than what I described in the soy milk-and-coffee recipe, and with lots of milk (or now, soy milk). Not sure why sometimes tea sounds better than coffee, but it sometimes does. And chai, sometimes too.
Something about that ritual of making coffee (or tea) and then sitting down to slow down, maybe write–that is my hands-down favorite time of the day. So soothing, and it feels like a fresh page, a new start. And that anything is possible.
i like to alternate between soy and almond milk. both are so yummy. i can honestly not imagine myself drinking a glass of milk ever again. it has felt unnatural to me since i was very young.