Coffee Hack 2011 + Thanksgiving Coffee
In non-coffee news, I’ve pretty much got a PhD now. The push to get it done meant a dearth of PWTIC posts, but now that I’m a doctor, what will I use my newfound brains, skills and talent for? Well, doing more gross stuff with coffee of course.
But first let’s look back to the Coffee Hack we hosted in February. It was a resounding success, with all sorts of adventurous people showing up, many with their own ingredients to try in combination with coffee.
We had all the coffee hardware you could dream of.
Including a beer infuser, which sorta maybe almost worked. It’s at least good in theory; Mill Street’s Coffee Porter is one of my favourite beers.
Labels were important. Participants created coffees that were everything from sweet to spicy to savoury.
Unusual brewing methods were as abundant as unusual ingredients. Co-organizer Laura tried out some delicious flavoured cold brew coffee. Other co-organizer Andrew “Twitch” Berdan handled the Turkish coffee. He also brought some home-made ingredients, like this from-scratch cottage cheese:
It didn’t look appetizing, but the cheese didn’t affect the taste of the coffee much, so I’d say it’s neither recommended nor a disgusting failure.
My main contribution stemmed from the idea that traditional Thanksgiving foods—turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, stuffing, pie—all go well together, and leave you feeling warm and satisfied, but also sleepy. How can we possibly have all the goodness of Thanksgiving without the sleepiness?
Coffee. The answer is coffee.
(The following pictures are courtesy of Jody “3oh6” Bailey; more pics here)
Step 1: Brew coffee with low salt chicken broth in the water.
Step 2: Add gravy powder and instant mashed potato mix.
Step 3: Add cream and sugar. Top with whipped cream. Garnish with more gravy powder.
Step 4: Top with cranberry stuffing biscotti. This was another of Twitch’s creations, and was delicious on its own and dipped in coffee.
The Thanksgiving coffee itself, oh man, I was not expecting it to actually taste good, but it was like a family holiday in my mouth. Just a bit of each ingredient made sure nothing was overpowering (like the downfall of many of my creations, saltiness). I quickly gave thanks to every known deity for leading this liquid comfort into my belly. Thanksgiving coffee is worth trying.
Bottoms up to a successful Coffee Hack. Let’s do this again sometime.
Putting Weird Things in Coffee 
Great ideas! These will make any cup of coffee more interesting.
I found this site moments ago and it’s fascinating.
I’m most interested with experimenting in the brewing process (i.e. like your bacon filter experiment). If I get around to it, this is what i’ll try, but feel free to go with it if you’re inspired:
Gummi Bears + Coffee
The benefit of chopping up the gummi bears and adding them to coffee grounds prior to the brewing is you get to mutilate the sugary bears and then scald them water (add insult to injury), where I imagine they dissolve into the brew. If it tastes any different than adding sugar to coffee, I don’t know. I have no suggestions on cream a replacement here.
Kool Aid + Coffee
Someone has already created a drink with Kool Aid and coffee called The Foxy, but it’s very complex.
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2951436/how_to_make_a_beverage_with_coffee.html?cat=22
If brewing kool aid into coffee is good on its own is a worthy of try.
Rice + Coffee
It’s a tea thing to add brown or white rice (uncooked) to the tea leaves. Rice wouldn’t add much flavor to coffee. There must be an american equivalent to this asian combination. Is it Wonder Bread? Not sure. Maybe your genius can find the solution.
Very interesting post and sounds like your “Coffee Hack” was a lot of fun! Some of the experimentation is definitely very creative and quite sure the resulting brew provided unique sensory experiences. Fun post and great photos, thank you for sharing.
Excellent suggestions, Mark. May have to get my hands on some gummie bears to mutilate.
The “purple coconut grape” coffee mentioned in the post actually had Kool Aid in it. Um, didn’t work out so good. I’ve also done the toasted rice thing, here: https://puttingweirdthingsincoffee.com/2010/06/09/toasted-rice-coffee/
That’s not bad!
Hey! So i thought i’d share this because you have a category of coffee in weird things, and i remembered that i was at an antique shop the other day and found a cookbook that had all kinds of recipes with coffee in it (made in 1965) (i think it was for Maxwell house?), Unfortunately i had to choose between it and a cookbook with rum recipes.
Very impressed by the sheer variety and cannot help but to suggest a variety for you to experiment with. At first thought was seaweed coffee, but alas already completed:
http://www.mybostonworld.com/product.php?id=2
So with seaweed complete, i’d be intrigued to see how some spicy coffee worked out using ingredients such as habanero, garlic, fajita seasoning mix or a variety of indian spices…?
Thanks Andy!
Seaweed is a wonderful idea. I may have to try a variation on that. I’m way ahead of you on the spices though. Check out the curry coffee I made: https://puttingweirdthingsincoffee.com/2010/02/05/curry-coffee/
It was surprisingly good!
Sounds like Willy Wonka’s 3 course meal gum in a coffee.
I thought I was being smart by thinking of coffee jello, but I’m sure it’s been done a million times before. Of course, making coffee jello with savory meats in it might be interesting.