Double Blind

For those of you that love the taste of vanilla, but don’t have your own milk steamer at home, try out this really simple drink.

Get a mug of milk. Add two teaspoons of sugar. Add a quarter teaspoon of vanilla extract and stir it all together so the sugar is dissolved. Put the mug into a microwave and heat it until it’s about 50 degrees C. Stir it. Put it back in the microwave until it’s about 70 degrees. Remove it from the microwave, stir and drink. Yummy, and calming. Goes well with macadamia nut and white chocolate chip cookies.

One observation: If possible, use real vanilla extract. At the supermarket you can buy fake vanilla extract and real vanilla extract. The difference is like night and day, both in flavour and price. What happened in the year 2000 is that a hurricane ripped through Madagascar and destroyed a quarter of the crop. About 70% of the world’s vanilla supply comes from that island so the prices went through the roof. I’d suggest finding a friend with a Costco membership and buying a large bottle than the small bottles that you typically find in the supermarket.

An alternative is to use some hazelnut syrup instead of vanilla. That tastes pretty good as well.