People add a lot of different things to their coffee every day. Some additions are pretty standard, like cream and sugar, while other additions are a little less conventional.
One pretty common ingredient that you don’t see everyone add to their coffee is cinnamon. That is because it isn’t an ingredient you can simply add to your coffee and enjoy it fully. We will discuss why that is and the best ways to add cinnamon to your coffee in this article.
Will Cinnamon Dissolve in Coffee?
No, cinnamon will not dissolve in coffee. Which is really unfortunate considering how well the flavor of the cinnamon compliments a good cup of coffee. The reason cinnamon will not dissolve like sugar is because cinnamon is actually made from the ground up bark of a particular tree. Wood fibers are completely different from sugar and are not water soluble.
If you do add cinnamon straight to your coffee, it will eventually turn to a sludge in your cup. The flavor will still be there, but the sludge is definitely not great. Fortunately, there are a few different ways you can get some cinnamon into your coffee without turning it into a cup of sludge.
How to Add Cinnamon to Coffee
There are a few tried and true methods for adding cinnamon to your coffee. There are some methods you can use pre-brew, and others where you can add the cinnamon to something else that you are adding to your coffee. We’ll explore these methods in more detail below.
Adding Cinnamon to Your Coffee Grounds
Depending on what type of coffee maker you use, you may have the option to add ground cinnamon directly to your coffee grounds. This method works well with drip coffee makers, French presses, and a Turkish cezve. It is strongly suggested that you do not try this method if you are using an espresso maker, a moka pot, or a percolator.
The reason an espresso maker, moka pot, or percolator won’t work is because the cinnamon will turn to sludge in the filter as water passes over it. Once the cinnamon turns to sludge, water will not be able to pass through the coffee grounds. It will back up each of those machines and has the potential to make a big mess.
Adding Cinnamon to Creamer
If you are unable to add cinnamon to your coffee grounds or just do not want to, another way you can add cinnamon to your coffee is to mix it with your creamer before adding it to your coffee. The reason this works is because the cinnamon will actually bind to the fat in your creamer, so the cinnamon will be spread evenly throughout your coffee and won’t become a sludge this way. Because the cinnamon binding to the fat in the creamer is a key part of this method, heavier creamers and creams will work best for this method.
There is just one thing to keep in mind if you mix your cinnamon with your creamer, and that is you can not have black coffee if you do this. Of course this is because for you to add cinnamon to your creamer with the intention of adding it to your coffee, you are now adding creamer to your coffee.
Storing Cinnamon Sticks With Your Coffee Beans
One final thing you can try is adding whole cinnamon sticks to your container of coffee beans. It is known that coffee beans absorb aromas, so adding a few cinnamon sticks to your container of coffee beans should be enough to alter the flavor.
It’s hard to say exactly how long you will need to leave the cinnamon sticks with your coffee beans to really infuse the beans with their flavor, but you can easily test this yourself by experimenting with different numbers of cinnamon sticks for different periods of time.
One more thing to note is that you won’t get any of the nutritional value from cinnamon if you do not directly put it into your coffee.
Dissolving Cinnamon in Other Ingredients
We previously mentioned adding cinnamon to your creamer as the fat in the creamer will bind to it, preventing it from becoming sludge in your cup. But there are a few other ingredients you can add cinnamon to that will help add it to your coffee without making sludge.
First, you can attempt to dissolve cinnamon in some warm honey on the side. If you planned on using a flavored syrup you can also try adding cinnamon to the syrup. Using either of these ingredients to dissolve cinnamon will allow you to keep your coffee black while still adding some cinnamon to it.
Conclusion
There’s no question that cinnamon is a great addition to coffee. The flavor of cinnamon compliments the flavor of coffee just right. The only complicated part is that adding cinnamon directly to coffee will create an unpleasant sludge in your cup.
Cinnamon is a fiber made from the ground bark of a particular tree. Because of that, it will not dissolve in your coffee like your other ingredients will. Fortunately, there are a few ways to add cinnamon to your coffee without making a hot cup of sludge.
Depending on what type of coffee maker you are using, you can add ground cinnamon to your coffee grounds. You need to be sure you are using the right type of coffee maker though, or you will backup your machine and your coffee will not brew properly.
You can also add your ground cinnamon to your creamer or milk. The cinnamon will bind to the fat in the dairy and prevent it from turning to sludge in your cup.
You can dissolve your cinnamon in a few other ingredients on the side as well, such as flavored syrups or warm honey. Finally, you can store cinnamon sticks with your coffee beans as they will absorb the aroma of the cinnamon sticks. This will result in your coffee beans taking on some cinnamon flavor when you grind and brew them.
