Spice mix to flavor iced espresso

Background: I am on a quest to reduce how much carbonated beverages and artificial sweeteners I consume. I was a long time Diet Coke guy until i started drinking iced coffee occasionally. I've eventually morphed into frequently drinking iced double espresso instead. I flavor it with a half teaspoon of half/half, and if it's cheap espresso (Starbucks) I get sugar free vanilla syrup added.

I'd like to get away from both of those additives, but I can't quite drink it black yet. I've started by cutting out the syrup for "good" iced espresso (Bow Truss, Asado, etc.). But I'd like to figure out a spice profile to add to it that doesn't have sugar. Vanilla and cinnamon will likely form the base, as I like the cafe de olla at Chuck's, for example, but it's really heavy on sugar.

Does anybody do this with their coffee? If so, what types of spices do you use, and do you use consistent proportions or just wing it based on your mood?

I used to put cardamom in my coffee at one time. Don't recall a specific recipe, but the combination is mighty tasty. It's very big in Sweden, for some reason.

Chai Coffee - mix 1 C ground coffee with 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp cardamon, 1/4 tsp nutmeg, and 1/8 tsp ginger. I also buy the chai spice mix from Spice House, but it does contain sugar.

There are a lot of DIY recipes out there for making your own flavored syrups and mix-ins for coffee - google things like "pumpkin spice latte clone" or whatever your favorite is, etc. I haven't done it for cold brew, but for making hot coffee I'll often just shake in powdered spices on top of the grounds and it works pretty well. Powdered vanilla works really well (purchase at Spice House).

Roger Ramjet wrote:I used to put cardamom in my coffee at one time. Don't recall a specific recipe, but the combination is mighty tasty. It's very big in Sweden, for some reason.

Yeah, cardamom is common in the Nordic countries (especially when it comes to desserts, cookies and the like), but it's also associated with Turkey and the Middle East specifically when it comes to coffee. I've always associated it with the latter in a coffee context, but I've always been curious to know how cardamom worked its way up to Norway and Sweden.

I like cardamom in small doses. So far, the flavors that seem to stick with me are vanilla, cinnamon, orange, and cardamom, and maybe a very tiny touch of Splenda. I think I'm going to experiment this weekend with buying some spices and making a small mix that I can slowly tweak.

Binko wrote:

Roger Ramjet wrote:I used to put cardamom in my coffee at one time. Don't recall a specific recipe, but the combination is mighty tasty. It's very big in Sweden, for some reason.

Yeah, cardamom is common in the Nordic countries (especially when it comes to desserts, cookies and the like), but it's also associated with Turkey and the Middle East specifically when it comes to coffee. I've always associated it with the latter in a coffee context, but I've always been curious to know how cardamom worked its way up to Norway and Sweden.

The same way they got other spices, through the old spice routes to Turkey.

Binko wrote: I've always been curious to know how cardamom worked its way up to Norway and Sweden.

Well, it comes from India, where they use it a lot, but it doesn't seem to be very commonly found in the lands west of there until you get to Sweden. Perhaps it was introduced to Scandinavia long ago by the lumbering galleons (or maybe they were swift clipper ships, I couldn't tell you) of the Swedish East India Company?