Upgrade Your Healthy Habits: Homemade Iced Coffee Mocha

My husband loves this store bought iced mocha coffee. I find the empty bottles in the recycle bin. He loves the sweetness and the caffeine. It would be fair to say it’s not my favourite!

However. Here’s the thing. On one hand, cravings for sweets and caffeine is normal, and usually not about the food itself. For now, let’s chalk that up to a topic for another time – deconstructing cravings.

Instead, let’s talk about changing habits. Traditional nutritional advice would go something like this: stop buying the iced coffee, replace it with water. But the problem becomes we have not actually addressed the need for the nutritionally undesirable food at all. We have simply restricted it.

Why is restriction a problem?

Why is this a problem? First of all, if you crave a particular food, there’s a reason. And it’s worth taking the time to work that out (again, more on deconstructing cravings later).

Secondly, using restrictive practices to make changes, particularly regarding food, is not usually successful in the long run. When utilizing restriction we are relying on willpower as the sole practice to implement change. As soon as we have a bad day, we are tried and not feeling the strength to maintain that willpower, we cave.

What happens when we have a restrictive all-or-nothing approach to change, and we cave? We tend to respond to it like failure. The word ‘can’t’ starts making an appearance. The voice inside our head gets louder and we start to believe that it’s all really too hard. And we decide to go back to the original habit, and try something different.

So often, this is why using restriction as a form of dietary change is doomed to fail.

What works instead – Microsteps

What’s the alternative? Instead of aiming for large scale changes (completely restricting something) why no consider a better option? It’s taking a microstep approach to dietary change. Is there a healthier option you can embrace instead? Something that still fills that need, but is not toxic to your health?

For long term sustainable success in making a dietary change, it’s worth the time and effort to work out why is causing the craving in the first place. This is called deconstructing the cravings. But in the meantime – microsteps. What small step can you make and sustain that is healthier? That will move you towards you larger health goals? Something small you can start with, and build upon as you go?

According to James Clear, author of Atomic Habits:

Getting started is more important then succeeding.

Iced Coffee Mocha as a Microstep towards a healthier habit

Okay, let’s get back to the dodgy coffee. Instead of purchasing this bottle (which contains 56% of the daily intake of sugar alone!), what can we have instead?

I found this recipe on my friend’s blog, Itchin’ Kitchen. I made a few modifications and you can check it out below. The original can be found here .

As a side note, if you have food allergies in your life or in your home, and ever struggle with finding suitable recipes and food suggestions, check out Itchin’ Kitchen. Jess is a Nutritionist and mum of four children with a variety of food allergies. And her food is amazing!

Homemade Iced Mocha Coffee Recipe

This is a syrup blend that can be made and stored in the fridge. The entire process took me about 12 minutes – that’s less than the amount of time it would take to go to the shops and purchase one. So in addition to being healthier, this recipe is both time and cost effective.

That’s my kind of habit!

If reducing sugar consumption is a goal, tackle it like as a microstep

The amount of sugar/sweetener in this recipe is a question of taste. Dairy milk is quite sweet due to the lactose, and might not need much sugar. If you plan to use sweet milks such as coconut, or sweetened almond or soy milk, you should significantly reduce or remove the sugar from this recipe.

A key point to remember – if you are trying to transition from a sweet coffee, or this Dare Iced Coffee Mocha, I recommend following the recipe below and the suggested sweetener amount. The first microstep is this – by following the recipe below, you have already made a healthier change. And saved some money.

The next building block microstep is to slowly lessen the sugar content. You can decrease the sweetener with each batch as you get used to the taste IF your goal is to decrease sugar consumption. It’s important to not simply remover the sugar all together, because if you don’t like the taste, chances are you will just go back to the original store bought one.

To make the syrup:

Ingredients:

Instant coffee grinds/powder 1.5 cups
Water 1.5 cups
Natural sweetener (raw sugar, rice malt syrup, honey, coconut sugar – your pick) 1 cup
Raw cacao 2/3 cup
Spiced hot water *see note below 2/3 cups

* Spiced hot water: select your choice of whole spices, I used clove, cardamom, fennel, and chili. You could also use cinnamon, ginger, star aniseed, or any other spice (whole not powdered). Or herbal tea such as peppermint. Place 1 tbsp of spice mixture into ⅔ cup boiling water and let steep for 5 minutes. Strain out spices and add reserved ‘spice water’ to mixture.

** If you would prefer to skip the Spiced Water, just add the additional ⅔ cup water to the mix.

Instructions:

Stir all ingredients on low heat in a saucepan until combined with no clumps.

Remove from heat and place in a glass jar uncovered until cool. Once at room temperature, you can store in the fridge.

To make the Iced Mocha Coffee:
Add 1-2 tbsp of Syrup milk of choice (dairy, almond, coconut, oat, soy, etc).

Service on with ice cubes or on it’s own.

Stir and enjoy!

Tip – make sure it is well combined. I either pop it in the thermomix/blender to give it some extra frothiness, or pour it into a glass jar with a lid and give it a good shake 😉

Using a Thermomix or thermo-food processor:

Make Spiced Water as instructed.

Place all ingredients in the bowl and mix on speed 2, 100 degrees C for 12 minutes.

Have you considered making a change for your health, but not sure where to start? Learn more about Health Coaching, and book your free 50-minute session!