SPICES IN COFFEE

SPICES IN COFFEE: a taste experience

For Italians, coffee is a sacred ritual.

Drinking coffee remains a sensory experience that involves not only smell and taste but also feeling, emotion, memory and pleasure.

Espresso made with the espresso machine by the barista is Italian coffee by definition, but it has never supplanted the charm of coffee that gurgles in the Moka Pot.

For every Italian who loves coffee, Moka is a national monument.

Have we ever experimented and diversified the way we consume the Moka coffee?
Have we ever considered the possibility of flavoring it with spices (a habit that is very widespread abroad)?

Sometimes aromatizing coffee offers a new taste experience which brings real benefits to our body and is a pleasant solution to reduce or eliminate sugar in the case of low-calorie diets.

So…

how do you flavor coffee for an original coffee break?

In order to get a specially tailored coffee, our general advice is to simply start with SpecialCoffee ground coffee for Moka and add your favorite spice from the cupboard.

Perhaps the leftovers from Christmas, the ones we used to decorate the house, set the party table, cook something special or prepare mulled wine.

In general, to aromatize coffee naturally we can:

• leave the spices in the jar of ground coffee so the aromas are absorbed by the coffee which by its nature absorbs the volatile substances and therefore the intense aroma of the spices.
• add the spices directly into the filter of the Moka Pot together with the ground coffee. In addition to being simpler and faster, it allows us to experiment and choose a different spice each time.

Some of the possible pairings between coffee and spices:

star anise, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cardamom and vanilla.

The star anise coffee recalls the taste of the coffee “corretto” with the sambuca for a family taste.
It is prepared by adding a little powder of this spice (2 stars for a Moka for 3) to your traditional blend and then making coffee according to habit.

Coffee with cloves brings us closer to the habits of other cultures, especially when combined with other spices:
– cardamom and cinnamon remind us of the Middle Eastern flavor of traditional Arabic coffee
– orange peel and cinnamon, remind us of mulled wine
– cocoa and cinnamon take us to Brazil

But we also like the simplest version, adding a little clove powder to the ground coffee (10 cloves for a Moka for 3) and then proceed as usual to prepare coffee with the Moka Pot.

Cinnamon coffee, especially when combined with orange, takes us to Morocco.
Or to the bar counter, where it is often used in powder to flavor espresso and cappuccino.
At home it’s enough just adding the ground cinnamon to the coffee directly in the Moka filter (half teaspoon for a Moka for 3) and then prepare the coffee as usual.

These are just some of the possible combinations between spices and coffee.

To find your perfect pairing, let yourself be guided by the aroma of the coffee that gurgles in the Moka Pot.