Coffee Rehab

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!

Decent coffee drinks can be made at home without totally sacrificing quality and taste. No it's not exactly like the cafe. Write your name on your cup.  Maybe that will make your experience more authentic.

Darlene
DreamCoast Roast
www.dreamcoastroast.com

Burgers, Diet Drinks and Lattes

Recently, I had lunch with a fellow Weight Watcher friend--not as in the organization but as in quite literally watching our weight.  These days, we mostly watch the weight climb.  At any rate, over a thankless feast of broiled lemon chicken with brown rice, salad and low cal dressing, etc., my calorie-counting buddy begins once again to lament nonstop about her failure to lose more weight. "I am doing EVERYTHING.  No midnight snacks, following the diet plan, eating only the recommended meals, no substituting ingredients, aerobics, yoga and strength training 5 times a week," she droned on. At this point I had tuned her out to focus my attention on the New York Style cheesecake covered in a mountain of cherries in front of the lady at the table next to mine. I fantasized about snatching it and running, wondering if I could make it to the front door.  I decided that the door was too far away to reach before somebody stopped me.  I tuned back in to my weight watching friend’s woes just in time for her to suggest that we get coffee at the cafe down the street.  We paid our check and left.  The cheesecake stayed behind.
We arrived to the café and approached the counter.  ‘The usual?” suggested the cashier.  As my friend nodded, I noticed that the barista (a term I use loosely) has already started the order.  Curious, I asked her what the usual was, which happened to be a large latte with whole milk, a double shot of vanilla syrup, and whole milk foam. "I love their lattes. I come here twice a day.”  Yikes.  "Dude", I say slowly.  "Do you know how many calories are in that latte you just ordered"?   "What? What are you talking about?” she cried, visibly alarmed.  "It's milk and coffee". So I broke it down for her just like this:
Between the foam and the milk in the latte you’ve got about a cup of milk.  That’s 150 calories.  Two tablespoons of vanilla syrup is 80 calories, which accounts for at least one shot.
"So what you're saying is that I'm drinking almost over  500 calories of coffee a day???” she screamed.  "Yep,” I replied.

I’d like to take this opportunity to raise one of my pet peeves: people who go to drive-thru burger joints, order the works and then PROUDLY order a diet coke. Really??? Why mind the calories now? The damage is done.  Just go ahead and get the regular coke.

Fortunately, all is not lost. You can shave calories off your favorite café and preserve the taste by substituting fat free milk and sugar free syrup, which comes in a large variety of flavors.  If you are watching your weight, be mindful of watching your favorite coffee drinks too.  They may be the very thing that sabotages you—even more so than New York Style Cherry Cheesecake.

DreamCoast Roast Custom Roasted Coffee  

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