Mason Jar Lattes: Juniper Rose Latte

Man, it's been a hiatus!

I apologize for the unintended break in posts. It's not for lack of posts, it's me. Man, that sounds like a terrible line, but it's the truth.

I spent most of August reclaiming summer. I took the kids to the pool, went to PT (a lot), and learned to walk again. Well learned to walk properly. Who knew that I didn't know how to walk properly before busting up my knee?

I will say before I get to the goods, and how today's post came about, that everyone needs to visit PT once in their life just so they can be told how bad their posture is and the steps to correct said bad posture. Don't get me wrong - I love PT. I love going and I love my girl, but she takes up 1.5 hours (at least) 3 times a week. It's a time investment, but I've improved by leaps and bounds. My flexion has improved to 132° and the front of my leg has passed the pencil straightening test. The back of the knee is a different story, but we're seeing improvement every day. Suffice to say the knee is functionally straight, it's just not symmetrically straight with my other leg.

So now onto the delicious coffee goods. Back in April, when I visited Dana we stopped by many, many, MANY coffee shops and one of them, forgive me I don't recall which one (Dana is informing me that it was The Well) had the uber-delightful latte. It was a Juniper Rose latte, and it was so very good. Unfortunately, it only came in one size. Small. That stinks. I drank that cup of coffee so fast, that Dana was still eating and only halfway through her own latte.

Fast forward to Dana's visit in August, we had a great many plans to experiment with lattes and various flavors. We failed. I didn't try out crap, but Dana did manage to pull out one Honey Rose latte the day she left because Wegman's (the greatest grocery store ever) carries rose water.

This post isn't about her Honey Rose Latte, but it did lead me to start remembering about the Juniper Rose Latte. Dana is going to be so pleased that I have created a not lazy girl latte. I mean, they are kind of my thing, but this magnificent creation deserves some effort. Not a lot of effort, mind you because let's not go crazy. This is me after all.

So after a quick web search to confirm what my thought process was brewing up (Ha! You see what I did there?) it was time to get cooking. By the way, this is a hot latte. I suppose you could make it up as a cold one, but why would you?

Ingredients

• 2 Tbs Juniper Pods (culinary ones, please don't get some from your garden)
• 1/2 C Sugar
• 1/2 C Water
• 4 or 8 oz Espresso or Strong Coffee
• 1 C Milk
• 1/2 Tsp Rose Water

Directions

• Combine water and sugar in a small saucepan, and over medium heat dissolve sugar. 
• When sugar is fully dissolved, add juniper berries and when the mixture is good and steamy (just as it starts to boil), remove from heat and allow to steep for 15 minutes. 
• Strain Juniper Simple Syrup into an airtight container and refrigerate and use as you please. 
• Follow directions for a regular Mason Jar Latte {HERE}, but omit the sugar. Add two large spoonfuls of Juniper Simple Syrup to the milk before heating, then heat the milk as directed in the original recipe. Add Rose Water to coffee when it's done brewing. 
• Add more simple syrup to the finished product if you want (I added another two small spoonfuls of syrup to my latte) 

Enjoy! 

I pulled a rookie move, and didn't take a picture of my lovely latte. So I'm going to show you the almost finished one because it is so dang good that I couldn't wait to delve into its delightful ever-so-slightly rosy rich deliciousness. This latte helped write this post, as did Dana who was on the phone with me, while I rambled about what I was typing. That's how delightful this latte is. I immediately sat down and wrote a blog post about it. 

Thanks so much for stopping by!