I’ll admit it. I’m an addict. A caffeine addict. I seldom go a day without a 10 or more ‘cups’ (what do they call a cup, 6 oz. or something.. pffft.. rubbish) of coffee. That means I go through beans like a Mexican canned foods factory.

To keep from going broke (and falling asleep any time of the day), I’ve been buying coffee in 3-5 lb. bulk sacks. This also means that these beans are bulk roasted, and the options are limited. Well.. not any more!

After reading one of the famous “Eat this, not this” books, somewhere inside I ran across some tips on herbal enhancements (not *those* kind of enhancements!) you can make to foods to assist with blood pressure, diabetes, stress, etc.

One such suggestion was Cinnamon added to the ground coffee to give it a slightly ‘Mexican Coffee’ flavor. Cinnamon also has some nice benefits including increased brain function, improved blood flow and assists in sugar control. Sounds good to me, so I tried it. And honestly, I like it. A lot. It’s adding a nice variety to my morning, afternoon and evening coffees. And, an upside to all this is, I can vary the flavor based on how many pinches I put in the grounds, or just not use it one of those days I want the full trucker-coffee effect.

Along with the Cinnamon, I’ve experimented around with cloves, and that adds a nice nutty / smokey flavor to the coffee. I don’t do it all the time but again, it provides some variety. Another recent add that sounds totally insane (perhaps….) is chili pepper. Yes.. I’ve added chili pepper to my coffee. In fact the cup in front of me right now has some in it and you can taste the spice! I love spiced foods, so this is what I’d consider a good thing.

So.. there you have it. Bored of your current sack of coffee, maybe try out some variety. Variety is the spice of life, right? Now that you’ve recovered from your guffaws.. you might actually give it a run.

** Disclaimer: I’m not a doctor, herbalist, actor, nurse, parasitologist nor new anchor so… there you have that too