You might be like me. Someone who can’t leave what’s good enough alone. Coffee is one of those things for me. Rarely can I drink it plain black, and rarely plain warm. Want to teach your coffee to jump through hoops? Here are some ideas.
- Salt your coffee. Either as you are grinding it, or the dairy that accompanies it. Salt enhances sweetness and cloys bitter flavors.
- Rethink the sweet. When you take your coffee sweet, consider an alternative to standard white sugar. This can be as simple as using brown sugar, a raw sugar, agave nectar, or honey instead. Or as complex as adding maple syrup, bitter caramel sauce, Nước Màu or fruit jam.
- Give the beans some friends. Next time you grind up coffee beans, consider tossing in one or all of these flavor additions: half a vanilla bean pod, some cocoa nibs, a small sliver of whole nutmeg, orange zest, a cardamom pod, a couple black peppercorns or a nub of cinnamon stick.
- Steep when you heat. Steeping aromatics in either your pre-brew coffee water or your dairy is a way to get a touch of flavor that is different from grinding flavors with the beans. This could be as simple as making your coffee with peppermint tea or lemon water, or warming your milk with sticks of cinnamon and whole cloves. Who says you have to use plain water to brew your coffee?
- Bloom your coffee grounds. As one blooms dry gelatin before use, moisten your coffee grounds to help prep them for brewing. How to: Shake out your freshly ground coffee into a mixing bowl and stir in 1-3 Tbs of water. Let sit for ~5 minutes and then scrape into your brewing apparatus. It is thought that premoistening coffee grounds results in a stronger or more flavored brew. Have you wondered about using brandy or bourbon instead of water for this step yet?
- Take your time. How about a 12 hour brew? Do those words give you caffeine withdrawal? If you add time and subtract the heat, you will have a new coffee experience in your cup. Check out the Smitten’s cold brew procedure and you’ll be looking forward to tomorrow’s coffee.
- Keep it simple. Sometimes you owe it to your taste buds to take a vacation from your habits and resort to the easiest path: straight black coffee. With the amazing amount of coffee bean varieties and roasts we have access too, there is no excuse for calling straight black coffee boring.
25 Comments
If it’s about the “hoops”, it’s not about coffee at all. Coffee is just a flavoring. May as well be a coffee-flavored Torani syrup you dump in your milkshake.
I’ve added a few different spices to the coffee grounds before and always like the results, but I have never thought about trying salt or pepper. I can’t wait to see how that would be. Thanks for the great ideas!
I use stevia and cream. I like the borderline licorice flavor that a pinch of stevia adds.
Salt and extra spice love to your coffee? Seriously brilliant. I myself love turbinado and a splash of vanilla hemp milk for a quickie ‘oh crap I’m out of time and don’t want to stand in line at Starbucks’ cup o’ coffee at home, but now I feel the urge to get up a bit earlier tomorrow morning and play with my brew a bit 
Thanks for the caffeinated inspiration!!
Speaking to premoistening – try taking a small jar – fill 3/4ths with fine ground coffee – top up with any strong hard alcohol. Cap tight.
Use half as much grounds as normal. The alcohol extracts extra caffiene.
This is Romani coffee. It’s countertop stable for months even in the summer.
As a kid we always had two or three quart jars going – one with vodka vs brandy (my mom’s choice), one with a vanilla bean as well, one with orange zest, and sometimes one with a cinnamon stick.
My dad swore the bottom of the jar was the best and would hide a jar occassionally “To give it a chance to develop…”
Did the same thing with black tea leaves.
Oh you are my new favorite person! I make an Americano every morning using my Turkish espresso maker. I’ve done the powdered cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom or ginger in with the grounds as they brew; maple syrup and honey in the coffee; and tossing a cinnamon stick into the tablespoons of extra ground coffee I end up with when my measuring is off. I’ll definitely try the vanilla bean pod and orange peel trick.
As to swag’s comment above – yes, coffee is about coffee, and I love straight espresso, Americano and black coffee, but there is absolutely nothing wrong with mixing it up every now and again!!
Cheers,
*Heather*
Love the coffee inspiration! I do get tired of the same old brew and now I’m gonna mix it up a bit!
It all sounds good to me!
I buy a unique mix at a local specialty store- whole coffee beans mixed with cocoa nibs- and consider it the best thing ever. No matter the brewing method, it has a beautiful mocha flavor without having to add any sugar or “weird stuff”.
[...] First up is Brownie Points’ New Tricks for Your Coffee, certainly one of my favorite posts of the week, maybe ever. She gives us ideas on how to [...]
I cannot tell you the depths I will go to for a good cup of coffee. It’s not pretty.
[...] a better cup of coffee. McAuliflower at Brownie Points gives 7 tricks on how to enhance the flavor of coffee. I don’t drink/make a lot of coffee so my coffee [...]
It’s all about the vanilla sugar for me!
[...] tried salted hot chocolate, which was VERY good, so I’m going to try salted coffee, just to see if I like it. However, the commenter at the very bottom reminded me that I want to [...]
this is just awesome …thank you so very much !!
Oh my! Yummy! Such great ideas! I love them.
nothing to do with coffee, but I just rediscovered anchovies!! Anchovie mashed potatoes, and anchovy scrambled eggs!!
I don’t think this has anything to do with drinking real coffee. Why don’t you just get instant and add stuff to it? Real coffee drinkers drink fresh-roasted, properly ground & brewed coffee black.
In order to reduce the acidity of the coffee, add crumbled eggshells to the coffee grounds before you brew it.
And I’ve had all my coffee for the day. But I wanna try them all right now!
In the past, I’ve mixed vanilla or red pepper flakes/ground cayenne into my grounds. I do like a spicy coffee!
I’ve been enjoying the results of one or two lavender blossom heads into the mocha pot right as I put the pot on the burner.
best if the resulting brew is iced and sweetened.
Wow, thanks for sharing this with us!
excellent post, it’s true how something so regular but still good as a cup of coffee can turn in something extraordinaire with a little twist. thanks for reminding us such thing
hi~!! i’m korean.
i’m barista. um….good-bye!!
I like to sweeten my coffee with a dash of amaretto!
