Cold brew with cinnamon changed my morning routine last week

I usually just dump my regular dark roast in the French press each morning. But last week I tried making a big batch of cold brew with some Ceylon cinnamon sticks I had sitting in the pantry. I dropped two sticks into the jar before sticking it in the fridge for about 18 hours. The result was this mellow, almost sweet flavor without any sugar at all. No bitterness either, which I always get with hot brew. Now I'm wondering if I got lucky with the cinnamon or if this is a thing people do regularly. Any of you tried spices in your cold brew and had it work out?

3 comments

3 Comments

hunt.nora18d ago

oh MAN, I feel this SO much! I had the exact same experience last summer when I tossed a couple star anise pods into my cold brew on a whim. It was like a whole new world opened up. That sweetness without ANY sugar is just magic, right? I think you stumbled onto something really good, because spices in cold brew are definitely a thing for some of us. Cinnamon is probably the most forgiving one to start with, so you didn't just get lucky, you picked a winner.

emmag2218d ago

Cinnamon is a good place to start for sure. Star anise sounds wild though, I can barely handle that stuff in a savory dish. Actually, last week I was out of cinnamon so I threw a whole vanilla bean in my cold brew just to see what would happen. It was good but not nearly as noticeable as the cinnamon, mostly just a faint sweetness in the background. My biggest mess up was trying to add ground nutmeg directly to the jar, it just floated on top and made a gritty layer that got all over my teeth. Gotta stick to whole spices after that disaster, they just strain out cleaner.

emmawood16d ago

My buddy tried that nutmeg trick too, said he was picking bits out of his teeth for days.