Riot and Frolic

a mostly ballroom dance, but also a bunch of other stuff, blog

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I own and rock people’s faces off teaching ballroom dancing at Dancers Studio in St. Paul, MN. My husband and I compete professionally in American style and wrangle eight children in our spare time. I’ve been teaching and competing in ballroom dancing for over 25 years and have lots of opinions on it. I am an expert by any means, but there are quite a few dancers who are better than me and I have a solid knowledge of basic technique, so suck it.

The Coffee Recipe

Recently, I made a large claim that I make better coffee than you.

Yes, YOU.

Well, it's true.  But I'm generous and therefore I will share the recipe with you.

I am so nice, in fact, that I even experimented with an uncouth French Press recipe instead of my completely refined Chemex coffee maker. 

I read about this method of making iced coffee, but with stupid grams as measurement units and mama ain't got time for that.  It was referred to as "Japanese brew coffee", which besides producing requests for the recipe, also produced ire for the English language.  As great as this info was, it still didn't address that I like a little sweetness and maybe a little something extra in my coffee (and whiskey isn't always appropriate).  I combined this groovy "magic coffee" recipe with my Polish ingenuity and the Japanese-style brew and came up with my own recipe.

Here it goes…

The Coffee Recipe (Chemex Edition)

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Click here for the French Press Edition.

You're basically making coffee as usual, but BETTER.  It will be iced (because that's what you do until it's 10°F), and flavorful (because it shouldn't taste like water and it should kick you in the pants a little), and smooth (because coffee should be like good whiskey) , and deliciouser (because cinnamon) than usual. 

Gather your supplies:

  • "6 cup" Chemex coffee maker [whoever gets 6 cups out of these is clearly Jesus]
  • 12 ice cubes
  • a Chemex filter
  • 1 cup of your favorite coffee (medium grind, like kosher salt)
  • 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
  • 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
  • 2 heaping teaspoons of brown sugar
  • 2 cups not-quite-boiling water

Throw your ice cubes in the bottom of that magnificent coffee carafe, then proceed as if you're making regular, plain, run-of-the-mill coffee (put the filter on the top half of the carafe, add yer coffee).  BUT add the nifty extras along with your coffee (vanilla, cinnamon, brown sugar).  Then do your whole Chemex magic (pour a bit of pretty-hot water over the coffee/spices/sugar mixture to let it "bloom", wait a few seconds for everything to get happy together, then continue pouring the rest of the water over your grounds in concentric circles [CONCENTRIC!]).

After several minutes, you will have two adult-sized portions of really great coffee to start [continue? end? add to your whiskey to?] your day.  

I don't consider this to be coffee concentrate, which some cold-brew methods are supposed to produce (to which I cry "wuss!").  I do add a little cream, but to each his own; if you find it too strong [wuss], I'd add more ice cubes to your carafe, or pour it over ice to serve it.

The coffee seems to keep pretty well, as I put any leftovers in the fridge for mornings when I can't even.

You're welcome.

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