Hot Cinnamon Coffee: A Cinnamon Syrup Latte, Sugar on Top

At a glance

Espresso : milk

1:5

Active time

5 min

Total time

10 min

Makes

1 large cup

Serve

Hot

Kit

Espresso machine

Ingredients

Scale:

20 ml cinnamon syrup Made below.

1 double espresso, 36 g out

180 ml whole milk Steamed.

1 pinch cinnamon sugar Equal sugar and ground cinnamon.

Note: For the syrup: 100 g light brown sugar, 100 ml water and two cinnamon sticks, simmered five minutes and left to infuse. It keeps two weeks.

Shopping list

Espresso machine Anything with a steam wand. A moka pot plus a milk frother also works. Shop

Espresso grinder Stepless or very fine steps. A filter grinder cannot adjust finely enough for espresso. Shop

Milk steaming jug 350 ml for one drink, 600 ml for two. A jug too large will not texture a small amount.

Ceylon cinnamon sticks Canela, the soft papery kind Mexico uses. Cassia is harsher.

Syrup bottles For the syrups you make. They keep two weeks in the fridge.

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Method

Make the cinnamon syrup

Simmer the brown sugar, water and broken cinnamon sticks for five minutes. Take it off the heat and leave the sticks in for thirty minutes, then strain and bottle.

Simmer 5 minutes, infuse 30

Syrup and espresso

Put the syrup in a warmed cup and pull the double espresso onto it. Stir.

25 to 30 seconds

Steamed milk

Steam the milk to about 60°C and pour it in, as for a latte.

Steam 20 seconds

Cinnamon sugar on top

Dust a pinch of cinnamon sugar over the foam.

Why this works

Cinnamon gives up its flavour best to hot liquid and time, which is why a syrup works better than ground cinnamon stirred into a cup. Simmering the sticks in sugar water dissolves their cinnamaldehyde and eugenol into the syrup, and leaving them to infuse off the heat for half an hour extracts more without boiling the aroma away. The result carries a clean, strong cinnamon flavour with no grit.

Brown sugar suits cinnamon better than white. Its molasses brings caramel and a little bitterness, which make the cinnamon taste warmer and rounder, the same pairing as in cinnamon buns. Syrup and espresso go in first so the hot shot mixes the syrup completely before the milk arrives. Added last, syrup sinks and the drink is sweet at the bottom.

The cinnamon sugar on top is for the nose. Most of what you taste as cinnamon is actually aroma, and a dusting on the foam puts it right under your nose with every sip. Sugar in the dusting makes it taste sweet before the coffee even arrives.

Use Ceylon cinnamon sticks for the syrup. They are softer and more floral than cassia, and contain much less coumarin. For a coffee with spice brewed in rather than added, see cinnamon spiced coffee.

Variations

Iced: syrup and espresso over ice with cold milk. See also iced cinnamon coffee.
With oat milk: oat milk and cinnamon are an especially good match.
With vanilla: a drop of vanilla extract in the syrup.
Without an espresso machine: 60 ml of strong moka pot coffee and milk heated with a handheld frother.

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Questions

How do you make cinnamon coffee?

Make a cinnamon syrup by simmering cinnamon sticks in brown sugar and water, then stir it into espresso or coffee with steamed milk.

Can I just add ground cinnamon to coffee?

It does not dissolve and gives little flavour. A syrup, or cinnamon brewed in with the grounds, works much better.

How long does cinnamon syrup keep?

About two weeks in a sealed bottle in the fridge.

Is cinnamon in coffee healthy?

In normal amounts it is a flavouring. Ceylon cinnamon is the better choice for regular use because it contains much less coumarin than cassia.