Recently a friend called me to say her co-worker really liked my coffee. “She’s decided she can use it for her rehab”. Naturally I wanted to know what she was talking about. She explained how her co-worker loves her coffee drinks…she visits her local cafe twice-a-day. Alas, her money’s getting funny and her change is getting strange so she’s looking to save a few bucks. She figured she could save $60 a month by cutting back to one café visit a day. She chose to eliminate her morning visit and brew her first cup of the day at home, using good, fresh roasted coffee to ease the pain of ‘withdrawal ‘. “So that makes DreamCoast Roast ...well, like methadone, right"? Wow.
Well if you’re trying to kick the café habit, brewing premium fresh roasted coffee at home is a start but don’t stop there! You can create tasty café style coffee drinks at home. Here are a few things you can do:
- First use premium fresh roasted coffee from your local café, specialty grocery stores or online. Check for a roast date on the bag (a good roaster will have one on theirs). Since coffee starts getting stale immediately after roasting try not to purchase any whole beans more than two weeks old and any ground that’s more than a week.
- Brewing at home opens up a world of possibilities! One of the first ‘gourmet’ coffees I tried was from the birthplace of coffee, Ethiopia. It was the Harar and it changed my life (well that may be an overstatement but you get my drift). I expanded my palette's repertoire to include other African coffees like Yirgacheffee and Kenya. If you only like coffees from certain regions try different estates and area's of the region for variety. Variables like altitude, rainfall and farming methods can provide variety while staying with the familiar.
- Substitute sugar with flavored syrups (vanilla, hazelnut, coconut and raspberry are good ones). Or use pure maple syrup, turbinado sugar, or agave sweetener, an all natural sweetener low on the glycemic sugar index. You can find them at the grocery store. You may have to go to a health food store for the agave sweetener.
- Grind up a little whole cinnamon or nutmeg with your coffee beans or add ground spices to coffee before or after brewing for a little extra ‘kick". Someone told me the other day they put habanero peppers in their coffee!
- If you add milk, heat it before adding it to your coffee. Scald it if possible. It just tastes better!
- Are you in love with the froth on your cappuccino or espresso? You can froth at home too! Check out this link. It covers everything you want and need to know about milk frothing. Frothing milk
- Do you usually get pastries with your coffee at the café? Stop by your local bakery at closing time. They often discount items and get something for them versus throwing them out and getting nothing. Warm it up for a few seconds the next morning in the microwave to freshen it up….just like most cafes do!
Darlene
DreamCoast Roast
www.dreamcoastroast.com
