Gourmet Coffee Chatter

Flavored coffee has been around for hundreds of years. It probably started with the addition of spices to coffee to make it more palatable.

Today there is an abundance of natural and artificial flavoring oils to produce a panoply of flavored coffees never imagined before.

But not everyone wants someone else deciding what flavor combinations go into their gourmet coffee or want their gourmet coffee flavored every time. For those who want to control the flavor experience the alternative is flavored coffee syrups.

Coffee syrups give the individual coffee drinker control over the flavor of each cup. You need more Amaretto flavoring this morning, go ahead, it’s your choice. (Flavored Coffees are designed to give a consistent experience from cup to cup.)

For the flavored coffee drinker it’s a world of choices – flavored during the roasting process or flavored to your taste for each cup. Either way you get a great cup of gourmet coffee. Enjoy!

One of the popular niches in the gourmet coffee world is flavored coffee. Coffee is a bitter drink and a small population of hardy few drink it “black.” For some it’s added creamer or sugar, for others it’s flavoring, that takes the edge off and adds to the gourmet coffee experience.

Coffee flavoring is done right after the roasting process when the coffee beans are most porous. Flavor oils are added to the coffee prior to grinding so they can saturate the bean and provide an even flavor experience over all the beans.

Once ground and brewed the flavoring is then spread evenly from cup to cup providing a consistent drinking experience.

While natural flavor oils are available most flavored coffees use artificial flavoring oils as they usually provide a better saturation of the roasted coffee.

Just like coffee blending, this is another way that roast masters practice the art of bringing you great gourmet coffee. The palate of available flavors allow for taste combinations that the coffee alone may not offer.

The purists may never go there, but you can enjoy a world of amazing gourmet flavored coffees.

Drink up and good health.

Living in Spokane, WA for the last four years, I am usually a little behind on the current trends. On one trip back to civilization—aka Seattle—my friends asked me if I wanted to go with them to a new coffee shop. I had never heard of it, and I was told that they had the best bubble tea in Seattle.

Naturally, I had never heard of this exotic drink in Spokane. The tea beverage originated in Taiwan in the 1980’s and there are many variations that use different styles of tea. In America, the most common type is pearl milk tea that has tiny balls of tapioca in it, known as boba balls. This adds an interesting texture twist to the delicious beverage.

Gourmet Tea

I really don’t know when tea got introduced into my life. It just always seemed to be there.

My earliest recollection is of Granny Garside. I would spend summer days baking in the heat of the California central valley only to be called inside to the treat of a glass of iced tea. Most likely it was an orange pekoe tea, sweeted, not with table spoons but cups of sugar. Enough sweetness to bring on instant diabetes. I loved it.

My first encounter with gourmet tea was a tea shop in Solvang, California. No tea bags here, just loose leaf tea you had to measure out yourself.   And hundreds of options! I was still in the black tea camp that day, green would come much later.  It was the start of an interesting journey.

These days I’m more at home with a tea infuser. I find my tastes gravitating to a Russian Caravan blended tea or a good Japan Green Sencha tea. And the sugar, none or very little.

I miss Granny Garside but not the sugar.

After working a Java Juice for several years, Claudia learned how to make some of the best concoctions around. She could just find whatever was lying around the house and whip up a batch of deliciousness that made your taste buds sing and dance. One morning she woke up extra early and went to the grocery store to buy a long list of ingredients for a drink she desperately wanted to try. Bananas, figs, plums, pears, almonds, cherries and cinnamon were the key ingredients of her beverage.

Claudia’s fruit smoothies quickly became a neighborhood favorite. On the weekends she would set up a stand on the corner of Blanchard and Maple Street and sell her smoothies by the glass or pitcher. For hours on end she’d blend away on her mixer as she hummed the theme song from Gilligan’s Island. I’ve never seen her as happy as when she’s blending things to make flavorful creations.

Ah, autumn is here. The exhilarating bite in the air, Friday night football games, cocoa over an evening fire. These espresso coffee recipes should satisfy some of the chocolate cravings of the season. Enjoy.

Black & White Mocha

Yield: 1 – 12 oz. drink

1/2 ounce Ghirardelli Chocolate Sauce
1 ounce Ghirardelli Classic White Chocolate Sauce
2 ounces brewed espresso coffee
8 ounces steamed milk

Combine sauces and espresso in 12 oz. mug. Stir until well combined. Pour steamed milk into mug; stir to combine. Top with froth from steamed milk. Sprinkle with Ghirardelli Cocoa or drizzle with Ghirardelli Chocolate Sauce and/or Classic White Chocolate Sauce. Sprinkle with toasted chopped hazelnuts, if desired.

For Iced Black and White Mocha: Use cold milk in place of steamed milk. Combine all ingredients and pour over one cup of ice into a 16-oz. glass. Garnish with whipped cream and drizzle with Ghirardelli Chocolate Sauce and/or Classic White Chocolate Sauce.
Serving/Yield: 1 – 16 oz.

Yield: 1 – 12 oz. drink

1/2 ounce Ghirardelli Chocolate Sauce
1/2 ounce Ghirardelli Classic White Chocolate Sauce
1/2 ounce raspberry syrup
2 ounces brewed espresso coffee
8 ounces steamed milk

Combine sauces, syrup and espresso in 12-oz. mug. Stir until well combined. Pour steamed milk into mug; stir to combine. Top with froth from steamed milk. Garnish with Ghirardelli Cocoa or drizzle with Ghirardelli Chocolate Sauce.

For Iced Chocolate Raspberry Cappuccino: Use cold milk in place of steamed milk. Combine all ingredients and pour over one cup of ice into a 16-oz. glass. Garnish with whipped cream and drizzle with Ghirardelli Chocolate Sauce, and/or raspberry syrup.
Serving/Yield: 1 – 16 oz.