Now coffee is one of those things that everyone has an opinion on. You either love it or hate it, with cream or without cream, sugar or sweetener, blah, blah, blah. In fact, I was recently in Seattle which is supposed to be coffee Mecca and I was not anymore impressed with the coffee there than the pot that comes out of my Bunn coffee maker each morning. Ironically the pot I make in my kitchen often is brewed faster than the one by the Barista in the snotty coffee bar.
Here is the trick to how I make my morning cup-of-joe even better:
Add one Cinnamon stick.*
Yes, a stick of Cinnamon. Cinnamon is actually the bark of a tree. Did you know that? The bark is shaved off and as it dries it curls up into what the industry calls quills, we know so well in America as sticks. I take one of these nice sticks and drop it into the empty carafe. As the coffee brews and fills up the carafe, the Cinnamon is slowly leached out into the freshly brewed coffee. I can recycle one quill for two separate pots of coffee. I haven't tried for a third, but I just may. After it is spent, I make sure to add it to my compost pile.
You would think this would create a very strongly Cinnamon flavored coffee, but it is quite the contrary. The Cinnamon makes the coffee smell even more amazing, as if that is even possible, and ads a subtle Cinnamon flavor. This is not a hot Cinnamon flavor, but a gentle touch that is difficult to describe, but amazing none-the-less. Sometimes coffee is really hard on my stomach, but I have found the coffee with Cinnamon doesn't seem to have the same harsh effect. Oh, and if you are like me and live alone so that a pot of coffee often doesn't get finished, I have discovered that the coffee doesn't turn bitter from being on the warmer longer. I have even heated up a cold pot on the stove with great success!
So I share this tip with you, dear reader, because I think you will find this simple tweak to your morning cup-of-joe to be as pleasurable as I. Bottoms up!
*As a reader pointed out, not all "Cinnamon Sticks" are real Cinnamon sticks. I buy mine in bulk on Amazon, but you can also get them from McCormick spices and store label brands too in the spice isle of your local market.
