This Chocolate Mint Latte Tastes Like A Peppermint Pattie — But It's Sugar-Free

While I'll take a peppermint pattie or Andes mint any time of the year, the holiday season, in particular, screams "mint chocolate" to me. The cool, sweet duo is one of my all-time favorite flavor combinations, and it just feels extra crave-able once the weather starts to get frosty.

Over the last few weeks, I've been inspired to retire my mint chocolate smoothie in favor of something a bit warmer and cozier. As a coffee lover, I figured infusing these flavors into my daily brew could be one approach. But I was wary of pumping my coffee full of added sweeteners and artificial flavors—things that leave me feeling anxious and sometimes give me headaches, especially when combined with caffeine.

It turns out, the way beans are grown has a huge impact on their flavor. Many conventional coffee farms employ monocropping; they plant rows upon rows of coffee plants to maximize yield and use chemical herbicides and fertilizers to kill off any predators. Since coffee beans are pretty sensitive1 and susceptible to pests and disease, they are one of the most sprayed crops in the world. Spraying can help minimize crop loss, but it doesn't do the coffee's flavor or health profile any favors.

Coffee that's grown on organic farms that forgo pesticide use in favor of more ecologically friendly methods, like mindbodygreen's new clean coffee+ blend, taste much better and are higher in beneficial compounds like antioxidant polyphenols. These beans—which have also been rigorously tested for contaminants like mold and mycotoxins—form the foundation of my healthy brew.†

I don't have an espresso machine at home, so I've been using drip coffee as the base of this latte (which I know is not the real way to make a latte—coffee police, don't come for me!).

From there, I add in my no-sugar chocolate dupe: mindbodygreen's beauty & gut collagen in chocolate. Inspired by our beauty director Alexandra Engler's genius sugar-free hot chocolate recipe, I add collagen to give the coffee a rich chocolate flavor without the ensuing sugar crash (it's sweetened with 100% pure organic monk fruit extract). The collagen peptides have some benefits for skin health and appearance2, too, and I'll take any help I can get in that department.

"Not only does [beauty & gut collagen in chocolate] contain zero added sugar, but it's filled with additional nutrients, botanicals, and bioactives that your skin will love," Engler notes.