jbanana: Badly drawn banana (Default)
2020-11-17 02:59 pm
Entry tags:

Coffee spice 11

Today, cloves, or rather clove (singular). I broke up one as much as I could with my fingers on the assumption that the hot water would get the flavour out.

I like cloves, but my SO complained whenever I cooked with them, so the jar has been there since... I don't now when. I carefully didn't check the date. There's still a nice clove-y smell in the jar (and now I have that on my fingers too).

The coffee smells of cloves as the cup gets near my mouth, but it tastes like, well, coffee. Maybe it needs two, or one ground with a pestle?
jbanana: Badly drawn banana (Default)
2020-11-06 12:12 pm
Entry tags:

Coffee spice 10

We have a big spice jar labelled "Medium Curry Powder". Hmm, might not be so great?

No, actually it works. It's a bit like drinking dal (dhal? daal?) and not much like coffee, but I'm ok with that.

The label says "Coriander, Turmeric, Cumin, Cassia, Chilli, Black Pepper, Fennel, Ginger, Allspice". A third of a teaspoon was probably a bit too much.
jbanana: Badly drawn banana (Default)
2020-10-16 11:41 am
Entry tags:

Coffee spice 9

Since the last coffee spice post, I've had a few retries. Black pepper is a surprising favourite, as is anything with nutmeg.

Today I found sumac. It's giving a spicy fruit flavour to the coffee. I had to add quite a lot. I wasn't familiar with sumac but apparently it's used as a space and in drinks. Makes sense.
jbanana: Badly drawn banana (Default)
2020-09-22 11:18 am
Entry tags:

Coffee spice 8

Today, plain old coffee: pleasant surprise!

I don't usually drink much coffee. I prefer tea. I won't be adding spices to my tea because tea is already delicious.
jbanana: Badly drawn banana (Default)
2020-09-21 06:30 pm
Entry tags:

Coffee spice 7

Black pepper: strange, but enjoyable.

I never thought of black pepper as hot like chillies, but I'm getting a tingle in my mouth. The flavour is working well.
jbanana: Badly drawn banana (Default)
2020-09-21 01:12 pm
Entry tags:

Coffee spice 6

Nutmeg: yum!

I like nutmeg, but I only have whole ones that I have to grate, so I tried the ready-ground spices first because of the tiny amount less effort involved.

Nutmeg has a gruesome history: it came from the Banda islands, where the Dutch slaughtered almost all of the locals to get a monopoly on nutmeg.
jbanana: Badly drawn banana (Default)
2020-09-18 11:03 am
Entry tags:

Coffee spice 5

WTF is fenugeek?

[reads side of jar] Oh, it's used in Persian cooking, in (dishes I can't pronounce). "Use sparingly".

[adds third of a teaspoon, wondering if that's sparing enough] Hmm, tastes like coffee.

[adds another half teaspoon] OK, now I have a pleasantly quirky flavour. The only thing I can relate it to is... celery?
jbanana: Badly drawn banana (Default)
2020-09-11 11:00 am
Entry tags:

Coffee spice 3

Today, turmeric.

Yum! Could have put a bit more in.

Down side: I put in a literal pinch, it's dyed my fingernails yellow, and I look like I've been smoking.
jbanana: Badly drawn banana (Default)
2020-09-10 11:49 am
Entry tags:

Coffee experiment, part 2

Following part 1, today I tried ginger and cumin. I went light on the cumin because I didn't want curried coffee, and I went light on the ginger because I thought it might be overpowering. I had to go back and add more ginger because I couldn't taste it.

End result: not bad, but not great either.

Tentative hypothesis: "cake" spices (cinnamon) seem to work better than "curry" spices (ginger, cumin, paprika), but I need more data.
jbanana: Badly drawn banana (Default)
2020-09-08 01:17 pm
Entry tags:

Spice

I was making a cup of coffee when I noticed some spices left out in the kitchen. "Hmm. That might work..."

So now I have coffee with cinnamon and paprika. It's good. Lots more options to try, too.