coffeedrinks
My wife like the French Vanilla Cappuccino they sell in restaurants like Tim Horton's.
I have an espresso machine and I wonder how I could make one with it.
If I just add some Vanilla Extract to a cappuccino, will it work? If yes, how many?
Would it be better if I buy some Vanilla syrup?
And what about those "Vanilla flavored ground coffee" they sold at the grocery store?
You do want a coarse grind for french press coffee. The key is letting the coffee steep for long enough to make a strong brew. I have good results with a 5 minute steep time. Be sure to use a timer, and compare different times to find the optimal brew. As a general rule, if you are at altitude, then you need to add time because boiling water is cooler. (Note that I am at 5000ft, so 5 minutes may be too long for you.)
Below is a picture of the coffee chunks in a coarse grind on top of a US 5 cent coin (21.21 mm in diameter).
The picture is from this article.
EDIT: The reason to use a coarse grind for a french press is that finer grinds will get stuck in the filter and/or push their way through. This has three potential problems: 1) it will be harder to press down the filter, possibly leading to spillage or breakage; 2) your coffee will have grinds in it; 3) the coffee may become bitter, as the finer grinds that passed through the filter remain in contact with the coffee for too long.
Coffee shops flavor their beans by taking plain roasted coffee, and adding flavoring oils to them. After the oil is tossed with the beans, they are left alone to allow the flavor to soak in for at least 30 minutes.
The coffee flavoring oils are a lot like candy flavoring oils. Although I haven't tried it, I bet you could use those to flavor your beans.
In the land of everything available through the internet, I'd bet you could purchase these coffee bean flavoring oils on-line, and in small quantity. (We bought HUGE jugs of the stuff for the shop!)
I haven't worked in the coffee shop for over 10 years now (since becoming disabled in an unrelated accident), so I can't remember the exact ratio of flavoring to beans. I want to say that for every 1 lbs of beans, we mixed in .03 lbs of flavoring. I don't know what that comes out to be by volume, as we did everything by weight.
Best Answer
If your espresso machine has a milk steamer then you have several options; you can make a vanilla simple syrup with vanilla pod scrapes added and add that directly to your espresso, you can make a vanilla sugar which will be much milder, you can scrape some vanilla in with your milk as you steam it which produces a wonderful smell, you can add organic vanilla extract to your milk or simple sugar although I like the pods better. You could just buy the French Vanilla flavor they sell but it always seems sweeter than what you get in the coffee house by the cup.
Adding vanilla extract to the cup will not bring out the aromatics you need to add it to the steamed milk.
Why buy vanilla syrup when you can make your own? Especially when you can control the instensity of the vanilla.
Vanilla ground coffee beans are great as long as you don't sweeten your coffee. IMHO flavored coffee beans are only worth it if you take your coffee unadulterated.
If you don't have a milk steamer go buy one because you cannot make decent cappuccino without it, but most espresso machines have one so I am going to assume you already have it.