The Surprising Ingredient Grandma Used For Unbeatable Coffee

MSN Lifestyle ^ | August 11, 2018 | Lauren Cahn

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If your family's from the Midwest (especially Wisconsin or Minnesota, both of which have a significant Scandinavian-rooted population), you might remember your grandma boiling up big, big batches of what she called Scandinavian coffee (or perhaps Norwegian or Swedish coffee, if she wanted to get specific). If she was making it for a church get-together, she might have called it church basement coffee and brought along one of these heavenly potluck dishes.

But what was that secret-ingredient coffee that Gran made? If you peeked in the percolator, you might have seen it.

The secret ingredient in Scandinavian coffee

Eggs!

They are what make Scandinavian coffee the richly-flavored, amber-hued, perfectly-balanced perfect brew that it is. Or more specifically, a raw egg—shell and all—which you crack over and mix it into your coffee grounds to form a thick slurry, which you then boil for three minutes in a pot of water (we'll get to the how-to just below).

Why?

Not everyone knows this, but eggs have a seemingly magical power to "clarify" liquids from broth to wine to...yes, coffee. As the liquid is heated, the egg coagulates, drawing impurities out of the liquid and into itself. In the case of coffee, those impurities include substances that can cause coffee to taste bitter or burnt. Ultimately, the impurities also include the grounds, themselves. In other words, the egg acts as an "ick" magnet, filtering your coffee without the need for a paper or mesh filter (yay!). After a mere three minutes, the egg and grounds have formed a unified lump that you can easily strain as you pour yourself a cup....

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Community Coffee has chicory. Years ago, I went to Breakfast at Brennons in New Orleans, asked where they got their amazing coffee, the waiter said “out the door turn left one block, grocery on the right ask for Community Coffee.”

[Liz]

Cooling Coconut Cream Coffee

ING 2 oz espresso or strongly brewed coffee oz simple syrup 3 oz milk 3 oz coconut milk 2 cups ice

METHOD Combine espresso and simple syrup and pour over one cup of ice.
Next, combine coconut milk and milk and pour over rest of ice onto espresso.

NOTE Pour in slowly to keep the layers separate.

[Liz]

Here's a hot version using coconut cream

COCONUT CREAM MOCHA

PREP Warm 1/3 cup coconut cream on med, is steaming slightly. While warming, add espresso shot to small mason jar;
then pour in steaming coconut cream. Shake vigorously to completely dissolve/combine.

FINAL Add coconut water, fave sweetener, dusting of cocoa powder. Close/shake til frothy.

Enjoy immediately.

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Southerners also used toasted yaupon holly leaves...the native American “black drink” that was full of caffeine.

It fell out of favor because it was so easy to come by it didn’t have the status symbol effect that imported tea had.