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Hot Coffee and Soda

A hot beverage made by infusing coffee and chicory, then mixing with soda water and sweetening with cream syrup or condensed milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Hot Coffee and Soda

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Infuse the coffee and chicory in boiling water for a few minutes without boiling.

  2. Combine equal parts of hot black coffee and soda water.

  3. Add cream syrup or condensed milk and sugar to taste.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Coffee + chicorytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50 recipes

    Shared aroma: maltol (caramel, sweet).

  3. Coffee + creamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,339 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  4. Coffee + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,344 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Chicory + creamtop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together39 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Coffee
Provides the main roasted flavor, aroma and bitterness of the drink.
Chicory
Adds an earthy, slightly bitter depth to the coffee flavor.
Soda water
Adds carbonation, giving the drink fizz and a light texture.
Cream syrup or condensed milk
Adds sweetness and a creamy, rounded body that softens the coffee's bitterness.

The step that matters

Infusing without boiling. Keeping the coffee and chicory just below boiling while they steep limits the extraction of harsh, bitter compounds. Boiling grounds tends to pull out more bitterness and can leave the drink tasting burnt or astringent.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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