Most coffee flavorings are a mishmash of fake flavoring, preservatives, and sugar. Adding a little herbal tea to your French press coffee is cheap way to add natural flavoring.
Photo by stevenpolo.
We're big fans of the French press coffee-making method, and judging by the comments on various coffee-related posts, many of you are too. It was the comments of several readers over the last few months, in fact, that inspired us to try using a French press to brew loose leaf tea. It turned out to be an excellent tea brewing tool, which in turn led to the next discovery. While boiling water for the press, I couldn't decide if I wanted tea or coffee.
On an impulse, I decided to combine peppermint loose leaf tea with fresh ground coffee in the French press. The result was absolutely delicious. Experiments ensued, and peppermint, mint, cinnamon, and vanilla flavored herbal tea all blended well with coffee. The brew time for loose herbal tea is the same as French press coffee, so both get optimum steeping time. A few tips learned by trial and error: Peppermint coffee is delicious iced, cinnamon coffee is best served hot, and, so far, the best ratio seems to be 1 teaspoon of herbal tea to 4 teaspoons of ground coffee. If you try that ratio or one of your own devising, share the results in the comments to help refine it.