I wake up excited for my caffeine every morning. After years of trying every milk and creamer option I could find, my top two favorites for making caffeine creamy are this homemade cashew recipe and — if I’m doing dairy that week — Strauss organic heavy cream. Those are my two. Everything else in the alt-milk aisle comes wrapped in plastic, full of gums and fillers, and ends up tasting like watery cardboard in a beautiful coffee.
This recipe solves the plastic-cardboard problem from both ends. You make the cashew milk yourself, from raw cashews and water, and it goes straight into your cup. No carton, no plastic-lined jug, no thickeners. Of all the alternative milks I’ve tasted, cashew is the creamiest and the gentlest on the gut.
You can make it as a yerba mate latte (my favorite), a coffee latte, a chai, or a non-caffeinated tulsi rose or rooibos chai. The method scales beautifully for one cup at a time or a whole batch for the week.
Why cashew is the best alt-milk for a latte
A few reasons I keep coming back to this over every other plant milk:
- No plastic, no fillers, no funk. Store-bought alt-milks live in plastic-lined cartons and almost always contain gums (xanthan, gellan, carrageenan), oils, and stabilizers. Homemade cashew milk is two ingredients: cashews and water.
- Genuinely creamy. Cashews have one of the highest fat contents of any nut, which means the milk emulsifies into a real latte texture — not the thin, separating versions you get from almond or rice.
- Gut-friendly. Cashews don’t carry the bloating triggers that pea, soy, or some oat milks can. For most bodies, this is the easiest plant milk to digest.
- Cost-effective. A pound of raw cashews makes a lot of cashew milk for a lot less than buying it in cartons.
Raw cashews matter
The single biggest quality factor is the cashews themselves. A few things to know:
- Use raw, never roasted. Roasted cashews will make the drink taste rancid and the oils oxidize into a real funk. The whole recipe depends on the cashews being raw.
- Buy organic, and look closely at the nut. Fresh raw cashews are white and pale, plump, and uniform, and they feel firm — crunchy and hard, never soft. Cashews that look yellow-tinged, brittle, or broken, or that feel soft or smell musty, are old or starting to turn — and they’ll throw the whole drink off. Buy from a source with good turnover; a clean organic option is whole raw organic cashews.
- Store cold. Keep raw cashews in the fridge or freezer once opened — they go off faster than most nuts because of the high fat content.
If you don’t want to deal with raw cashews and soaking, raw cashew butter works beautifully as a shortcut for the single-serving method — same flavor, no blender prep, no soak required. The brand I use, plus the rest of my latte fixings (mate, coffee, dates, honey), are on my Amazon list here.
Two ways to make it
I make this both ways depending on the morning. Single-serving when it’s just me wanting one cup; batch when my partner and I are both drinking lattes through the week.
1. Single-serving — one cup at a time
This is the method from the original post and the one I make most days. Brew a strong cup of yerba mate (or coffee, or tea), pour it hot into the blender with a tablespoon of raw cashews and a touch of sweetener, blend for 30–60 seconds, and pour. The whole thing takes about 5 minutes start to finish.
If you have a Vitamix or equivalent strong blender, use whole raw cashews. If you have a NutriBullet or simpler blender, use raw cashew butter instead — it skips the part where weaker blenders struggle to break down whole nuts.
A note on going fully plastic-free. Most home blenders — the standard Vitamix included — have a plastic container, so the milk does touch plastic for those few seconds of blending. If you want to take plastic out of the process completely, use a blender with a stainless steel container — Vitamix makes a 48-oz stainless steel container that fits their full-size machines (fully stainless blenders exist too), and that’s what I recently switched to. Either way, making the milk yourself already skips the bigger plastic source by far: the plastic-lined cartons, gums, and stabilizers that store-bought milks come in.
For an extra-creamy Vitamix version, add a teaspoon of organic soy lecithin as a fat emulsifier. It’s optional — the cashews emulsify well on their own — but the lecithin makes the result genuinely silky.
2. Batch — a quart of cashew milk for the week
If you want to make a few lattes through the week (or share with a partner), make a batch.
Soak a cup of raw cashews in filtered water for 1–8 hours — overnight on the counter is fine, or in the fridge if your kitchen is warm. Drain and rinse. Blend the soaked cashews with 4 cups of fresh filtered water and a pinch of sea salt on high for 60–90 seconds until completely smooth.
You can strain through a nut milk bag for an ultra-smooth result, but with a strong blender it’s optional. Store in a glass jar in the fridge — it keeps for about 5 days.
To make a latte from batch milk: warm ¾ cup cashew milk on the stovetop until steaming, pour into a mug, and top with ¼ cup of hot brewed yerba mate (or coffee, or tea). Sweeten if you want.
