DIY

Do-It-Yourself projects are so popular, not to mention most of them are crafty, good ideas that help conserve and actually doing it yourself (instead of spending money to have it already made for you) is rewarding. Here are some good, fresh coffee DIY projects to keep your summer days cool and creative. Below we've posted some of our favorite recipes for coffee additives like creamer, syrups, cold brewed coffee, and liqueur. Enjoy your coffee how every you like it with your homemade goodness.

French Vanilla Creamer:
What you'll need is ...

• 1- 14 oz. sweetened condensed milk
• 14 oz. whole, low-fat, or skim milk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• one container, Mason Jars work well

Combine all in the Mason Jar and shake vigorously until its all mixed up, and VOILA you have creamer. You can also add whatever flavoring you want if you prefer something other than vanilla.

Flavored syrups:
For these syrups there is a basic recipe with water and sugar, all the flavors are actually from the fruit, nut, etc you want to flavor with. So the basic recipe is ...
1 cup water to 1 cup sugar
combine all ingredients together in saucepan
heat till everything is melted
simmer for 10-15 mins.
let cool.

 VANILLA :

• put the sugar and water together
• Get a vanilla bean and split it in half and scrap all the pods out of the bean with a kitchen knife.

You can store it in anything you want, in the picture they've put each flavor in an oil dispenser.

RASPBERRY:

• same water/sugar ratios
• 3/4 cups of fresh raspberries

The method is the same, expect you'll need to strain the mixture before putting it in a jar to remove the seed from the raspberries.

COCONUT:

• same water/sugar ratios
• 1/4 cup cream of coconut ***
• 2 teaspoons coconut extracts

*** Cream of Coconut is usually found in the cocktail sections of the grocery stores, its used a lot in mixed drinks ***

CARAMEL:

• same water/sugar ratio
• 1/4 cup caramel sauce (you can use actual sauce or make your own by boiling a can of sweetened condensed milk)

This liqueur tastes like a cup of coffee with a little rum flavor, yummy for your summer mixed drinks and just enough sugar to be a sweet treat.

Liqueur recipe ...
Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup of fine ground coffee
• 2- 1/4 cups water divided
• 1/4 cup turbinado sugar (raw sugar)
• 1 vanilla bean
• 1 1/2 cups light rum

Method:

• Cold brew the coffee by combining the ground and 1 1/4 cups of water into a sealable glass jar, shaking it, the refrigerating the mixture for 12 hours. Strain through a coffee filter into another sealable jar. 
• Combine the sugar and 1 cup of water in a pot and bring it to a boil. Remove it from the heat and let the syrup cool at room temperature.
• Add cooled syrup, vanilla bean, and rum to the glass jar that contains the coffee. Let that mixture steep for 3 days. Remove the vanilla bean and bottle the liqueur. Enjoy! :)
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