Flavoured Coffee - Right or Wrong?

I promised you a blog post about flavoured coffee, so here it is.

There are a couple of different ways to get flavoured coffee, firstly there is the addition of flavoured syrups. (I have a great recipe for Gingerbread Syrup which I'll share when I dig it out!) You can buy them from most coffee shops, or pay a little extra to have a shot in your coffee.

These syrups are available at www.thecoffeepod.co.uk and cost around £6-£8 a litre

Now, at christmas time I'm very partial to a gingerbread latte (hence the desire to find a recipe!) but generally I go for a straight up latte, the extra sugar that these syrups add is not conducive to dieting, and honestly the sugar free ones are not so nice!

However I recently tried the Douwe Egberts Vanilla instant coffee:

Delicate vanilla flavoured coffee - 2 calories a cup!

The flavour collective range also has a caramel flavour and a hazelnut one. I actually got sent a sample of the caramel (go to the Douwe Egbert's facebook page to request one) but I bought a jar of the vanilla and I have to admit I'm impressed.

The trademark jar is miniaturised down to 50g and when you open it you get a waft of vanilla fragrance, in fact I have to admit the smell is the most impressive thing about this coffee, it just smells fantastic and is perfect first thing in the morning.

Now bear in mind there is no added sugar in this coffee, so you aren't going to get the same sweetness you would if you added a shot of vanilla syrup, but there is a hint of mellowness that coffee sometimes lacks.

Something I really like though, as it cools this coffee actually still tastes good! In fact they suggest you can serve it over ice and make your own iced vanilla coffee, though in that case I'd add some sugar for a touch of sweetness.

Overall I'm pretty happy with this coffee. Of course it's only a little jar, they say 25 servings, but I've not been keeping track. And I'm afraid this is not an every coffee drink for me, I'd love too, but it is a little bit pricey for such a small jar, according to my supermarket the current prices (at 30/5/2013) are:

• Sainsburies has an offer and it is £1.99 a jar 
• Tesco has it at full price - £2.99 a jar
• Asda have it on offer at £2 a jar

I would definitely say it is worth keeping an eye out for an offer though - my next purchase will be the caramel!