February 22, 2012

My Perfect Cup of Coffee. Happiness.

There's no question that I love my cup (or two) of coffee in the morning. Have you seen the Folger's commercial where the smell wakes everyone in the house and everyone has a smile on their face? That's me. The smell of coffee makes me extra happy. A morning without my coffee is a morning you don't want to be around me. 

Before I started working from home, I was a Starbucks regular. Now since I'm home every day, I have my coffee brewing down to a science. I've gone from a coffee maker to a french press, which I think provides me with the best brew. You can control how long the water steeps with the coffee grinds and it provides a more robust or "umph" flavor.  While not food, I thought I'd share this staple of my every morning because sometimes coffee is my breakfast =).

1. Start with freshly grind coffee beans. Seriously. Makes a big difference. Take the extra two minutes in the morning to do this step. 
2. Depending on the coffee beans (I typically like a medium to bold flavor), you'll need to adjust the amount of coffee you add. I add three heaping tablespoons of coffee.
3. With hot water from my kettle, I fill to the top and use my trusty, multipurpose chopstick to give it a good stir. 
4. Add the top and let this sit for a few minutes.
5. While the coffee is steeping, I prepare my milk. I am a soy milk fan. I've tried regular milk and almond milk but soy wins the race. I either use unsweetened soy (but need to add a little more sugar) or vanilla soy milk (already sweetened but I only need a teaspoon of sugar). I filled about 1/8 of my big coffee mug with soy milk and heat it up for one minute.
6. With unsweetened soy, I add 2.5 to 3 teaspoons of sugar. I don't like the taste of Splenda or other artificial sweeteners (they taste overly sweet to me) so adjust how much you add base on the type of sugar you prefer. 
7. Give the soy milk and sugar a good stir and then pour in the coffee!
8. With a happy smile and boost to start the day, here's my perfect cup of joe. Isn't it beautiful? What's your perfect cup of coffee?

2 comments:

  1. Love this post! I'm actually drinking my coffee while reading about your coffee :) My weekday coffee is just whatever cup of joe I can get my hands on the quickest. But my weekend coffee is my Vietnamese coffee with Cafe DuMonde and condensed milk. It takes awhile to prep so I save it for those lazy Saturday/Sunday mornings. My fave!

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    1. Nancy - Yum, I love Vietnamese coffee! I've seen but never tried the Cafe DuMonde coffee in the store.... It's now on my shopping list!

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