How to Ditch the Cafe for Good with Coffee Concentrate

Routines are comfortable. Easy. They allow us to function on semi autopilot. So, where’s the incentive to make a change? Take coffee. If you’re a coffee connoisseur, you have probably sought the best beans through trial and error. Worked out a system to measure the right amount to grind for the right number of cups. Invested in a container to store beans or grinds, a machine to brew. Learned how to froth oat milk into the shape of a heart on top. Nobody is knocking the achievement. But what if someone tapped you on the shoulder and asked for five minutes to learn about an alternative to your currently scheduled programming. An easier way to do it, yielding a similar (or even better) outcome. Are you ready to learn about coffee concentrate?

What Is Coffee Concentrate?

A new kid on the block, relative to the storied history of cultivating coffee crops dating back to the fifteenth century, coffee concentrate cuts to the chase. You don’t have to brew. It’s already done for you. As in, fully brewed product sitting in a sleek glass bottle on the top shelf of the refrigerator, waiting for you to exploit its richness.

From the coffee concentrate, you make your drink. If you like hot, black coffee, you boil water and add a tablespoon (or so) of concentrate to the hot water, stir and drink. To tailor-make the drink according to tastebuds’ expectations, experiment with adding more, or less of the coffee concentrate.

Ditto for all variations of coffee beverages that come to mind. If you like a rich latte, heat the milk, add the concentrate (and any ratio of water), and stir your coffee concentrate into the warmed-up liquids, stir and voila. How easy does this sound? It’s not too good to be true. It’s real.

Coffee martini? Coffee and seltzer? Throw a tablespoon into your smoothie. Any recipe you can imagine, including barista level concoctions, is yours to experiment with from home.

Want to Streamline Your Morning Routine?

Okay, who out there wouldn’t want to shave some time off the morning rush? If you have twenty extra minutes to sleep every workday morning, that’s an extra 6.6 hours per month of zzzz’s if you’re working a normal five-day workweek.

This is using a rough estimate assuming it takes you twenty minutes to prepare your morning coffee. Maybe it’s a little less. But it could also be more. So, add it up and envision the extra time being used to sleep, meditate, walk the dog, hop on the Peloton, prepare home-made lunch, the list goes on.

Maybe this all sounds too good to be true. And how can the taste possibly compare to a fresh pot of your favorite brew? It’s a valid question. And to satisfy your curiosity, there’s one solution. Try some and see what you think.

Coffee concentrate is what it says it is. Concentrated coffee. Each company brews with proprietary techniques, so check out their process. Generally, beans are ground and brewed using a slow extraction process. Typically, it is brewed using a higher concentration of coffee to water. And in some cases, a little goes a long way. One company we checked out has a concentrate that is 20x stronger than a regular cup.  It’s been called a “buzzy trend,” and that can be taken literally if you overindulge!

Think of concentrate as a base, and add on accordingly (hot water, cold water, milk, plant-based milk, syrup, sugar, spices, salt … the sky’s the limit).

Can We Talk Savings?

If you take the time to jot down and add up the expenses your coffee habit incurs on a daily basis, you might be in for a shock. We agree it’s great to spend good money on one of life’s simple, undeniable pleasures. But if there is a way to save, would you be interested?

Coffee concentrate yields a more caffeinated cup of coffee, which means you use less of it. There is no waste. So that’s a cost saving right there. How many times have you brewed too much coffee? Maybe refrigerated the leftovers to use the next day, but they get tossed down the drain instead.

And there’s always the subscribe and save option for a coffee subscription, which is a topic for another day. But suffice it to say, aside from mad convenience, subscribing to get your concentrate delivered to your front steps offers savings.

Trends come and go. Coffee concentrate is probably here to stay because, let’s face it, our attention spans are shorter than ever, and if we can save time without sacrificing deep, bold flavor, what’s not to latch onto?  Buh-bye grinds.