Coffee Indulgence

One lump or two? Though many a good coffee connoisseur takes their brew strong and black, adding a bit of something sweet is a practice enjoyed by many. What exactly is the difference between white and brown sugar, and what the heck is “turbinado” sugar?

White Sugar
White sugar is the most common sweetener used in tea or coffee. You can get white sugar in regular granulated form, or finer ground as icing sugar or confectioner’s sugar. Powdered sugar isn’t typically used for simple beverage sweetening. White sugar is processed from sugar cane to have the molasses removed, and then it’s filtered, crystalized and dried.

Brown Sugar
Brown sugar is my personal favorite. I love the heavier flavour in my coffee. It’s made by adding the molasses back to regular white sugar, which makes it much moister and more prone to clumping than white sugar. I have heard that a piece of white bread in the container will keep your brown sugar soft.

Raw Sugar
Raw sugar is very similar to brown sugar, except this is sugar that hasn’t been processed into white. So it has its natural molasses content intact. It’s lighter than brown sugar in flavour, but the texture is more coarse (almost like kosher salt).

Turbinado Sugar
Another name for raw sugar, mentioned above. Other names for raw sugar are Muscovado and Demerara sugar. These are not literally identical, but they are the products produced at different stages of sugar processing. The differences between them are slight.

Honey
Of course, honey isn’t a kind of sugar, but it’s a popular sweet touch nonetheless. Produced by bees, it’s a very natural form of sweetener that requires next to no processing before use. Liquid honey will crystalize over time, but whipped honey will remain soft (like butter) indefinately.

Stevia
I thought I’d add this less common sweet selection that is gaining acceptance. It’s actually an herbal product that is far sweeter than sugar. The botanical name is Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni. Stevia sweeteners can be found in many health food stores, or even grown in your own garden. More on Stevia.

Some people choose one form of sugar over another for various health or nutrition reasons. Any added benefit from the extra molasses in either brown or raw sugar is pretty negligible, considering the small amounts added to your drinks.

No Comments »

The mix of chocolate and roasted coffee is great in a drink, and even better in a dessert treat like chocolate covered coffee beans. These are really easy to make, and are a favorite amongst coffee-lovers. Here are a couple of recipes for you to try.Recipe #1

• 1/3 cup roasted coffee beans
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler until liquid and smooth. Drop in a handful of beans, and stir them around. Scoop them out with a spoon, and set them out on waxed paper. Keep them separate. Continue until all the beans are covered.They will harden overnight, or if you are in a hurry, you can freeze them for about half an hour. Once hard, they won’t stick together and can be stored in any air-tight container.

Recipe #2

• 1 cup roasted coffee beans
• 4 oz chocolate pieces
• 3 tbs cocoa powder

Melt the chocolate and cover the beans, using the technique in Recipe #1. Let them harden a little, but not completely. Roll the chocolate beans in the cocoa powder, and then let them finish hardening.I don’t normally recommend flavoured coffees, but they can add a tasty twist to these treats. Try hazelnut or vanilla.

No Comments »

Do you need to make some changes in your coffee drinking routine? how about making a couple of New Year’s resolutions?1. Try Something New
Ok, this one may seem pretty obvious. But we all get into ruts and routines when it comes to our coffee. So this year, try to order something different at the coffee house rather than getting the same thing every morning. If you brew your own, try a new roast, or get a grinder and grind your own beans.

2. Watch Your Caffeine
If you are drinking more than 8 cups of coffee per day, you are probably getting too much caffine. If you find you find that the habit of drinking is too strong, start buying decaf. Your body will thank you.

3. Clean Your Machine
You really should do this more than once a year, but I thought I’d use this moment to remind you. Your coffee maker or espresso machine will work better if you clean them. And while you are at it, scour those stains out of your favourite coffee mug.

4. Get a New Coffee Mug
Speaking of coffee mugs, get yourself a new one this year. Don’t settle for the plain old mugs that came with your dinner plates. Have a whole collection of fun and funky mugs for your coffee.

5. Get Ethical
Why not choose to support some of the smaller coffee companies, those that specialize in ethical coffee. By ethical, I mean any variation of organic, shade-grown, bird-friendly, or fair-trade coffees.

No Comments »

If you are tired of the overly processed sugar you are currently adding to your coffee, or tea, to sweeten it up, you might want to try a more natural alternative: stevia. It’s 300 times more sweet than sugar, and requires very little processing. People are fond of it for its natural state, as well as the fact you can grow it yourself.Stevia extract comes from about 150 different species of herbs, in the genus Stevia. It’s a group of plants related to asters, daisies and sunflowers. The compound that give stevia its sweet taste is found in the leaves and is chemically known as stevioside.

Sounds perfect, doesn’t it? Well, unfortunately there have been many studies on the safety of stevia as a sweetener, and the results are quite mixed. Currently, the FDA does not approve of stevia as a food additive in the USA or Canada, only as a dietary supplement (meaning companies can’t use it as an ingredient in their products).

Well, stevia has been used in Japan for decades in many food products and is almost as popular as regular sugar. I guess it can’t be all that dangerous after all.

Science and politics aside, I thought I would give stevia a try. I purchased a bottle of liquid stevia and was a bit surprised by the cost. A small dropper bottle (60 mL) and it was about $14.00 Canadian. Quite a bit more expensive than plain sugar. Granted, you only need a few drops per cup of coffee. The bottle claimed that only 1-4 drops is necessary in a cup of beverage, but I used around 6.

It was pure sweetness, with no aftertaste or other flavour at all. I do prefer brown sugar for the taste, but the stevia certainly did the trick for sweetening.

You likely won’t find it in your regular grocery store, but most large bulk or natural food stores carry it. There are many sources online as well

No Comments »

Here’s How:

1. In a cocktail shaker, combine the following:
2. 1 scoop flavour powder
3. 1 scoop powdered dairy creamer
4. 1 scoop sugar syrup
5. 3/4 cup tea, cold
6. 1 cup ice
7. Shake everything up until the powders are dissolved and well blended.
8. Pour in a glass over the cooked tapioca pearls.

Tips:

1. You can adjust the amounts to suit your own tastes.
2. Can also be made hot, without the ice.

No Comments »