Spice Mix Round 2

This time around I measured the spices to make a recipe. It is really good, but the cinnamon didn't quite come through except in the aroma. I will amend the recipe to include 1/2 teaspoon more cinnamon to balance it out, maybe a 1/4 teaspoon more coriander too. 

This drink is warm, complex, nuanced, light and heavy all at the same time. First, the warm smell of cinnamon and cardamom hits your nose. Then, you taste complicated, hard to work out, but quite good coffee with citrus notes from the coriander. The cardamom cascades over your palate leaving you with an aftertaste  that constantly changes in your mouth for minutes. 

I love this spice mix with Sidamo because all the flavours work so well with the natural blueberry flavour. It is an entirely different beast than Steampunk. 

Chai inspired spice mix

After yesterday's chai disappointment left a quite literal bitter taste in my mouth, I refused to give up on what I thought chai should have been able to do to the coffee. So, I created my own spice mix to mimic the good qualities of chai and remove those elements we already know don't work.

The result was a mix of cardamom, coriander, and cinnamon. I'm hoping for the crisp, almost spicy bits of the cardamom; fresh, lemony notes of coriander; and warm complexity from the cinnamon. Just a little goes a long way with spices this assertive.

It worked like a charm. The first sip was clean and fresh, then "something weird" happened as Brian put it, and finished with citrus. Wonderful! The complexity was there. Citrus built throughout the shot and lingered a good five minutes in the aftertaste. I'd describe the "weird" bit as a swirl of complexity. All the flavours mixed in new and interesting ways on your tongue that takes a little while to sort out.

This is a shot you will enjoy for a while. It changes in your mouth like a good wine. An intense wine aged in a nutty espresso grave. The spices didn't take any of the nutty qualities of the espresso away, just added multiple levels to it. I really loved the way the three spices interacted with the coffee and each other. It reminds me of turbulent fluid motion, a pipe of some sort with a liquid swirling and rushing through it, spinning around in a flurry of activity. Top five, easily.

Cinnamon stick

Everyone knows what cinnamon smells like. I used to enjoy it most often on toast with sugar and margarine as a kid. Naturally, I was very curious to find out how it would taste infused into espresso. I used a stick Brian generously gave me, grating about a centimetre of it into a small jar for our afternoon experiment. 

Adding the usual amount didn't do much for the flavour but gave it a comforting scent. Similar to vanilla, it didn't hurt the coffee, but it didn't help it much either. Except in the aftertaste where it loitered warmly in seemingly natural harmony with the nutty brew. 

A generous pinch to the espresso grind, however, added not only a stronger and more nuanced cinnamon aroma, but also a pronounced, almost spicy, flavour on the front-middle of the palate. It was really nice! It warmed me to the core. The flavours blended really well, emphasizing the nutty qualities of the espresso, I thought. 

The addition of milk didn't do anything for me. The flavours were merely diluted. A nice drink, but not what we are looking for. Cinnamon definitely is on the A-list and we'll be experimenting with it again.