I like French vanilla coffee, so I decided to try a few ways to feed my addiction. First, I took a shopping trip and picked up some Dunkin Donuts and some Millstone brand coffee. I also picked up some Torani syrup. The next day, I made a trip to Starbucks. Finally, I tried my own recipe. I know there is a lot of french vanilla coffee creamer that’s available, but I figured that’s a whole different ball game, and not really a fair comparison for this experiment. Here’s what I came up with.
Dunkin Donuts
So I bought Dunkin Donuts French Vanilla Coffee beans for my first test. I did see the 40 oz. bag on Amazon for cheap, but I decided to stick with a small bag. I like coffee from Dunkin Donuts, but I wasn’t sure how their ground coffee would be. It’s fairly inexpensive. They use Aribica beans, so this helps the overall quality. I brewed a few cups using a typical drip machine and used the same amount as I usually do; one cup, one scoop. The end result was pretty watery and weak. There was almost no vanilla taste. Needless to say, I was not a fan. But, I decided to give it another shot using a scoop and a half per cup. This helped a lot. The taste of vanilla was subtle, not overpowering. It was not the best cup of caffeine I’ve ever had, but I would buy it again.
Millstone
Millstone makes a lot of flavors, and I’ve always been a big fan. It’s convenient and cheap. I’ve had the French Vanilla flavored coffee before, but I was never trying to do a comparison, so I bought a bag and revved up the caffeine machine. It has a full body, but a mellow vanilla taste. I probably need to mention this is the caffeinated version because there is a decaffeinated option. I’m not much of a decaf person, though. Based on the price and flavor, I would choose this over the Dunkin Donuts. I know, there are a thousand and one brands that I did not try, but these are the two that I run in to most often, so that’s what I decided to compare. In conclusion…. thumbs up!
A Trip To Starbucks
Again, I’ve had Starbucks coffee plenty, but never for research purposes (if you want to call it that.) As I pull up to the drive-thru and hand over my money, Starbucks drops to the bottom of the list. Sure it’s convenient, but it’s so dang expensive, especially compared to the options above. The aroma is great is very good. I take a small sip, swirl it around in my mouth and spit it out. Not because it’s bad, but I’ve seen people try wine like that so I thought I’d give it a try. It didn’t do much for me. I down the cup, as its morning, and I need my coffee. Starbucks is not my favorite coffee shop, but they do a pretty good job. I tend to get French vanilla iced coffee from there quite a bit. It has just the right amount of vanilla taste for me, not overpowering, but you can tell its vanilla. So, for the price, I don’t think it’s worth it, but I will still stop by when I’m on the road and need a cup
Torani Syrup
In short, I found this to be too sugary. I didn’t measure anything out; I just added some syrup to the cup of Folgers that I made. I’m not a big fan of syrups, so I really didn’t expect much. If you like sugar in your coffee, than you should definitely give this a try. I did use the rest of my small bottle to make Italian sodas, so it wasn’t a waste of money.
Vanilla Extract
I was doing some reading online, and noticed that there were some recipes for French vanilla coffee that called for vanilla extract. I didn’t follow any of these recipes, but though I’d dust of the bottle of extract I had in the back of the cabinet. I just dumped it in my Folgers like I did with the syrup. Long story short…. Ick. Maybe the recipes make it taste better, but I’m staying away from it.
So what did I learn from my experiment? I’ll buy Millstone from time to time and keep it in the cabinet. When I’m out and about, I’ll spend a little money and get my fix from Starbucks. My vanilla extract will be for cooking only, and I’ll stick with Italian sodas for my syrup consumption.
Recent Comments