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Adding Different Flavors to Your Favorite Cup of Coffee |
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Written by Damian Papworth
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Friday, 23 October 2009 13:56 |
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Coffee is something of an acquired taste, owing to the bitterness that most coffee drinkers experience when trying the drink for the first time. With some milk or sugar (or both), that bitterness quickly disappears and it is no surprise that coffee is popular all over the world, in some cases ranking in a consumption ratio of 1 to 3 when compared to water. After introducing new flavors to a favorite drink, it isn?t difficult to see why flavored coffees continue to increase in number and popularity.
by DamianPapworth
Coffee is something of an acquired taste, owing to the bitterness that most coffee drinkers experience when trying the drink for the first time. With some milk or sugar (or both), that bitterness quickly disappears and it is no surprise that coffee is popular all over the world, in some cases ranking in a consumption ratio of 1 to 3 when compared to water. After introducing new flavors to a favorite drink, it isn?t difficult to see why flavored coffees continue to increase in number and popularity.
In the past, the number one flavor added to coffee was chocolate, or mocha. With origins in European espresso-based cafes -- most of which serve hot chocolate -- it was not much of a leap for coffee drinkers looking for a slight change to add some chocolate to an espresso drink, creating the ?caf? mocha? now served in coffee houses big and small all across the world. After that, the practice of adding syrup ?shots? to coffee became popular, mimicking the flavor of liqueurs (amaretto, hazelnut etc.) as well as supplying distinct flavors (orange, mint).
Of course, if you are looking for coffee flavors without adding anything after brewing, you can find flavored coffee packaged and ready to go. Hazelnut, mocha and other flavors can be added to the coffee in bean or ground form. Clearly, it?s impossible to grow coffee with a flavor present in the bean, so any type of coffee with flavors has to be altered after the harvest. Despite the use of an artificial flavoring process, the flavors themselves need not be artificial.
Besides the most basic coffee flavors, you can find pistachio, white chocolate, almond, orange and more topping the list at cafes right there with hazelnut or mocha. In fact, if there is a flavor that can conceivably be matched up with coffee, you will find it, maybe even in organic form.
Enjoying a caf? mocha is in many ways enjoying flavored coffee at its most natural and best. There are varieties of pure chocolate, even in powdered or syrup form, that can be mixed with coffee to enhance the natural properties of both.
Intense coffee drinks that have elements like pumpkin and cinnamon may seem more like a winter cider than coffee, yet they have become extremely popular.
Adding a variety of different syrups or creams to a coffee drink will certainly make its nutritional properties vary widely from a typical cup off coffee with a spoon of sugar or ounce of milk. Coffee drinkers who grow accustomed to highly sweetened beverages that the fat and overall caloric content will be significant. Keeping it simple will allow a coffee beverage to retain its most beneficial qualities.
For coffee purists, the further you are pulled from the original intention of the coffee bean, the less likely you will enjoy it. However, for those with a sweet tooth who have never been crazy about the basic bitterness of traditional coffee, coffee flavors will add an element of enjoyment which will keep you heading back to the caf?, caffeinated or not.
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