"Coffee Candy Experiments"

by Matthew C.
2007.01.08

Over the last week or so, I've been adding leftover holiday candy to my coffee at work in an attempt to find some substitute for cream and sugar. So far, I haven't found one that I'd recommend. After each "experiment" I am cleaning the coffee cup as not to contaminate my future "findings". I am using "Maxwell House: Bold French Roast" coffee.

Here are my results:


2007.01.05

At first, I tried a Three Musketeers™ candy bar. This "sort of" worked. The candy bar floats and therefore ended up looking like fecal matter in my coffee cup. Not particularly appetizing.

The outer chocolate coating melted quickly, giving the coffee a chocolaty taste. But while the outer coating melted quickly (removing the fecal look), the solid nougat center did not dissolve quickly. The center may have melted slightly on the edges… this just made the center look odd and misshapen. It the end, I drank the entire cup of coffee before the center had the chance to completely dissolve. So, in the end, I just ate a lump of nougat that tasted like coffee.

2007.01.05

Maybe I'm drinking the coffee before the candy has the chance to completely dissolve.
...
Testing this theory, I dropped two small holiday M&M's™ into my coffee. The candy completely dissolved although the coffee wasn't very "chocolaty". (Maybe I need to use more M&M's...)

The cup didn't have much residue in it after I was done drinking the coffee. While some candy dissolves and falls apart in hot liquid, this just disintegrated.

2007.01.08

Thinking the solidity of the center was the problem, I then tried a bell-shaped piece of chocolate with "rice crispies" inside. (Sort of like a little Crackle™ candy bar.) This was also not the best idea. The chocolate candy melted in the cup of coffee, flavoring it with chocolaty goodness, but released the once-crunchy rice crispies to float in my cup like little soggy mistakes. (A lump of chocolate was also found at the bottom of my cup.)

2007.01.08

I have some leftover Twix™ here, but Twix in coffee doesn't even sound like a good idea. I'm skipping this one.

2007.01.08

I had some Reese's Peanut Butter Cups with Caramel™ inside them, but putting that in coffee didn't sound like a good idea, so I never tried it. They were, however, very tasty themselves so I ate all of them. I never had any "leftovers".

2007.01.09

Today I'm trying an egg-shaped, foil wrapped, piece of candy that seems to be solid chocolate.. The exterior foil has a Santa face printed on it. This MAY give me the chocolaty goodness I seek without filling my cup with floating soggy wafer pieces. Although I fear the chocolate may just partially dissolve into a lump of chocolate at the bottom of the cup.

...

The chocolate is breaking up in the cup, but not really giving the coffee much flavor. As it turns out, the piece of chocolate had the same "crunchy" contents as the "bell-shaped chocolate". Oh well. Another strike-out.

2007.01.10

I have some miniture Twix™ candy bars here... but they're good by themselves. I just keep eating them without adding them to my coffee.

2007.01.11

Ok, we're running low on leftover holiday candy here at the office.

2007.01.12

This morning I brought a homemade piece of chocolate candy to add to my coffee. It's a little chocolate candy in tiny cupcake paper. It's using the wafer chocolate you can get at craft stores. The candy is solid chocolate except for the middle which holds a small piece of coconut.

The chocolate immediately dissolved in the coffee, but didn't mix with it. The chocolate seems to float on top of the coffee. As for the coconut... I think I'll find it in a lump at the bottom of the cup.

...

I was wrong. The coconut lump broke up in the coffee and each individual coconut sliver in freely floating in the coffee. This makes drinking the coffee more difficult. I can't just swallow every swig of liquid. If I did, I probably choke on a coconut piece. I now have to take a drink and see what's in the swig (so I can chew any coconut) before I just throw it down my throat. This makes drinking the coffee slower and all the dissolved chocolate and coconut piecs make (sort of) a mess in the cup.

2007.01.15

Ok, we're pretty much out of holiday candy at the office. This morning I added a peppermint disc to my coffee. (nothing fancy, just a generic peppermint disc-shaped candy) It wasn't bad. VERY... "peppermint-y". (especially after the entire disc dissolved) Basically this was like sticking a "Candy Cane" into the coffee, but these peppermint discs seemed to be a little more "peppermint-y" and generally less sweet than a "Candy Cane".

If you like peppermint, you'll like this. If not... well, this has a very strong peppermint taste. Depending on personal preference, this may be worth recommending. This was too "peppermint-y" for me, but you may like it.

2007.01.17

Hmmm... I guess I'm veering off the beaten path here when I include something that's NOT holiday candy. ... Well, it's here and I've run out of leftover holiday candy, so I'm going to give it a go.

This morning, I'm adding a "hot chocolate mix" to my coffee. Specifically, it's Godiva® "Dark Chocolate Trouffle" hot chocolate mix. My use for this powder is far from its intended purpose, so I'm kinda hesitant about the results. So far, my coffee is chocolatey without being "too sweet". ... One interesting thing is that the chocolate powder doesn't seem to dissolve. It just settles in the bottom of the cup. If I didn't swirl the coffee before I take a sip, I'd be drinking straight coffee. (I wonder if the coffee isn't hot enough to dissolve the powder? Or if the coffee is already saturated with the powder and I need to make it hotter to super-saturate it? ... Ha. Listen to me. I sound smart throwing around my "Chemistry 101" terms.)

...

Overall, it wasn't bad. I only used the hot chocolate mix... and didn't miss the cream or sugar. The coffee was chocolatey. There wasn't any "residue" in the cup afterwards. All in all, this wasn't great, but it wasn't bad either. I heartily somewhat sorta kinda recommend trying this.

2007.01.26

This morning, I dropped one Hershey's® Kiss into my coffee. It isn't bad. The candy immediately started to dissolve. In addition to the coffee being slightly flavored, I immediately noticed chocolate "particles" floating on top of the coffee.

Pouring and stirring the drink was somewhat more involved as the chocolate dissolved so quickly that the plastic spoon I stir with was left with somewhat of a "chocolate sludge" on it.

Oh well.

2007.02.02

This morning I'm adding one packet of Nestle® "Milk Chocolate" Hot Cocoa Mix to my coffee. It's not bad. I like it. The robust flavor of the coffee is somewhat masked by the thick chocolate taste. At first I thought that maybe I was using too much hot cocoa mix or too little, but now I think I've stumbled upon "just right".

2007.03.20

This morning I'm adding one packet of Swiss Miss® "Chocolate Sensation" Hot Cocoa Mix to my coffee. ... Hmmm. Very "chocolaty". You can sort of taste the coffee, but not really. The taste of the chocolate seems to overpower the taste of this (admittedly) robust tasting coffee. Considering the fact that I think we should have a LESS robust coffee at work, this is a nice (although very chocolatey) change of pace.