The ratio is personal — taste and tweak
The ratio of caffeinated liquid to cashew is the most important variable and the most individual. I like mine heavy on the caffeine; some friends like it heavy on the cashew. There’s no right answer.
A starting point: 1 cup of brewed liquid to 1 tablespoon of cashews (or 1 small tablespoon of cashew butter). From there, taste and adjust. Too many cashews and the caffeine flavor gets drowned. Too few and it tastes like flavored water. The sweetness adds the high note — a little honey, a date, or a drizzle of maple opens the flavor without making it dessert.
I always ask my friends how heavy they want the caffeine before pouring. Two minutes of asking saves a mug from being dumped.
Other ways to drink it
The same cashew base works across a whole range of caffeinated and non-caffeinated drinks:
- Yerba mate latte — my favorite. Mate is gentler on the nervous system than coffee, has a brighter, more herbal flavor, and pairs beautifully with the cashew creaminess.
- Coffee latte — the classic. Use a strong brew or espresso.
- Tulsi rose tea — non-caffeinated. The rose and tulsi against the creamy cashew is one of my favorite evening drinks.
- Rooibos chai — also non-caffeinated. The chai spices and cashew milk together feel like a hug.
- Black or green chai — caffeinated, beautifully warming with a small extra shake of cinnamon and ginger.
Each one wants a slightly different sweetness level — chai usually wants more, rose tea wants almost none. Taste as you go.
For a slow weekend breakfast, this latte pairs beautifully with my flourless banana cashew butter muffins. The cashew flavor carries between the two.
A note on cinnamon
I’ve been adding a small shake of ceylon cinnamon to almost every version lately. It adds warmth, plays well with the cashew, and brings the small blood-sugar-stabilizing benefit that makes any sweetened drink land more gently. Optional, but worth trying.
Best-overs
- Single-serving: drink fresh. The emulsion separates if it sits.
- Batch cashew milk: 5 days in a sealed glass jar in the fridge. Shake before each use — natural separation is normal.
Recipe
Cashew Milk Mate Latte — Plastic-Free Recipe
Prep: 10 min (active) · Soak: 1–8 hours for batch method · Cook: 0 min · Yield: 1 latte OR ~4 cups cashew milk (about 4 lattes)
Ingredients
Single-serving method:
- 1 cup freshly brewed yerba mate, coffee, or strong tea (brew a bit stronger than usual)
- 1 tablespoon raw cashews (for a Vitamix or strong blender) OR 1 small tablespoon raw cashew butter (for a NutriBullet or simpler blender)
- 1 teaspoon honey, 1 small date, or a drizzle of maple syrup (optional sweetener)
- A small shake of ceylon cinnamon (optional)
- For extra creaminess with the Vitamix method: 1 teaspoon organic soy lecithin
Batch cashew milk (~4 cups, for 4 lattes):
- 1 cup raw cashews, soaked 1–8 hours, then drained
- 4 cups filtered water
- A pinch of sea salt
- Optional: 1 teaspoon vanilla, ½ teaspoon cinnamon, 1–2 pitted dates
Instructions
Single-serving method
- Brew your caffeinated beverage of choice a bit stronger than usual.
- Pour the hot liquid into a blender along with the cashews or cashew butter, optional sweetener, and a small shake of cinnamon.
- If using a Vitamix and you want extra creaminess, add the optional teaspoon of soy lecithin.
- Blend on medium-to-high for 30 seconds to 1 minute, until silky.
- Pour into a cup and enjoy.
Batch cashew milk method
- Soak the raw cashews in filtered water for 1–8 hours (overnight works great).
- Drain and rinse the cashews.
- Add the soaked cashews to a high-speed blender with 4 cups of fresh filtered water, a pinch of sea salt, and any optional add-ins (vanilla, cinnamon, dates).
- Blend on high for 60–90 seconds until completely smooth.
- Strain through a nut milk bag for ultra-smooth, or skip the straining if your blender is strong enough.
- Store in a glass jar in the fridge for up to 5 days. Shake before each use.
- To make a latte: warm ¾ cup cashew milk on the stovetop until steaming, pour into a mug, and top with ¼ cup of hot brewed yerba mate, coffee, or tea.
A final note
There’s something quiet and good about making your own latte from raw cashews and clean water. It takes five minutes and it sidesteps an entire aisle of plastic-wrapped almost-milk. The taste is honest, the texture is creamy, and the whole ritual feels more like a small act of care than a transaction.
Pour it into a cup and enjoy with someone you love. Yourself counts too.
Until next time, have a beautiful day.
— Chandra Zas
