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Should You Infuse Coffee with Cinnamon?
We’ve all added things to our coffee, be it whole or skim milk, sugar, or other spices. However, coffee infusions are a rapidly growing trend and cinnamon is a great place to start. If you haven’t tried it before, you should try adding cinnamon to your coffee- both for the taste and a few auxiliary benefits.
Here are 4 reasons to add cinnamon to your coffee:
Cinnamon Adds a New Flavor to your Cup
This is the obvious one: dropping cinnamon into your cup of coffee will alter its taste. Coffee infused with cinnamon has a warm, comforting aroma and a taste that is great year-round, but particularly appropriate for autumn. If you have lower quality grounds, cinnamon is a perfect option to give them a bit of additional flavor.
Cinnamon is a Diet-Friendly Sugar Substitute
By adding cinnamon, you can add a somewhat sweet flavor to your coffee without having to add sugar. This ends up being somewhat of a sweetness hack for keeping your coffee diabetic friendly, keto friendly, and diet friendly.
While the jury is still out on whether or not cinnamon itself has blood sugar modulating effects, you can use it as a sugar substitute to reduce your sugar intake. Cinnamon is also full of fiber, which increases your “full” feeling (satiety) and signals to your body that mealtime is over. A little cinnamon is an efficient choice to add flavor to food at minimal calorie cost- always a good thing when you are trying to maintain a diet.
Cinnamon Has Antioxidants
Antioxidants are often associated with various fruits, but cinnamon has a surprising amount of these potentially helpful molecules. Some reports have a teaspoon of cinnamon containing as many antioxidants as a cup of blueberries, one of the most antioxidant-laden foods.
Possible Cognitive Benefits
While the caffeine in coffee may be how you get your brain up and running, could the addition of cinnamon in it spur your brain function and cognitive processing? The research on this is highly conflicted, but at least one study has suggested that cinnamon may delay or reverse cognitive impairment.
How to Properly Infuse Your Coffee with Cinnamon
Adding Cinnamon to Your Grounds Pre-Brew
Adding cinnamon to coffee afterwards makes it clump up unpleasantly in the cup. Ideally, you should add cinnamon to your grounds before brewing.
When making drip coffee or pour over, be weary that if you mix cinnamon throughout your grounds it can gum up on the paper filter and clog it. This can overflow your coffee maker, leaving you with a mess. Instead, just add a sprinkle of cinnamon on top of your ground coffee beans and prepare your coffee as usual.
Cinnamon sticks can also be used in your French Press. Just crack two sticks in half add them to your grounds and continue to prepare your coffee as you normally would.
How to Add Cinnamon to Already-Brewed Coffee
If you’ve already brewed your coffee and still want add cinnamon, note that ground cinnamon dissolves well in milk. For this reason, ground cinnamon can be easily mixed into a latte. Try mixing your cinnamon in milk before pouring your coffee into the cup to reduce the clumping effect. Using a cinnamon stick will also reduce clumping.
Another strategy is to dissolve your cinnamon in a little bit of honey before stirring the cinnamon/honey mixture into your coffee. Start by trying 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon with a teaspoon of honey. Add your coffee slowly to the cinnamon-honey mixture and stir rapidly to ensure the cinnamon doesn’t separate out.
How to Add Cinnamon while Cold Brewing
When cold brewing, its best to use cinnamon sticks to avoid gumming up your filter. Take two 3-inch cinnamon sticks and break them in half (fourths is ideal, if practical!) and then mix them throughout the grounds. Cold brew as you normally would.
Cinnamon Coffee Recipes
Infusing coffee with cinnamon just might be the coffee hack you’ve been looking for! Here are a couple ways to try it:
Cinnamon Mocha
For this recipe, use either a pour over or standard drip coffee pot. Add ½ tablespoon of cocoa, and ½ teaspoon of vanilla to your empty coffee pot. Add one tablespoon cinnamon on top of your grounds. Brew as normal. Add sugar to taste to your cup afterwards.
Mountain Cinnamon Brew
Brew coffee using your preferred method. Add a cinnamon stick to your brewed coffee along with brown sugar to taste.
