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Coffee, Without You I'm Nothing


Anyone who has ever met me knows not to talk to me before my morning coffee. When Kendra and I first started dating this was the first caveat I gave her. No coffee = no words. You can talk at me, but don't expect the words to get absorbed in my brain and most definitely don't expect them to come out of my mouth. The most you will get is a grunt or two until I have had my first cup of life-affirming wake up juice. When my alarm would go off and I would begrudgingly drag myself out of bed in the morning she would giggle and call me a cranky dinosaur. She thought it was cute. Lucky for me.

This week I started a job with a local organization that I feel truly passionate about and for the first time in a very long time, I'm really enjoying my work. I've worn many hats in my life, but civic engagement and community development and outreach are where my heart lies and I feel fortunate to have the opportunity to be able to do something I love for a living. That being said, no matter how much I love the work I'm doing, there would be no leaving my house at 8 am without coffee, nectar of the gods. I have given up every other vice in my life, but caffeine is staying forever.

This past Christmas, Santa brought our home the gift of the Ninja coffee bar, which is potentially the greatest invention of all time. I love pour over and French press coffee as much as the next guy, but let's be real, at 6:30 in the morning ain't nobody got time for that. In this magical machine you can brew one cup, an extra large mug, a travel mug, half a carafe, or a full carafe at a time and it comes with a built in milk frother for espresso beverages. You can also choose between classic brew, rich brew, over ice brew, or espresso and it has a delay brew setting so those of us that need coffee the instant we crawl out of our sleeping vessels. Additionally, it comes with a reusable, washable gold filter, so you will never have to buy paper ones again. I'm not being paid by Ninja to endorse this product in any way shape or form, but if you're listening Mr. Ninja, I will take whatever free items you wish to send my way!

Now, most mornings, I just brew a full pot of Love Buzz and go on my merry way, but for special occasions and on days I'm feeling particularly ambitious, I like to make fancy espresso beverages with different flavor combinations. A few weeks ago I was puttering about the kitchen and decided to try to make my own homemade coffee syrups. The kind you buy at the grocery store are typically wildly expensive and full of refined sugar, so I figured I would give it a crack. Some were more successful than others, but overall I was pleased with the outcome.

The three flavors I tried my hand at were chocolate mint, cinnamon maple brown sugar, and red berry.

RED BERRY SYRUP (FOLLOW DIRECTIONS, DONNA!)

2 cups fresh strawberries or raspberries

(we didn't have any fresh, so I used frozen berries from last summer)

1/3 cup water 1/3 cup sugar

  • Add the berries to a blender with the water. Puree until completely smooth and blended, then strain over a fine mesh sieve into a bowl - so all you have is berry juice.

  • Combine the juice and sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat.

  • Whisk constantly until the sugar dissolves and the mixture is bubbling.

  • Reduce the heat to low and cook for 1 to 2 minutes.

  • ​You really should use fresh berries for this recipe. It did not come out right as a coffee syrup with the frozen berries at all. It was, however, quite good on vanilla ice cream. Now I know for next time.

CINNAMON MAPLE BROWN SUGAR SYRUP (2ND PLACE, KIND OF MEH) 1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup maple syrup 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 1/3 cup water

  • Combine the sugar, cinnamon, maple, and water in a small saucepan over medium heat.

  • Whisk constantly until the sugar dissolves and the mixture is bubbling.

  • Reduce the heat to low and cook for 1 to 2 minutes.

  • ​This recipe was the most syrup-like, but there was something off about the taste to me. I usually just drink my coffee with cream, so maybe it's that, but it wasn't my favorite flavor combination.

CHOCOLATE MINT SYRUP (WINNER WINNER CHICK'N DINNER)

1/2 cup cocoa powder

3/4 cup cold water

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup torn mint leaves or 1 tsp peppermint extract

  • In a medium saucepan combine the cocoa, water, and sugar. Stir in the mint leaves or extract.

  • Bring to a boil. Boil for 3 minutes over medium heat. Remove from heat and stir in the salt.

  • Allow the mixture to cool to room temperature. Strain the syrup through a fine sieve, pressing the mint leaves to extract the liquid.

  • ​This tasted as close to a fancy mocha beverage at your local coffee shop as I imagine you can get. Be careful, though, this syrup only keeps in the fridge for about two weeks before it starts to do weird moldy things.

How do you take your coffee? Is there any particular flavoring you love or a recipe you'd like to share? Please let us know! We'd love to hear your feedback.

Recipe adapted from our friends at Good Cheap Eats!


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