Add Flavor to Your Coffee

Coffee is strong, full-bodied and tastes great in itself. Throughout the years, people have discovered more and more ways on how to enjoy coffee. Whether it is instant coffee, or even having a coffee dessert or coffee flavored ice cream, the taste of coffee is truly great in any form. You can buy flavored coffee from your local grocery store but you can also make it at home as well. It will be a lot cheaper, plus you get to have that exact flavor that you want.

When storing your beans, add the spices and remove them after 12 or 24 hours, depending on how strong or how light you want the flavor to be. Store the beans and the spice together in a tightly closed container. After a few hours, take off the spice and then when you grind the beans, you will be able to smell that the flavors have been infused into the beans.

You can also add the spice while grinding, although this can be a little trickier than the first procedure. Add the spices while you are grinding but be careful not to add too much or too little. When they are already powdery, both the beans and the spices, it will be hard to determine whether your spice is too strong or too mild. Be careful with your coffee and spice proportion. In fact, you may want to try a test cup of coffee before you make a whole batch.

You can also prepare flavored coffee just like at Starbucks. Make your cold coffee and add any spice to your liking. Whether cinnamon, hazelnut, irish cream or whipped cream, you can add one or combine the spices for a more complex and unique coffee experience. For a little kick, you can also make spiked coffee. For parties, you can add Kahlua to your coffee and give your coffee a little twist.

Once you master personally homemade flavored coffee, you can easily give it away as gifts or as favors such as coffee wedding favors. You may also sell them if you feel the demand is increasing from the people who know your product. Coffee can truly be enjoyed in many ways. Whether as a personal drink, as a gift, or as a business, coffee can truly affect not just your daily caffeine and alertness needs, but also your mood.

The Effects of Coffee on Your Health

Coffee has indeed never lost its popularity and is still one of the world’s favorite drinks. There is even now what we call instant coffee so you can enjoy coffee anytime and anywhere without the need to grind the coffee beans and brew them. Canned cold coffee is readily available and whether coffee beans, coffee mugs, or any coffee-related item, these are now popularly being given as gifts or as favors such as coffee wedding favors. You can often hear people say that coffee is their daily morning fix, however, there are dangers when you drink too much coffee all the time.

While coffee seems to induce energy and make you feel mentally and physically alert, it is not really an energy boost from the body. Rather it is just a trick that the chemicals do. The chemicals produced through the caffeine intake causes stimulation only of the body. When the body feels this, it signals the body and brain to a stress response mode. As you may know, people take coffee to wake themselves up in the morning. But because this is a stress response, the body and brain acts as if it is responding to a fight or flight situation making the heart beat faster and triggering the alertness of the brain. When the body is continuously exposed to too much of this during the day, eventually fatigue and mood swings might set in.

Caffeine also interrupts a person’s sleeping pattern. Because of the caffeine that makes the heart and body race, the body will be restless and may have difficulty relaxing and preparing itself for sleep. Increasing doses of caffeine and coffee may be required eventually by those who abuse coffee intake. Just like any other prohibited or illegal drugs, a cup of coffee or a shot of espresso may not give the person the same effect over time. Consequently, more and more coffee and caffeine doses may be required.

Also, just like any other case of addiction, stopping or lessening intake of caffeine may make the person experience headache or nausea. These withdrawal symptoms may be experienced for the first few weeks during withdrawal.

Just like anything in life, moderation and control is key to everything. Caffeine, as well as sugar, syrups or other additives in coffee will indeed be harmful is you consume them too much or too often.

Instant Coffee vs Regular Coffee – Which is better?

Coffee comes in many flavors, variants, and types. While coffee used to be enjoyed only through the long process of ripening, grinding and brewing, people now can enjoy coffee in its instant form or in a regular form. Depending on your preference, you can enjoy the cup of coffee that best suits you.

The most basic difference between these two can be seen in three major aspects – the preparation method, the taste, and the price. While there are other aspects such as aroma and caffeine content where they also differ, these three are the primary indicators of the difference between instant coffee and regular coffee.

From the name itself, instant coffee is far easier to prepare. The one and only step is that you have to add hot water, and instantly you get to enjoy a cup of coffee. Regular coffee takes the same preparation as you would for gourmet or premium coffee except that the coffee beans have been ground already, so you can skip the grinding part of the process. Regular coffee is also available in grocery stores. If it is the convenience that you’re after, instant coffee would be your best choice.

For more the taste, regular coffee is prepared through a coffee maker. The beans have to be grounded so that the coffee retains its strong and full-bodied flavor. With instant coffee, the beans have been processed so that it will just need hot water to be prepared. Thus, the coffee beans have lost their flavor. Also, the beans used in instant coffee are blends of beans. Due to mixing with lower quality coffee beans, the premium taste of Arabica coffee beans are diminished.

As with any other beverage, the better it tastes, the higher the price. Instant coffee is inexpensive and regular coffees are pricier. Add to that the cost of coffee filters, time for preparation and the life of your coffee maker as well. For instant coffee, you simply need a cup, cutting down the price to more than half because of the ease in preparation.

As gifts, while regular coffee and coffee may be preferred as it has more taste, you can also give small packets of instant coffee. Whether as a birthday gift, as birthday favors or coffee wedding favors, the receiver will definitely appreciate receiving them. You can also give coffee-related gifts or favors such as mugs, coasters or paper filters.

How to Make a Caramel Frappuccino at Home

Special-order java beverages have turned from an occasional treat to daily necessity for lots of Americans. Perhaps one of the most popular beverages in coffee houses all over the country is the Caramel Frappuccino. However, a middle-sized Frappuccino can cost $4 to $5! At those prices, your java addiction can put you in the poor house! To protect you from both tasteless java and a severely reduced savings account, read on for quick and easy directions for preparing your very own Caramel Frappuccino.

Items required:
1/2 cup of strong just-brewed java
1/2 cup of milk
3 tbsp of sugar
2 cups of cubed or crushed ice
3 tbsp of caramel syrup
Whipped topping

Make your coffee in your regular manner. But, prepare the brew at least a third stronger than you generally enjoy it. Café Frappuccinos are created with espresso, and pouring it on ice will thin the coffee.

Then, pour the brew into a blender. Mix in the milk, the sugar, cubed or crushed ice, and the caramel. The caramel syrup you enjoy as a topping for your ice cream sundaes will do the trick wonderfully. Next, blend all of these things until you get a similar texture as a malt.

Drain the blend into a glass and enhance with whipped cream. Voila! You have created your personal gourmet Caramel Frappuccino!

The most obvious of the benefits of making your Caramel Frappuccinos at home, aside from the money you will save, is that it allows you to manipulate the ingredients to your preferred taste. If you enjoy a stronger coffee flavor, make the brew stronger. You won’t want to merely add more weak coffee in the mix, because that will just further dilute your drink. You may want to use less of the sugar or use skim milk as opposed to the full fat milk the majority of coffee shops use.

Another thought is to make your coffee beverages in advance. If you will not have moments to make your Frappuccino in the early hours before you leave for work, you can start the coffee the night before. Just stir the mixture but leave out the ice, then leave it in the fridge till morning. Before you leave for work, pour the blend over fresh ice. The consistency might be a bit thinner, but the deliciousness should be the same!

Keep brewing your special Caramel Frappuccinos yourself, and you won’t ever need to stop at another coffee shop for your addiction!


Criss White is a freelance writer for wedding, baby, and various topics. For coffee wedding favors or more articles, visit Bridal and Wedding Favors.