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This image might be helpful to understand what people are saying.
The only ways you’re going to lessen caffeine jitters is if you either:
A) Increase the ratio of non-espresso liquid to espresso. Milk or water won’t make a difference here.
or
B) Drink it more slowly
I have a homemade matcha latte almost every morning. Matcha, boiling water, almond/cashew milk and a few drops of Monkfruit sweetener. I use a mini milk frother to whisk it all up and it’s very tasty. You could do something similar with coffee very easily, and have full control over the amount of caffeine and calories you’re ingesting.
Wow! My first post here and really impressed by how active the community is.
To answer peoples questions : I have absolutely no idea why i get jitters for americanos vs lattes. Some have said that it could do with the fat from milk balancing off the caffeine. What I can think of is that I grew up on chai so maybe my body is more attuned to having caffeine with milk . Not a scientific analysis but thats what I suspect.
Another important point that many have suggested is to avoid syrups. Fortunately I dont do any syrup lattes if I do I only get half or third sweetness
Try black coffee with heavy whipping cream. It’s pure fat, and the fat binds to caffeine and gives you a nice and slow come up instead of the jitters and crash.
It’s very similar to bulletproof coffee but you don’t have to mess with blending butter (and it tastes better)
If you just want a simple latte, order with a milk alternative that works best for your goals. IE, soy milk for more protein, almondmilk for less calories. Obviously, if you want added flavors, going for sugar-free options is better.
For an americano though, try a half-caf! Or ristretto espresso shots, which is normal espresso pulled faster so it has slightly less caffeine. Hope that helps!
A good order, from Starbucks would be:
A grande Americano Misto, half caf, with a pump of sugar free vanilla (if you’re feeling crazy)
Basically, they would give you half water, half milk, instead of a full cup of milk, and one shot espresso, one shot decaf espresso, to cut out half the caffeine.
This was what my barista friend drank, to avoid drinking lattes all the time. It’s still pretty damn good.
If you ever do go for drip coffee, dark roast has less caffeine than medium roast, or you can get your coffee half decaf, half regular coffee.
There’s endless variations to make your coffee healthy, or healthier, depending what you like.
If the coffee/espresso is too much caffeine, there are also tea lattes. Green Tea/Matcha lattes are popular, but I myself LOVE a good London Fog. Like a latte it’s mostly steamed milk, but instead of espresso it’s made with earl gray tea and little bit of vanilla for taste. The smell reminds me of Fruity Pebbles and the taste is great imo.
Also, worth noting that just because it’s called “decaf” does not mean that there is a total absence of caffeine, just that a lot of it has been removed purposefully through processing. So experimenting with various decaf drinks could be another viable option for a much lighter caffeine kick.
TLDR
Keep in mind that americanos and lattes MAY contain the same amount of caffeine. However, if you want the “healthy” version of a latte–and one that is suited to your caffeine-sensitive body–you could try doing it with darker roasts. Dark roast contains less caffeine than lighter roasts. As for the nilk part, avoid cream or milk and go for UNSWEETENED almond/coconut/cashew/oat milks. I would steer away from rice milk as its usually VERY sweet.
The reason thar you don’t get the jitters with lattes is probably due to the fats contained in the milk. It affects the rate of absorption of the caffeine in your digestive tract. Perhaps go for decaffeinated or reduce the grams of coffee. This or the above mentioned dark roast…
Lattes taste good so maybe just don’t have too many? Or if you like milk substitutes like idk oat milk for example see if it is healthier and try it out maybe (I used the example of oat milk but I’m unsure if it actually is healthier)
If you have an acute reaction to caffeine why do you want to continue drinking coffee? A latte will have the same amount of coffee/caffeine. You could always just have decaf versions. I was going to suggest an alternative milk like oat or almond but I recently found that they have sunflower oil in them, so in all honesty I don’t personally believe any milk is ‘healthy.’
What about fruit/herbal tea? Flavoured still water?
Have you tried different coffee brands? I can’t drink Einstein’s Bagels coffee since it gives me jitters, but most other coffee I’m fine with. You could also try switching to black tea. It still contains caffeine, but a lot less. You can add milk/sugar/syrup whatever to it, the same way you’d make coffee.