The Unfortunate Incident with the Coffee Grinder (Pumpkin Spice Latte Hack)

I stumbled across my favorite way to make a dirty chai latte at home by accident. A loud, horrible, crunchy accident.

A month ago, Ben and I took Tommy backpacking for the first time. We had a great overnight and Tommy absolutely loved it. We didn’t want to take our wedding rings into the wilderness just in case we lost them. So I had the brilliant idea to hide them in our coffee grinder. I had done that before and had no issues. This time, Ben got his ring out of there early Monday morning. Two hours later I got up, exhausted, and went to make my coffee. I pulled down the coffee grinder, added coffee beans, and turned it on. The horrible crunching sound made me sick to my stomach. I instantly knew that I had left my wedding rings in the grinder.

I burst into tears and called Ben. The first thing I said to him was, “What’s the stupidest thing I could have done?”

Unfortunately, I didn’t really think my words through from Ben’s point of view. And that when his wife and mother of his son called you pretty much hysterical and says, “What’s the stupidest thing I could have done?” his mind instantly went to much more horrible scenarios. Like I dropped Tommy on his head on the tile or I got into a bad car accident. So in comparison, munching my wedding rings was pretty minor.

I poured the coffee grinds and ring pieces out onto a dish mat and began to look for the diamonds. It turns out it’s difficult to find tiny diamonds in a sea of coffee grinds. I thought that I had found them all, but I wasn’t sure.

So now I had a dilemma. I was still exhausted and wanted coffee, but I was afraid to use the coffee grinder again. We still had some instant coffee from camping, so I figured that’d do the trick.

The result was much better than I expected. It turns out it was the best dirty chai (chai and coffee/espresso) I had ever made. It’s like half the calories of the Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte (even with nonfat milk and no whipped cream), vegan and a fraction of the price.

So yes, I make my Pumpkin Spice Latte with instant coffee. And not the fancy stuff either. Just the cheap Folgers stuff. Trust me, when you add the chai mix and milk you won’t know the difference. Well, unless you have a fine coffee palate, in which case you probably should just stick to real lattes.

And in case you were wondering, the diamonds luckily weren't damaged and the jeweler was able to fix my rings. They look as good as new. Diamond Rings:1 Coffee Grinder: 0.

Pumpkin Spice Latte Hack

(This is for a 16 oz mug)

½ cup milk (any kind)

½ cup pumpkin spice chai latte concentrate

1 cup boiling water

1 packet single serving instant coffee

1. Combine milk and chai mix in a large microwave safe mug. Heat on high for 30 seconds.

2. Stir in boiling water and instant coffee.