Making frozen coffee drinks is not only fun but gets the creative mental energy flowing as well. Because of the virtually endless possibilities of flavors, add-ins, toppings, and extras, whipping up a batch of these delicious delicacies is easy and satisfying.
People who own coffee makers are well aware of the myriad recipes for cool concoctions. While some of the entries are old standards, newer, wilder varieties are popping up every day.
First things first. To begin, you will need a batch of your favorite coffee blend, made double strength. That's because nearly every frozen delight calls for strong brew. Coffee makers are an important tool for this first step, due to their precise measurements and automatic capability. While the coffee itself is brewing, you can prep all the other ingredients, thereby saving significant amounts of time.
Without listing all the frozen coffee permutations here, which would take at least five large volumes, the following should get you started, since nearly all cold coffee drinks have a similar foundation.
Mix your double strength, brewed coffee about three-to-one with milk, after having let the warm coffee sit for at least an hour. Of course, the milk is your call, whether you want to use skim, whole, organic, generic, goat's milk, you-name-it. Most amateur coffee chefs avoid skim, though, because it tends to weaken the final result.
Add real or artificial sweetener to suit your taste. In Africa and Japan, it is common to use no sweetener at all. Indeed, variety makes the world go around. As for ice, a good rule of thumb is to use about two-thirds as much ice as you use coffee. Now toss everything into a blender, along with one or two teaspoons of vanilla extract per quart. Again, this effort is always a matter of taste.
After mixing to a frothy smoothness, the real fun begins. Pick your favorite spices, fruits, soft candies, or something nobody else has ever thought of, and add them to the mix. Cinnamon and chocolate are widely popular. Whipped cream, flavored or not, is another winning idea.
In Asia, marshmallows and sweetened fruit slices are favorites of the business set, while African farmers prefer raw chunks of sugarcane or carob.
Caffeine avoiders can use decaf as the base liquid and still enjoy the countless variations of this timeless, and tasty, treat. Historians tell us that cold coffee has been a popular beverage for perhaps 4000 years. Therefore, maybe Stone Age people were actually the first "coffee makers."
沒有留言:
張貼留言