“Why do you put eggshells in coffee?” you asked the bartender with extreme doubt about his experience. Wait a minute! The truth is, this technique decreases the bitterness of your cup.
As modern methods dominate coffee shops, some professional baristas have gradually gone back to traditional tricks. Some of them are the ones that took you by surprise.
If this aspect is completely new to you, let our article give you a comprehensive overview with detailed information and guidelines. Read on for the pro skills to make a premium coffee at home!
Why Do You Put Eggshells In Coffee?
As you know, high-quality coffee is famous for its characteristic bitter taste. Some varieties add a little sourness, but they do not generally give off any sweetness.
The basic brewing measures are not enough to soften this strong flavor (of course, just in case you cannot stand it). Most people often use sugar or condensed milk to soothe the taste.
On the downside, it seems to slightly alter the main ingredient’s naturalness. Some with obesity or diabetes are also not very fond of this method. That’s one reason for us to return to the old trick: putting eggshells on coffee grounds.
This method creates a unique drink recipe – cowboy or camping coffee. And whatever it is, you should not see it as a crazy and unrealistic experience. For more persuasion, the next section will bring about some of the scientific sides of this concoction.
How Do Eggshells Make Coffee Less Bitter?
The interesting fact is that the beans’ acidity forms the strong flavor of the coffee. Meanwhile, eggshells contain trace amounts of calcium carbonate, which is a common alkali. Without a doubt, chemistry teaches us that alkaline substances neutralize acids. It leads to the perfect result of reducing the bitterness in your cup.
In other words, adding eggshells to the coffee grounds has a surprising effect. This method never lets you down if you do not fall for expensive flair such as chocolate or berry notes for a morning drink. It gives just enough power to hit the taste buds and wake up your spirits.
Besides, you cannot always bring a full set of cooking utensils, especially when camping. People often utilize campfires to make a cup of Joe. Unfortunately, boiling over high heat resulted in over-extraction and terrible bitterness.
Worse yet, wild conditions prevent us from wasting sweeteners to soften this powerful note. Then, you can only mix them with more water, which is a scary situation that no bartender would want to end up doing. If nothing helps, you end up with overwhelming frustration and a lack of consciousness.
Fortunately, this trick allows you to enjoy a delicious drink even away from modern machines. That’s why the “cowboy recipe” still exists until now. The eggshell improves the flavor, but more miraculously, it settles the powder to the bottom of the pot. This method works as a quality coffee maker with a low price and great convenience.
Read more: Why is my coffee bitter
How To Use Eggshells In Coffee?
Did the arguments above excite you to try this brewing technique right now? Don’t rush! Take a few minutes to carefully read through our guide for the best results.
Getting Started
The necessary ingredients and tools are definitely available in your home. Here is what you need:
- Coffee
- A pitcher or coffee maker
- Small bowls
- Eggs
The number of eggs depends on the amount of coffee. If you plan on making a small serving (about 4 cups), one eggshell should suffice for the expected results. However, you have to increase the quantity for a larger pot. It is a bit difficult to say the exact ratio for each specific case. The best way is to try and let your taste buds decide.
Step 1: Crack The Eggs
Let’s start this recipe with one simple step. It is not strange even to those who are not familiar with the kitchen.
Gently break the eggs into a small bowl and put the shells in another. It helps keep things separate and clean. You never want your ingredients to be contaminated, right?
An important tip is that you should use fresh eggshells. Cracking eggs and using them right away allows this ingredient to work at its best.
Likewise, boiled eggshells do not come with this method. When the egg comes in contact with hot water, it produces a sulfur compound that permeates eggshells and coffee grounds. Thus, saving eggshells sounds like a good saving but actually costs you dearly with a bad cup of Joe.
Step 2: Clean The Eggshells
After reaching the desired amount, it is necessary to wash off the eggshells. As you know, unprocessed ingredients can sometimes come with dirt. We recommend using hot water to kill some invisible bacteria simultaneously.
Never forget to thoroughly inspect the eggshell before moving on to the next step. You should make sure that the inside is no longer sticky with any whites.
Step 3: Prepare Your Coffee Machine
In this stage, you just need to follow the daily routine that you usually do. Pour the grounds and water into the dispenser or pitcher. When it comes to camping, do the same with the existing pot.
Prepare everything with a shutdown machine. Similarly, say no to fire at this point. You must also pay special attention to the ratio of the two main ingredients. Standard measurement plays an important role in reducing the bitterness of your drink. If you neglect it, nothing will change at the last minute.
Step 4: Add The Eggshells To The Grounds
The best part of this performance has begun. Please crush the eggshells by hand before cooking them. You can use a tissue if the direct touch brings a little discomfort.
