What’s better than bacon? Candied bacon with rich, earthy flavors of coffee, sweet maple syrup, caramelized sugar and spicy black pepper.
This recipe is dangerously easy to make, with only a few ingredients: bacon, freshly roasted coffee (I like using a full-bodied, dark roast such as the Sumatra Aceh), sugar, maple syrup and a touch of black pepper. Word of advice? Make this in small batches – or at least have friends over to share the results with. Otherwise before you know it, you’ll have consumed a shameful amount of bacon all by yourself. (Yup, I’m speaking from personal experience.)
Coffee-Maple Candied Bacon
Slightly adapted from Chomp and Thrive
12 oz. sliced, uncooked bacon (preferably thick-cut)
1/3 cup sugar
2 tbsp finely ground coffee (such as our Sumatra Aceh)
1 tbsp maple syrup
Black pepper (optional)
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Lay the bacon slices out on the baking sheet. In a small bowl, mix together the sugar, coffee and maple syrup.
3. Spread the coffee and sugar mixture on the slices of bacon, flipping to coat both sides.
4. Bake for about 25 minutes, or until the sugars caramelize and the bacon gets crisp. Sprinkle on a bit of black pepper to taste. Allow the bacon to cool for a few minutes and then enjoy!
The French Press is a simple manual coffee brewing method that was patenting in 1929 by an Italian designer. (Yes, Italian – but they say the first press was likely made in France). It’s a convenient way to brew great coffee – no filters are required, you can brew multiple cups at once with a larger press and a design like the Frieling (pictured here) brings serving coffee to the next level.
We recommend making French Press coffee with our Ethiopian Harrar for a bright cup of coffee with notes of strawberry. If you prefer chocolatey and smoky notes, try this brewing method with our Growers First Honduras coffee.
How to Brew with a French Press
The Tools:
1. Measure out 54 grams of coffee for an 8 cup French Press. If you’re not using a kitchen scale, use about 9-10 tablespoons of coffee or 1 tablespoon for 2 cups of water.
2. Set your grinder to a very coarse grind. On our Baratza Virtuoso grinder we use a setting of 30. Grind the beans and pour them into the French Press.
3. Add water. Use water that’s just off a boil, about 202 degrees F. If you don’t have a thermometer, bring the pot to a boil, remove from heat and then let it sit for 30 seconds. For the 8 cup press we use 725 grams of water.
4. Let the coffee steep for 4 minutes.
5. Insert the plunger and carefully press down.
6. Pour and enjoy!
Imagine this scenario…
You spend hours, maybe days or even weeks preparing for a huge Thanksgiving celebration with family and friends. The day finally arrives to enjoy a perfectly cooked turkey, savory stuffing and buttery mashed potatoes. Everything is done to perfection.
Dessert rolls around. Time to break out those decadent pies – and along with the pies? Coffee.
Don’t end the meal on a bad cup. Why not craft that after-dinner coffee as carefully as you made the entire meal?
FreshGround Roasting coffee is freshly roasted from high quality beans to ensure you serve your friends and family the best cup possible. Better yet, why not brew that after-dinner coffee in a Chemex or French Press? Your guests will be impressed not only by the full flavor from each of these methods but also by their beautiful design.
Check out our current coffee offerings as well as brewing methods fit for entertaining. The Chemex brewer comes in sizes that are 6, 8 or 10 cups and the stainless steel French Press is available in sizes from 8oz to 36oz, making it easy and stylish to brew great coffee for family and friends.
Don’t overlook the coffee this holiday season. Have a great meal from the first bite to the last drop.
Need some brewing tips? Click here for a Chemex brewing tutorial and here for a French Press tutorial.
Have you ever tried coffee “cupping”? It’s similar to the idea of a wine-tasting but involves observing the aroma, taste and other characteristics of a particular coffee or varieties of coffee. Professionals use this method to determine things like the quality of the coffee or the best way to roast that bean.
Even though cupping is a process used by the pros, you can cup coffee in your own home. How many times have you grabbed that morning travel mug and rushed out the door, never really stopping to smell the roses taste what you’re actually drinking? Cupping gives you a chance to do just that. And of course, everything – including cupping – is better with friends. Next time you’re looking for something to do, have some friends over and host a coffee cupping. You’ll learn a lot, enjoy coffee together and likely get a good laugh as you slurp and spit (yup, it’s true).
How to Host a Coffee Cupping
What you’ll need:
Setting Up
1. Start heating up your water. You’ll need enough water to fill all of your 5 oz glasses.
2. Measure 8 grams (or 2 teaspoons) of 
whole bean coffee in each of your 5 oz glasses. Make sure to mark which variety of coffee is in which glass. You can also cup “blind” meaning that you don’t know which coffee is which. To do this, just turn your labels over so you can’t see them during the cupping but you’ll be able to identify the coffees at the end.
3. Grind each coffee very coarsely and put the 8 ounces of grounds back into the correct glasses.
Fragrance
4. Smell each of the cups of ground coffee. Really sniff and inhale that scent. Gently tap the sides of the glass to move the grounds around and release more of the fragrance.
Aroma
5. Take your water, heated to just below a boil and pour it over the grounds until each glass is full (about 150 mL of water). Let the coffee steep for 4 minutes.
6. While your coffee is steeping, make sure your extra mugs or cups are filled with water for rinsing.
7. After your coffee has steeped, observe the aroma of the coffee. Take the outside of your spoon and push the coffee grounds sitting on top of the water towards the back of the cup. As you push the coffee grounds away, the aroma of the coffee will be released. This is called “breaking the crust”. After you break the crust, put your nose as close to the coffee as possible (getting grounds on your nose is perfectly acceptable) and sniff.
8. Make sure to rinse your spoon before placing it in a new variety of coffee so that the flavors don’t get muddled.
9. After breaking the crust and observing the aroma of all of your coffees, scoop out the grounds sitting on top of the water. Discard the grounds.
Taste
10. Now we’ll get to tasting. Here’s where it 
gets really fun. Take a spoonful of coffee and slurp that good stuff up. Yup, really slurp it. You want to try to get the coffee to hit all parts of your mouth, because it’ll taste different in the back of your mouth than on the tip of your tongue. Taste each variety of coffee, rinsing your spoon in between varieties. If you don’t want all the caffeine, grab an empty glass to spit the coffee into. Yup, just slurp and spit – and don’t be shy about it.
11. If you’d like, you can record your 
observations during this process. Click here for an example of a simplified cupping form you can use to take notes. If you’re cupping with friends, compare results. You may find similarities, but you may also have tasted things a little differently than someone else. Everyone’s taste buds are different – just have fun with it and enjoy trying all the different kinds of coffee!
If you want to know how the pros cup coffee, check out these instructions from the Specialty Coffee Association of America website.