Every holiday season, coffee shops promote their seasonal specialty drinks that go far beyond simple black coffee. However, as we covered previously in this post about specialty drinks, these drinks contain high calorie syrup and sugary flavored add-ins. Nonetheless, we can still enjoy coffee with beloved holiday flavors by making alternatives at home. These home-made drinks are not only healthier, but also lower in cost. Follow these steps to make spiced coffee from the comfort of our home:
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- Choose your spice: Search your spice cabinet to find ground spices that pair well with coffee. Some of these flavors include allspice, cardamom, cinnamon, cocoa powder, ginger, nutmeg, and pumpkin pie spice. Try one or a combination of two spices, such as cinnamon with ginger.
- Mix spices with coffee grounds: Add the ground spices to the coffee grounds and loosely mix with a spoon. Typically, you can add 1-2 teaspoons of ground spices in every ¼ cup of ground coffee, depending on how strong you want the flavors to be.
- Brew coffee as usual: This method can be used with a variety of brewing methods, such as drip coffee maker, french press, and pour-over. Simply adjust the amount of spices depending on how much coffee you are making.
- If you are in a pinch, you can also sprinkle a little bit of spices into brewed coffee, but make sure to stir well, because spices tend to clump together when added to brewed coffee directly.
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- Optional: add milk and sugar in moderation to avoid high calories in a typical specialty drink.
It may take a few tries and adjustments to find your favorite flavor combination, but now you get to enjoy a healthier alternative to store-bought specialty drinks and sip on those fragrant flavors all year round! Share your favorite spice combinations with us in the comments below!