Do not try to make the eggshells powdery because it reduces the quality of the finished product. Keep it just the right size to blend with the brew.
Now, the crushed eggshells are ready for the game. You can put it directly into the pot or pitcher if you cook the coffee manually. With the dispenser, please place it in the roasting container. In short, let the eggshell come with the grounds, so it neutralizes the bitterness.
Step 5: Brew As Normal
From this stage, everything has gone back to the old play. Adding a new ingredient does not cause any effect on your previous brewing method. Turn on the machine or set it on fire and let the eggshell do its job.
Step 6: Enjoy Your Cup!
Now, you are ready to serve yourself a delicious cup. But it hasn’t come to an end yet. Enjoy it subtly and notice the tiny differences. You still need to make a few changes in the next step to achieve the perfect recipe.
Step 7: Perfect The Recipe
Making this beverage with eggshells seems like a simple recipe, but the truth may surprise you. Those who focus on subtlety notice the difference in taste with the new ratios. If you are also one of them, tailoring your own formula is the true last step in this game.
Essentially, you have a simple general recipe: Increase the eggshells for a mellow note and do the opposite for more intense flavors. The starting base is your first cup of Joe (it is a 1:4 ratio if you follow our instructions). Remember to record your experience as a document for future attempts.
It is best to do this step with small changes one at a time. For example, you can use one eggshell for 5 cups if a sweeter taste satisfies your taste buds. Conversely, reduce the ratio to 1:3 for more stimulation.
We recommend your experiments with the same grounds until the recipe turns out perfect. You must know that each brand produces beans with completely different acidity. As a result, changing key ingredients interferes with your judgment and prolongs the time to give birth to the best recipe.
Do not hesitate to try countless times. As you are not a professional bartender, failure can knock you down a few times. On the bright side, it gives you valuable advice and experience. Once you have succeeded, an appealing cup for breakfast is the greatest gift you will ever get.
Why Should You Try This Recipe?
Is it time to bring back the old tricks? You wonder why some people use this method when the development of science has given us modern dispensers. Well, we have to emphasize once again its benefits.
At first, each person pursues a different preferred taste. Some look for richness, while others fall for softness. For the second group of people, the brewing becomes an uphill struggle if they still want to keep the delicacy of the quality beans. Hence, they take advantage of this traditional trick to achieve their goals instead of technological devices.
Besides, using sweeteners does not seem to be very health-friendly. It also somewhat detracts from the beverage’s distinctive flavor, leading to a disappointment among its lovers. The natural acid neutralization allows you to fully enjoy your favorite flavors without any alteration.
Similarly, this time-honored method is a quick lifesaver for overly strong batches of coffee. You can put the eggshells in the pot even after the brewing process is over. Its impact may not be as strong as the recommended routine, but it allows you to have a pleasant experience with your cup. The final ingredient becomes smooth, mellow, and of course, less bitter.
Another reason for adding eggshells is to improve the flavor of spoiled grounds. Maybe you have kept the beans beyond the allotted time or that they did not reach the required quality at the beginning. Undoubtedly, poor ingredients make for a less appealing drink without the benefits of eggshells.
In another situation, this method never goes into oblivion because campers always search for them. It is a pretty cool tip to impress everyone if you have a camping trip in the woods.
Or it may simply be that you intend to try something out of your comfort zone. This method does not require much time or effort to stop you from improving your bartending skills.
And who knows? Maybe in the process of experimenting, you find it really interesting and useful. Even if you just want to check the correctness of this article, the results may surprise and delight you.
What Do You Need To Consider?
To be clear, we do not recommend this brewing method to make a cup for people with egg allergies. Can it be done with a cleaned eggshell? It is not that easy to confirm with certainty the health effects even if you do not use what is inside. Unless you get the drinker’s consent, you can not try this recipe indiscriminately.
Also, the impact of the eggshell can remove some flavors in a way that you do not want. If you pay for premium coffee beans, you’d probably prefer to use more conventional methods. The careful and familiar routine allows you to enjoy the subtlety and complexity of the cup.
In short, this method may turn out to be an unnecessary trade-off for the huge amount of money spent on your beans. It saves batches of poor-quality coffee but sometimes sends your expensive ingredients to the trash.
Conclusion
Why do you put eggshells in coffee? This article has just shown you a scientific answer. The hardest part of this traditional method is tweaking the recipe to satisfy your taste buds best.
In return, you can find joy in creating the most appropriate ratio. As the final word, we hope our information is detailed and interesting enough to clear your doubts and let you try this brewing trick at least once.
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Almost 20 years already spent committed to coffee and more than 3 years of experience as a barista at Starbucks. Madelyn Doyle graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Nutritional Science from the University of California and finished the Coffee Skills Program at the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA).