Coffee with almond-coconut cream & cardamom

When I lived overseas, I noticed that cafés served tiny cups of coffee that would barely qualify as kid-size in the U.S. At first, it was a bit infuriating- where’s my half-gallon latte? But then I realized that, duh, just like super-size fries and giant plates of pasta at Cheesecake Factory, we overestimate portion size in America. So I became accustomed to having a tiny, strongly flavored drink in the afternoon, around 3 or 4 p.m.

I’m crazy about half-and-half in my coffee, but since dairy is a no-go for me, I was thrilled to find an alternative: Califia’s almond-coconut half-and-half. I add a touch of cardamom to the coffee grounds, steam my beloved almond-coconut cream and pour into tiny French bistro glasses for a treat that feels right for the beginning of the holiday season. If you’ve never tried coffee with cardamom, do yourself a favor and try this sweet and spicy addition in your java. If you can, get cardamom pods and grind them yourself, but the pre-ground kind will work just fine too.

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons ground coffee
• 3/4 cup almond-coconut half-and-half (or dairy half-and-half if you can tolerate it)
• pinch ground cardamom
• 1 tablespoon maple syrup, to sweeten (optional)

How to:

1. Make your coffee: Prepare a pour-over filter with coffee grounds and place over large mug. Add cardamom to grounds. Heat water till barely boiling, and pour over slowly, stopping every 5 seconds or so, till you have about 1 cup of coffee.
2. Heat up cream in small saucepan until barely frothy.
3. Pour coffee into 2 tiny glasses, pour cream on top and sweeten with maple syrup, if you want (I didn’t use sweetener). Enjoy your fabulous, European-style café creme (sans dairy).

Serves two.