The eighth drink of my thirty day book as a beverage series is a hot drink for the first time in a while. This week’s drink is an oat ube latte with black sesame milk. The colors were drawn from my paperback edition of The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson.
There weren’t many colors on the cover, but I feel I’d made the ones that appeared match fairly closely.
This beverage’s name is:
‘the scholar’s starch’
Name Explained: Didn’t delve too deep into the novel to come up with this one. Pulled scholar straight from the title and since the drink is primarily made up of ube which is purple yam and a starchy vegetable, that’s how it came about. Very on the nose, haha.
Ube Base: This is my second drink to utilize ube. I wanted to have some variety in the forms of ube used. My past drink, which was the purple portrait iced coffee involved condensed ube, so to switch it up I used an ube jam and an ube freeze dried powder. The reason for two forms was flavor and color. The ube jam (aka ube halaya) provided a lot of the sweetness in the drink, but it wasn’t as purple as the book’s cover needed. So, a freeze fried version of ube (aka purple potato) added the much deeded color to the drink. I used a vanilla oat milk to a) add some more sweetness, and b) keep the drink as dark as possible. I figured a whole milk would lighten everything up. The result was a semi-sweet and vibrant purple ube drink base for the latte.
Black Sesame Milk: This is the first drink of mine to use black sesame, and it was super flavorful and easy to make. The resulting paste turned grey when added to the whole milk and resulted in the silvery shade needed to match the cover’s text and embellishments.
RATING: Overall I’d give the final drink a 4.65.
Flavor Combination: The only reason I didn’t give the flavor combination a full five despite ube and black sesame pairing so well together is because I feel that the ube flavor when added to the oat milk and black sesame tasted a lot more subtle than when it is used alone. It could be due to the kinds of ube I used as opposed to an extract or condensed version, or it could be that the ratios in this recipe weren’t finely tuned enough. So as a result, even though it was quite delicious, the ube ended up tasting more sweet than its unique flavor most are familiar with – whereas the black sesame’s flavor profile did not change.
Ease: This drink was very simple when you factor in the fact that there’s only two major components. What made me slide it up the complexity scale is the fact that I made the black sesame paste from scratch. Has I used a premade one, the rating would have went down two starts in its difficulty. Making the paste involved toasting and a lot of time spent with the food processor to get it to the desired consistency.
Appearance: I think the final drink was a 1:1 match for the colors on the book. I was afraid that wouldn’t show up on the camera, but it did. The purple was an exact match and the bit of silver didn’t brighten or affect its hue which was a potential concern of mine.
Ways to Improve: The drink was quite enjoyable and the only change I’d made going forward would be to switch around the type of ube used so that the flavor of the ube is more pronounced, but even without making that change the drink itself is a satisfying – and not too sweet – ube sesame latte that is cosy and fun to look at and enjoy.
Here’s the spreadsheet for all of the tools and ingredients used:
I’ve also provided the information below for added ease~
Glass Mugs (exact): https://amzn.to/48P01k1
Glass Mugs (alternative): https://amzn.to/3MFKxGy
Purple Yam Jam (exact): Ube Halaya/Purple Yam Jam by Dragonfly
Purple Yam Jam (alternative): https://amzn.to/3LdlrhF
Ube Jam (alternative): https://amzn.to/4b2c5zR
Vanilla Oat Milk/Beverage (exact): https://www.traderjoes.com/home/products/pdp/non-dairy-oat-beverage-unsweetened-vanilla-075054
Vanilla Oat Milk (alternative): https://amzn.to/4p9ljhf
Vanilla Oat Milk (alternative): https://amzn.to/3YE47pb
Purple Sweet Potato Powder (exact): https://amzn.to/3Y6iZMU
Whole Milk (exact): https://tgleedairy.com/products/whole-milk-plastic-quart/
Raw Black Sesame Seeds (exact): Black Sesame Seeds – assi
Raw Black Sesame Seeds (alternative): https://amzn.to/4arWucB
Roasted Black Sesame Seeds (alternative): https://amzn.to/4qk5sxa
Agave (exact): https://amzn.to/3KzWfkO
Frother (exact): https://amzn.to/3KS1c8J
Food Processor (exact): https://amzn.to/3LfTp4W
A video showing the process should be up soon~
Thanks for reading, have a great weekend!
~ C.C.
aureate & aromatic 
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