Sweeten Your Coffee
For many people all across the globe, brewed coffee is the bracing, stimulating beverage of choice for early mornings, late nights, and afternoon pick-me-ups. A large portion of coffee drinkers follow the standard routine of adding a bit of cream and white sugar to their brews. If you like your coffee sweetened, but are tired of using plain white sugar or want to pursue a healthier option, you can sweeten your coffee with some of the alternatives below.
Contents
Steps
Sweeten Your Coffee With Simple Syrup
- Consider a simple syrup for sweetening your coffee. Simple syrup - a mixture of sugar and water - is the favored sweetener at many specialty coffee shops. Because it is liquid, it mixes effortlessly into your coffee, which is especially helpful for iced preparations. Simple syrup is also preferable for sweetening high-quality coffees, as it lends no additional flavor to mask the coffee's own nuanced flavor profile.
- Add equal parts white sugar and water to a saucepan. Heat and stir until the sugar has all dissolved. The resulting mixture is simple syrup, and should be slightly more viscous than water.
- Pour the syrup into a squeeze bottle for easy use and storage. To keep the simple syrup for continued use, pour it into a squeeze bottle or other similar container. It can kept at room temperature almost indefinitely.
- Flavor your syrup if desired. You can flavor simple syrups using vanilla bean, cinnamon, citrus rinds, and other herbs and spices. Add the flavoring agent to the heated syrup, and allow it to steep for several minutes while the mixture cools down.
Sweeten Your Coffee with Natural Sweeteners
- Sweeten your coffee with honey. Honey is a naturally produced product that is very shelf stable. It will also add its own subtle flavor to your coffee. You can experiment with different types of honey to determine which flavor best suits the type of coffee you drink.
- Add agave nectar to your coffee. Agave nectar is a natural sweetener that is absorbed very slowly by your body, unlike white sugar. It can be used in place of sugar in many recipes, but is also well suited for mixing into your coffee. You can purchase agave nectar at health food stores and many grocery stores.
- Add molasses to your coffee for a rich taste. Molasses is a by-product of the sugar refining process, and has a thick, dark appearance. It is absorbed more slowly in the body than sugar. Sweetening your coffee with molasses will provide a rich, earthy flavor without adding as many calories as white sugar.
- Use stevia for a sugar-free option. Stevia is a plant that has a naturally sweet flavor while providing a very low level of carbohydrates. This is a great way to sweeten coffee without adding any calories, and is a more natural alternative to artificial sweeteners like aspartame and Sucralose.
Sweeten Your Coffee Using Synthetic or Prepared Sweeteners
- Purchase flavored sugar syrups for sweetening your coffee. If new or exotic flavors are what you're looking for, then you can purchased flavored syrups. If you frequent coffee shops, you've likely seen arrangements of syrup bottles made by Torino, Da Vinci Gourmet, or Monin. These syrups can be purchased online and used to flavor and sweeten coffee, tea, desserts, and other items.
- Reach for synthetic sweeteners for a calorie-free approach. Of course, the classic calorie-free coffee sweeteners are the ubiquitous pink, blue, and yellow packets. Saccharin, aspartame, and Sucralose, marketed as Sweet'N Low, Equal, and Splenda respectively, dissolve quickly and are available in easily portable packets that make them ideal for travel.
Tips
- If you are interested in flavoring your coffee without adding any calories or sweetness, try adding ground cinnamon, nutmeg, or cardamom to your coffee grounds before brewing.
Things You'll Need
- Sugar
- Water
- Saucepan
- Spoon
- Squeeze bottle
- Honey
- Agave nectar
- Flavored syrups
- Stevia
- Molasses
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