What kind of Coffee Master would I be if I didn’t announce and partake in National Coffee Day (NCD)?? Today is the day where coffee is recognized for all its wonderful abilities, flavors, pairings, benefits, and social affairs. Today is the day I have an actual reason to celebrate my love for the bean, not that I ever felt like I needed one! You can’t stop love I tell ya.
In order to honor this day I prepared a tasting for myself, some of my fellow coworkers (including a regular customer,) and even my mom! It’s never a wrong time for a coffee tasting, and I often spring them on my fellow baristas when time permits, but it’s an absolute MUST for NCD.
For this tasting I also wanted to honor the arrival of fall, because fall and coffee go together like cayenne pepper and sweat. My usual one cup a day habit has found its way to a “once in a while” two cup habit simply due to the cozy feels I get with a hot mug on a rainy afternoon. I feel warm and fuzzy just typing that out. Where was I..OH yeah, FALL!
For starters I went with the obvious – pumpkin. A light and fluffy pumpkin spice sugar mini muffin to pair with Anniversary Blend one last time before it’s gone for the season. Have you snagged yourself a bag yet? It’s only going to be around a short while longer.
Not to fear, Thanksgiving Blend will be here soon!
Pumpkin Spice Mini Muffins
Ingredients
- 1 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
- 1/2 teaspoon allspice
- 1/8 teaspoons ground cloves
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup pumpkin puree
- 1/2 cup almond milk
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/3 cup melted coconut oil
- 1 chia egg ( 1 tblsp chia seeds + 3 tblsp water)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the cinnamon sugar topping: coconut oil, cinnamon, and raw sugar.
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350F, and prepare a mini muffin tin with coconut oil on the side to prevent sticking. These also successfully make larger muffins if you prefer those over the mini version.
- Make your chia egg and set aside for it to coagulate while you combine your first few ingredients.
- In a large bowl combine your flour, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, allspice, cloves, baking powder and salt.
- In another separate large bowl, whisk together pumpkin puree, almond milk, brown sugar, melted coconut oil, chia egg and vanilla.
- Pour this wet mixture into your dry mix and stir using a wooden spoon until combined.
- Scoop batter evenly into you muffin pan.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
- Allow to cool, and then top with cinnamon sugar mix.
For the cinnamon sugar topping: I used 1/2 tblsp cinnamon, and about 3 tblsp sugar. I melted a little bit of coconut oil at a time and rolled the top of each muffin in the oil before rolling into the cinnamon sugar mix.
Tasting Notes: The spicy notes from the cinnamon, and smooth flavors of the pumpkin paired beautifully with the crisp and spicy flavors of Anniversary Blend. Anniversary Blend alone can be a bit sharp, but the sugary coating to the muffin harmonized perfectly to tone down the flavor of the coffee. These muffins were AMAZING.
Next I played it simple and somewhat safe. I made dark chocolate covered Fuji apples rolled in pumpkin seeds, and paired them with House Blend. For those of you that like an all around medium roast (medium body/acidity) I highly recommend this one, it’s very smooth.
Assembly for these was simple – melt yourself some dark chocolate, cover as much of the apple as you desire, crush some pumpkin seeds, and roll the apple in the seeds. Voila.
Tasting Notes: The rich cocoa and nutty seeds harmonized AMAZINGLY with the smooth, balanced body of House Blend. The cocoa notes stood out the most, and I was surprised by how well these paired together. House has a distinct nutty/cocoa flavor, and while this is a coffee that can be savored easily on its own, combining it with the chocolate takes your palate party to an entire new level. That’s a party I always want to attend.
Coffee continues to amaze me the more I play around with pairings and flavor profiles. For those of you that don’t drink coffee (I will never understand, but I accept you anyway) check out this article for other ways to use coffee besides consumption. Not to mention my Coffee Energy Bites were featured, bringing over 16,000 readers to my blog in two days! Wow, thank you BuzzFeed!
It’s the little things.
Q: How are you celebrating National Coffee Day? Even if you don’t like coffee, I recommend you make these muffins. They are so good.
Blissfulbritt 
