Coffee

 

Ok.  This week's post is simple.  I've been getting together different ways of making coffee and drinks for the past few months, and I thought I'd share them with y'all!  

So for a normal coffee, we use a French Press.  The great part about this is, it tastes great, and you get an amazing flavor compilation.  And, it isn't weak. The only downside is, it only makes enough coffee for two people.  If you make it super strong, then you can take a smaller amount of coffee and add water, you can get enough coffee for 4-5 cups.  Here's the link to the one we bought.  They have cheaper versions, but this one is made in Germany and is great quality!  And, we've had glass ones before, but unfortunately, it broke.  Stainless steel can't break ;) https://www.amazon.com/Mueller-Insulated-Stainless-Filtration-Dishwasher/dp/B07JGBK6XV/ref=sr_1_3_sspa?crid=QOXBQI4QQDTV&keywords=french%2Bpress&qid=1685637304&sprefix=french%2Bp%2Caps%2C243&sr=8-3-spons&smid=AFFU4GJFQTXVK&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUExVUZXTlZMQTBOR1czJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwMjU3MDY4MlBCN1g3T1BIUVBENiZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwMzI1NzU4M0oyS00xVEcxR1pQTSZ3aWRnZXROYW1lPXNwX2F0ZiZhY3Rpb249Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU&th=1

The next one I do is ESPRESSOOOOOOO!!! Espresso is a great way to make any drink, or more often than not I'll drink it plain.  You get a great flavor profile, and depending on the freshness of your beans, you'll get an amazing foam top (naturally)!  And another great thing about this is, you don't have to buy a $3,000 espresso machine to get great espresso.  We got this one for $100 and it was a great investment.  It vibrates a little more than I would like, but it makes great-tasting espresso (after a little experimentation because every espresso machine is different), and it comes with two different sizes of espresso shots and a frother.  The one thing I would suggest investing in with an espresso machine is a tamper.  We did it for a while without a tamper, but it makes it taste so much better and you get a better pull if you have one.  Just make sure you get the right size for your machine.  Here is the link for the espresso machine we bought.  As I said, it's a great investment because you have more range of drinks if you have espresso rather than regular coffee.  https://www.amazon.com/DeLonghi-Espresso-Cappuccino-Stainless-EC260BK/dp/B08C96BG9H/ref=sr_1_7?crid=21XJNLI1WQISV&keywords=espresso%2Bmachine%2Bwith%2Bmilk%2Bfrother&qid=1685637419&sprefix=espresso%2Bmachine%2Caps%2C186&sr=8-7&th=1

Pourover:  Now, we don't have a pour-over machine, but you can make do!  Use a small strainer (stainless steel preferred), take a drip coffee paper filter and put it in the strainer, then add your coffee to the strainer/paper filter.  Put it in a cup (most likely a wide mouth), then add your water.  This basically makes a really strong cup of coffee with good depth.  You can also use this to make iced coffee later on if you don't drink the whole thing;).  The thing with this is, make sure you use good quality coffee, or else it'll just taste like chemicals :)

Boiled Coffee:  This is pretty much self-explanatory.  Add coffee to cold water and put it on the heat until it's near boiling, then take it off the heat and strain it.  If you have a French Press, just pour it in there and press down.  It's super easy!  Now this does make it a tad bitter, but if you add creamer or something it makes a really great coffee!

There are also more options like drip coffee and Keurig, but if you do a price match, the French press can be cheaper and then the pour-over uses things already in the kitchen, so it can be free.  I'm not a huge fan of the drip or the Keurig option, but I do use them from time to time when I'm at different people's houses.  

Here are some recipes you can do with any type of coffee.  They'll taste better with stronger coffee if you have that option:)

Latte:  Just add coffee and milk to ice. You can make different flavors using syrups like vanilla, caramel, etc.

Mocha:  Again, just add coffee and milk to ice and add chocolate.  You will have to toy with the amount of chocolate you use because if you use too much it'll taste like chocolate milk and you won't even taste the coffee XD

Hot latte:  Froth some milk (if you don't have a frother...heat up milk and put it in a French press and go up and down until you have frothed milk), add the frothed milk to your hot coffee and you'll have your hot latte.  Again, add any flavoring you have a craving for.  It'll taste great!  

Vietnamese Coffee:  Add sweet condensed milk to coffee.  You can make this hot or iced.  I like it both ways and it's really good!

Dirty Chai:  I like this better hot, but you can do it cold too!  Just buy some Chai tea concentrate and add equal parts milk and chai tea then add one-two shots of espresso or coffee!  It's really good hot, but you can do it iced as well.  I think there's a greater flavor profile when it's hot:)

If you like Creamer you can make it yourself with just a few ingredients and its cheaper!  
All you need is milk, sweetened condensed milk, and whatever flavor you want.  Add 2:1 milk-creamer and then add your flavoring to mix.  I usually do caramel or vanilla.  It's super easy and a great way to add some flavor to your plain black coffee:)

There are a lot more coffee recipes you can do! Just look it up online, there are way more than I put on here, but those are the most popular that I do!  Thanks for reading!  

Follow Christ, Trust Him, and He will lead the way! ~Charity