There has always been a lot of focus on pairing the right wine with the right food.  Some restaurants even have a special employee solely dedicated to this task.  Why not put the same focus on pairing the right creamer with our coffee or vice versa?  If you’ve discovered that you absolutely adore Coffee House Inspirations Caramel Macchiato, try pairing that creamer with different coffees to see which one it meshes best with.  Some coffees may completely overpower your favorite creamer; some may go together like peas and carrots.  It’s up to your taste buds to decide.  Have fun with it. Tip:  When you want to try different coffee varieties, buy smaller packages.  Some coffee shops use scales and can sell you however much, or however little you want.

Iced coffee at home is a piece of cake.  But first a quick kitchen safety tip:  Never pour hot liquid into a cold glass, or vice versa. The easiest way to make good iced coffee at home is to use whatever brewing method you prefer.  Use the recommended 2 Tbsp. of coffee to every six ounces of water, but set half of your water aside.  By brewing with the same amount of coffee but less water you are essentially making a coffee concentrate.  After brewing go ahead and mix the cold water in with the brewed coffee.  You can serve it up right away or keep it in the fridge for a few hours to chill.  Just like any brewed coffee it will go stale, yes even in the fridge, so try to drink it that day for best flavor.  A few ice cubes, your favorite International Delight creamer and you’re good to go.

Peaberry is a common term spoken around a lot of coffee shops and specialty roasters.  But what does it mean to you the coffee consumer?  A peaberry is actually a genetic anomaly found in roughly 5-8% of coffee beans.  When coffee cherries grow they usually contain two seeds (coffee beans) sandwiched together.  This gives your typical coffee beans the flat on one side, rounded on the other appearance.

Sometimes a coffee cherry grows with only one seed inside.  When this happens the seed becomes rounded on all sides because it doesn’t have a buddy to press itself against.  The pleasant side affect of this is the concentration of what would normally be two beans worth of flavor into one bean.  Even caffeine content appears to be higher in these genetic anomalies.    Use this to be a well educated consumer, if somebody sells you an expensive bag of “Peaberry” coffee but it’s full of flat beans.  Somebody just ripped you off.  True Peaberry coffees have to be sorted by hand, a painstaking and laborious process.  I have had the pleasure of trying a pure peaberry coffee from India, and it was amazing.  If you are up for a coffee adventure, give it a shot.  If you buy from a reputable roaster I am sure you will not be disappointed.