Sparkling Coffee Jam

It’s been getting warm lately in San Francisco and I do love a nice espresso tonic on a lazy weekend. I’ve been experimenting a bit with making my own flavors of espresso tonics with whatever jams we have around the house. We have a lot of jams at home because Christine likes to buy jams. I also like to buy jams. When I say jam, I really mean anything spreadable on toast. This can include jam, jelly, marmalade, honey, spreads, and butters. As far as making drinks with jam goes, these are all more or less interchangeable.

I don’t have an espresso machine (yet), but I’ve been making “espresso” with my Aeropress. During the last Fellow warehouse sale, I picked up a Fellow Prismo for a few bucks. It’s a nice gadget and makes espresso with a little less fuss than the inverted method I was using before. I’ve been using a ratio of 18g coffee to 90g water. I’ll usually double the recipe since I make coffee for two every morning.

Today’s creation is an apple pie espresso tonic. Trader Joe’s had an apple pie spread as a new item last fall and I picked it up to put on toast. Alright yeah, the thing’s been sitting in the fridge for a while but it’s jam, come on. It’s got an apple cinnamon flavor with little chunks of apple at the bottom. Drinkifying those little chunks gives it a Yi-Fang fruit tea-esque quality, perhaps best enjoyed with a straw (which we don’t have at home). I don’t see the spread anymore so I’m pretty sure it’s a seasonal item. Maybe I’m wrong though and it was just a new item that will never return. I like the ephemeral nature of Trader Joe’s products. It gives me a little taste of the seasons I’ve never appreciated as a Californian.

The recipe for the base espresso tonic is simple:

• Aeropress espresso: 18g coffee to 90g water
• One tablespoon of jam: today’s jam is the apple pie spread
• Half a can of sparkling water: Lime is a personal favorite

I mix together the hot espresso with the jam so the sugar dissolves properly. Today, I also added a little condensed milk for extra sweetness. Then we can pour the espresso mixture into our iced sparkling water.

That’ll be $7 for my ‘Apple Pie Espresso Lime Tonic’.

Then I topped it off with some cold foam and a sprinkle of salt.

That’ll be $13 for a ‘Salted Cold Foam Apple Pie Espresso Lime Tonic’.