I drink entirely too much coffee to wait until National Coffee Day or National Coffee Month to post about this eighth wonder of the world. I usually keep my daily at-home fix simple whether hot or iced: coffee, milk (almost always non-dairy, sometimes homemade), and sweetener.
I wasn’t totally turned off by the addition of orange and clove to sweetened hot black coffee in a recipe from one of my mocktail books. But shortly after selecting it for this week, I went looking for a possible replacement. Enter fate in the form of a cold orange coffee from a different book of mine.
Taste test mode once again! Not for the fun of it but to challenge close-mindedness. ‘Cause listen to how this sounds:
“The only way coffee and orange juice can be at my table is if they’re in different glasses.”
“I’ve never had a problem with coffee or orange juice, but I’m not into mingling like that.”
“Coffee and orange juice can be as together as they want, but not around me. I won’t be party to it.”
– Anonymous 21st century beverage bigots (not me, of course, especially that second person)
Disturbingly other-era, right? So, Orange Coffee two ways.
Orange Coffee from Doris Muliar’s Cocktails for Drivers
- Orange juice
- Whole cloves
- Brown sugar (I used turbinado.)
- Hot coffee
- Heavy whipping cream
Equipment: pot, heat-proof stirring utensil
Orange Coffee from Jane Brandt’s Drinks Without Alcohol
- Chilled coffee
- Milk (I used sugar-free oatmilk.)
- Orange juice
- Sugar
Equipment: blender
Me:
- Hot Orange Coffee – Nothing overpowered the coffee. The orange flavor wasn’t heavy like drink syrups can be. There was another layer of richness from the melted whipped cream. The clove aftertaste was friendly.
- Blended Orange Coffee – The coffee was in the background. The orange flavor had a creamy lightness (for obvious reasons), so the whipped cream was a bit extra.
GJ:
- Hot Orange Coffee – Creamy, a little bit citrusy, a little bitter, and chocolatey. But you didn’t put chocolate in it though, right? It almost reminded me of the orange mocha at Central Market.
- Blended Orange Coffee – I could really taste the OJ in this more, but I was definitely getting coffee. Still creamy. It was really good but really rich.
Another round? A daily of each orange coffee for GJ. I’ll take a weekly blended no-whip OC and a monthly hot one.