Cardamom-laced coffee is ridiculously fast and easy to make, but it manages to turn what a standard beverage experience into something really exceptional.
Prep Time: 3-5 minutes
2 shots of espresso
1/3 cup milk
1 packet of brown sugar
Sprinkling of cardamom powder and cinnamon
Directions: Put milk in a saucepan with desired amount of sugar, cardamom powder, and cinnamon. Heat the mixture over a low flame until slightly while stirring so that the milk doesn’t stick to the pan. Pour into coffee, and voilà.
I first started making this about a year ago, after my microwave starting shooting sparks and I temporarily had to heat milk on the stove, the old-fashioned way. (Usually, I pour milk into my espresso and then stick the whole thing in the microwave—it doesn’t have the exact consistency of a latte, but it’s really close.)
One day, as I way waiting for the milk to heat, it occurred to me that I had a packet of cardamom powder sitting in a cabinet, and wouldn’t it be interesting to see what happened if I just dumped some in? I’d heard of cardamom coffee, although I’d never actually tried it; I’m a big cardamom fan, however, and it sounded really intriguing. The result was pretty good, and so I kept adding it that way for a few more days, until the microwave issue got sorted out. Then I went back to pouring in milk and throwing the cup in the microwave, sans cardamom.
Occasionally I’d see packages of Turkish cardamom coffee when I was shopping, and I would think, “Hmmm, maybe I should start making it again.” But it wasn’t until last week, after a mediocre, slightly watery spiced mocha (following closely on a mediocre, watery spiced hot chocolate), that I realized that at least for the immediate future, if I wanted spiced hot drinks with sufficiently concentrated flavor, I was probably going to have to take matters into my own hands.
This time around, I got a little more ambitious. It occurred to me that for the sake of consistency, I should probably heat the sugar in the saucepan along with the cardamom powder, and that it was probably a good idea to dump some cinnamon in there too. The results were, well, considerably better than anything I’ve purchased recently.
For what it’s worth, I do also own cardamom pods, and I’m sure there’s a more time-consuming method that involves letting them soak in milk so that the flavor really permeates the liquid. But I’m not quite there yet.