Surprisingly Good Spiced Coffee

I wasn't feeling very inspired today.  But it was time to add a new recipe idea to the Humble Kichen blog, so i was pouring through cook books and cooking sites, looking for inspirations.

One of my favorite books to look through is my 1970s-ish, orange, binder-style Betty Crocker cook book.  This cook book has so much stuff in it! And lots of things i've never tried.  And quite a few things i probably never will try.

I came across this recipe for Spiced Coffee, on the list of fancy coffees, which is a page you don't really see in modern cook books.  (They call them "demitasse;" i think that's some other language for dainty cup of strong coffee, but i'm not sure.) But it calls for instant coffee ... and cinnamon sticks ... and orange peel ... and boiling ... and i don't have that stuff.  As for the boiling, it's a sultry 76 (this is January, people) in East Texas tonight, and i don't want to boil anything.  Ironically, i am unwilling to suppress the need to drink coffee late at night, no matter the temperature, so here we go.

Here's my version:  I put a heaping tablespoon of brown sugar in the bottom of my coffee cup, sprinkled in a generous rain of cinnamon, added a few drops of orange extract (a surprisingly wonderful ingredient to keep in your kitchen), and a couple drops of vanilla extract.  I was concerned it was too dry so i also added a couple teaspoons of dark local honey.  I'm really sorry i didn't take a picture at this point.

Anyway, i mixed my ingredients with a spoon and put the coffee cup in my low-powered microwave (which is approximately as old as my cook book), and i heated it until the mixture got bubbly.  The bubbles disappeared by the time i had my camera in hand, but here's a picture anyway.  It's liquid.

Then i added some of this morning's coffee and popped it back in the microwave to heat the coffee.  

Then i added a little creamer, 'cause i'm cool like that.

First sip was a little scary.  The rest were compulsory.  YUM.  

It tastes not really anything like you expect coffee to taste.

But it's really good.

REALLY good.

No, seriously.

I'm still sipping it.  It's so good.  What a great treat.  MM.  

Yumm.  Again.

Another sip.

Oh yeah, that's still really really good.

Surprisingly good.

On Saturday morning, you should totally have this with a slice of toast - with Cinnamon Toast Spread.  

Oh yeah. 

That's what i'm doing on Saturday morning.

Wanna come over?  I'll make you some.

O.k. i have to go.  I have a few more sips.

Yum.