Roasted Corn – Tastiest Alternative To Coffee
My grandmother’s special spiced coffee has been on my mind since that 8 Random Marvia Facts Tagging Game I participated in last week. My mother and I got into a discussion about this special tasting coffee today when lo and behold we found packaged roasted corn – an alternative to coffee in the supermarket.
We were both excited with our find and Mama mentioned that it was shortly before her arrival in Panama that my father was telling her how his mother (my grandmother of the spiced coffee fame) also roasted corn, ground it like coffee and put it through the same process. Of course, we bought a pack to try it.
It was spectacular.
I recognized the taste the minute I tasted it. Now, donkey years later I am realizing that what I had thought was a different tasting coffee was in fact roasted corn. It is 100% roasted and ground corn. Best of all it is caffeine free.
It smells like Asham, a Jamaican kids treat [if one can call it that]. This is a fine powder made from the same roasted corn with sugar and salt added. It was once very popular with children in early Jamaica.
As a child, it was the nicest thing to lick the powdered Asham from my palm. Yuummm.
Today, Asham is mostly seen at Jamaica’s folk festivals and of course will definitely turn up in August for Emancipation and Independence celebrations.
So what did we girls do? Made roasted corn coffee tea (is it coffee or is it tea?)
We prepared the ‘kaafi-tea’ old country Jamaica style. Forget coffee maker and percolator. Grab a pot and get started…
Recipe – Spiced Roasted Corn Kaafi-Tea (Coffee-Tea)
Add 2 teaspoon of roasted corn to 2 cups of water
Add cinnamon
Let it boil about 3 minutes
Add 2 tbs Coconut milk/cream (thick creamy kind from the can)*
Add 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg powder (or grated if you have the real thing)
Let this boil 2 minutes
Strain. Pour into mug while blissfully inhaling the delicious aroma
Add a pinch of salt (watch the hypertension now. I want no lawsuits here)
Add sugar (if you desire)
Sit down
Put up your feet.
Relax…I know you can’t wait to taste it.
Now take the first sip, and…
Gently put the cup down, run to your computer, and leave a comment here telling me how eternally grateful you are to me (and my parents) for adding this rich new dimension to your hot beveraged life.
More tastilicious things coming soon.
Marvia
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July 27th, 2007 at 2:51 pm
I am gonna try this recipe once my Mom lifts my ban from the kitchen.
July 31st, 2007 at 12:17 am
A ban?? Goodness. Are you that bad?
April 22nd, 2009 at 11:34 pm
It’s neither coffee or tea – it’s Tisane.
Strictly speaking the beverage we know of as coffee can only come from the beans of the same name. Same goes for tea, which are from the steeped leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant.
I, myself, have the same quandary. You want people to know more about a coffee-substitute but you can’t help but tell them that it’s something like coffee (or tea).
Surprisingly, we have the same kind of drink here in the Philippines. I’d like to try this spiced recipe sometime.
Do you use white or yellow corn?
November 19th, 2009 at 6:05 am
WE are currently marketing corn coffee with ganoricus lucidum extract and agaricus Blazei Murill Mushroomm with non dairy creamer and brown sugar
November 21st, 2009 at 10:44 pm
Thanks for visiting and sharing Camil.