Is there a more refreshing beverage than coffee? The tea enthusiasts may say otherwise. Regardless of what they say, coffee is the drink of champions. This is not to start another round of furious debate over which beverage is the best. Some prefer coffee over tea, let’s just leave it at that. The coffee bean whether roasted or unroasted has a distinct trait that makes it easily distinguishable from other beverages. It is the bean that produces the desired flavor in your cup. The variety in coffee with its numerous blends, is so vast that it often gets difficult to keep track of them!
It doesn’t matter whether you prefer espresso, latte, or green coffee, you need a complimentary snack to wash down your beverage. It makes the coffee-drinking experience significantly better and you also have something to munch on. While most people drink coffee to get their nerves kicking, the whole point of drinking coffee is to savor the taste and feel the rich aroma of the beans, processed with love and dedication. This is amplified with a good snack.
In this article, we will discuss some common food items that make an awesome pair with coffee.
- Strawberry: Although strawberry is quite commonly used in cold coffee made with roasted beans, you could also consume it with green coffee. The whole strawberry atop the iced latte is a delicious treat. The sweet and tangy flavor of the strawberry goes well with the milk latte. As unconventional as it may sound, you could try a strawberry extract with an iced latte made of raw coffee beans instead of roasted ones. The favour is maintained well whether it’s a whole extract or a strawberry syrup.
- Chocolate: Chocolate is a universal food item that accompanies well with most beverages including coffee. Chocolate chip cookies with a hot brewing cup of coffee in the evening are an ideal snack. Another popular choice is putting chocolate syrup along with the coffee bean. This lends a distinct taste to your beverage as the sweet chocolate overpowers the bitter coffee. A chocolate iced latte is the perfect way to cool your body in this blistering summer. Make sure you don’t put too much syrup into the coffee, otherwise, it could be too sweet.
- Scone: Who doesn’t like a cinnamon scone? The moist baked good originating from Scotland is now a staple snack in every household these days. English people relish their scones with tea, but you don’t have to limit yourself to tea in order to enjoy the triangular cracker. A scone tastes equally good with your hot coffee. Some people like to dip their scones in the coffee while others simply much on them with occasional sips. If you’ve gotten health-conscious lately and have switched to green coffee, don’t worry. A scone won’t do you any harm!
- Pastry: If you ask any coffee lover about the perfect snack to accompany their coffee, the pastry would most likely be the majority response. After all, the sheer influence it has on the minds of people, coupled with pop-culture reinforcement, makes it a no-brainer when it comes to choosing the ideal coffee snack. Donuts, Danish, Kolaches, Croissant, Cinnamon rolls – the list is endless. Imagine you have a cream-filled croissant or blueberry cheese kolache on your plate kept adjacent to your hot cup of coffee. What a sensory delight!
- Roasted meat: It may seem like a strange choice to some, but roasted meat is perhaps the best coffee pair ever. Consuming coffee with a roasted lamb chop, pork, or beef roast gives a tremendous contrast of taste and flavor. There are several recipes that use coffee on meat to make it softer and tender. The acid in coffee lays the ground for the tenderization of meat. It also has the added effect of magnifying the flavor for taste enhancement. However, you should keep in mind that combining steak with coffee (especially coffee with milk, can cause acidity. Black or green coffee is a better alternative for pairing with meat.
Conclusion
Coffee comes in many colors – black, brown, and green. Whatever the color of the coffee, it is incomplete without a suitable snack. Just drinking plain coffee is not enough, you need the right snack to wash it down with. There are some wonderful snacks that make a suitable pair with your latte or espresso. Strawberry is a seemingly unconventional but fantastic pair, especially with an iced latte. Similarly, chocolate chip cookies, scones, and pastries go smoothly with coffee. The level of experimentation possible with pastries is truly phenomenal. Danish, Kolache, Croissants, and cinnamon rolls are just a few examples. Another unconventional coffee pair is roasted meat that can be consumed with green coffee.
It has been a popular choice because of its supposed benefits regarding weight loss, maintaining healthy blood sugar levels, reducing fat accumulation around the stomach, and improving cardiovascular rhythms. Although the evidence to support these benefits on humans is still inconclusive, it does have its merits; and therefore, is getting increasingly popular among a section of coffee lovers.
