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Posts tagged ‘coffee’

Nitro café de olla with Cadence Cold Brew

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It will surprise no one who has ever parented or spent much time taking care of a toddler that coffee is now a significant and important part of my life. I’ve long loved it – the smell, the flavor, the heady ritual of it – but for years caffeinated coffee gave me migraines (yes, you’re right, it really was the worst). Whatever divine spirits there may be in the world appear to have taken pity on me, however, because pregnancy changed something in my brain chemistry and I am now once again able to partake. And partake I do, in volume some days, generally with breakfast and again during Aldo’s midday nap.

So I was particularly excited when Cadence Cold Brew, a new Madison company, expressed an interest in new recipes and ways to use their canned nitro cold brew coffee. We generally make our coffee at home (okay, Brett generally makes our coffee at home – what a guy), but when I treat myself to a coffee drink out in the world, I often seek out nitro cold brew. Cold brew in general is more easy-drinking than regular brewed coffee, and the addition of nitrogen makes it even smoother and silkier, with a slight effervescence akin to beer.

After tasting the three varieties that Cadence offers in cans, I knew immediately what I wanted to do – create a twist on café de olla, a rich, spiced coffee drink traditional to Mexico.

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A perfect substitute for those frappa-whatevers

Do you like ridiculous sugary blended coffee drinks? I do. Despite how they make me feel – physically and emotionally – I find them irresistible. Especially in airports. When I worked at a Peet’s I could justify drinking them every once in a while because it really was just milk, ice, espresso, and flavor syrup whirled up in a blender. And because I could alter those ingredients at will without sounding like a fool (“half-caf, soy, 1 pump vanilla, please”). But at most places (and I’m pretty sure even at Peet’s now), blended coffee drinks are a near-lethal combination of milk powder, coffee-flavored ooze, whole milk and/or heavy cream, and flavored syrups so sugary that your innocent little Starbucks purchase is suddenly on-par with a gallon of ice cream.

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