But for many folks who enjoy gourmet coffee, that’s just not good enough. A coffee is more of a creation than just a drink, and there are many traditional gourmet drinks to choose from.

Most gourmet coffee drinks are actually made with espresso rather than coffee, but for anyone brewing at home without an espresso machine, you can easily use strong brewed coffee instead. Won’t be quite the same, though. Still worth experimenting with if you want something different in the morning.

You’re probably pretty familiar with most drinks even if you haven’t enjoyed them personally. The best known gourmet espresso drinks are the cappuccino, the latte and the macchiato. They sound wonderfully Italian, and actually aren’t all that hard to make yourself.

How to Make Gourmet Coffee Drinks

Macchiato

A macchiato is just a sophisticated way of saying “with a spoon of foamed milk on top”. That’s it. Add some foamed milk on top of your coffee or espresso, and you have yourself a macchiato. Possibly the easiest gourmet coffee drink there is.

Latte

A latte isn’t that much more complicated either. You can make a latte with 1 part coffee, and 2 parts hot or steamed milk. A simple ratio would be a half cup of coffee, with 1 cup of steamed milk added. It’s a very creamy and milk coffee drink.

Cappuccino

And the final gourmet coffee drink would be the cappuccino. This time, you use equal parts hot coffee and steamed milk (so perhaps 1 cup of coffee and 1 cup of steamed milk). On top there is also a layer of foamed milk. A stronger coffee drink than the latte.

The final variation that you usually see in the coffee shop is the addition of some chocolate syrup to either drink, to make a mocha latte or a mochaccino.

DaVinci Gourmet Coffee Syrups

An alternative to getting flavoured coffee, is adding a shot of flavoured syrup to your cup. Syrups can be an awesome way of some variety to your coffee drinks, one cup at a time.

DaVinci is a well-known brand of coffee flavouring syrups, frequently seen in homes and coffee-shops alike.

What makes DaVinci a great brand is the range of flavours and products. You can find just about any taste you could want, ranging from apple to white chocolate. Have you ever seen anyone else offering kiwi, cookie dough, watermelon or toasted marshmallow syrups for your coffee?

Sometimes people shy away from sweet additives because they are on a diet or simply watching their sugar intake. That doesn’t mean you have to skimp on taste. DaVinci has a very nice selection of sugar-free syrups as well. Not quite as many as their classic lineup, but you won’t get bored too quickly either. Pumpkin pie, butterscotch, egg nog and amaretto all come in sugar-free, along with a few dozen more.

Bottles come in 750ml size, which may be great for a coffee shop, though might be a bit large for home use. Thankfully, their prices are reasonable, making it easy to amass a nice little collection of delicious syrups for your coffee experiments. If you want to hear about their newest creations, you can sign up for their online newsletter.

You can order any of DaVinci’s 120 flavours of syrups directly through their website, or from a number of other online coffee sellers. Or if you prefer to shop in person, they can be found at stores like Costco, Safeway, TJMaxx and Marshalls.

And though coffee syrups are their main product, DaVinci also has a chai tea concentrate syrup for making hot or iced chai tea drinks.

Using syrups in your coffee is really easy and quick. Just brew up your regular cup, and add a squirt of syrup. Syrups melt into your coffee quicker than powdered products, so just a stir with your spoon is enough to blend it in. They work in iced coffee drinks too.

Coffee-lovers often define a gourmet coffee as one grown in a geographic region known for its excellent coffee. Hawaii produces Kona coffee, Jamaica has its amazing Blue Mountain and Kenya has a number of well-known regions as well. Some folks love gourmet flavoured coffee as well, though some people feel the excessive flavouring ruins the natural tastes of coffee. It’s all a matter of opinion on that one. Flavoured coffee can run the spectrum of taste, offering a coffee bean to suit any palate. You can try pumpkin spice, banana hazelnut or mint chocolate truffle.

Another thing to look out for when buying gourmet coffee beans, is the term “peaberry”. Peaberry isn’t a particular type of coffee, or coffee from any specific area. Even so, peaberry coffee is still highly sought after, and can be found as a variety of other popular gourmet coffee lines. Coffee beans are actually the seeds inside a small fruit, called the coffee cherry. Most have 2 beans in each fruit. Sometimes, a cherry will only produce 1 large seed instead. These beans are peaberry, and are considered to be more flavourful because they are basically 2 beans worth of coffee in one.

The most exclusive type of gourmet coffee is so rare and unusual that many people think its just an urban legend. Kopi Luwak coffee comes from Indonesia, home to many other great coffee-growing areas. It’s the rarest of the rare, and not something most people ever get to try. The little coffee fruits are eaten by a small cat-like animal called a Luwak. The beans inside are not digested, and left amongst the animal waste. Believe it or not, these beans are collected and roasted into coffee. The final cup is reported to be extremely rich and even chocolatey in flavour.

Tip

When you buy gourmet coffee beans, make sure you don’t ruin them by getting over-zealous with the roasting. A medium roast is usually just right to get the unique flavours of each variety of coffee. Going for an overly dark roast will destroy all the subtle differences, and all your coffee will taste the same.

It partly depends on what you are after in your coffee. Are you looking for a particular taste, or maybe you just want to sample coffee from many different exotic regions. Though the differences between various types of gourmet coffee may be subtle, they are certainly there.

Blue Mountain coffee is considered to be one of the best gourmet coffees out there, but you may be disappointed in it if you enjoy a really bold cup of coffee. The flavour of this Jamaican coffee is actually very mild and won’t appeal to everyone. For something stronger, try some Kona beans from Hawaii. Still a smooth cup but with some spicy hints that make it a bit more interesting. Coffee beans from Ethiopia, like the Harrar or Yrgacheffe regions, will give you a coffee with very noticeable fruity tones, or even a “winy” taste.

So if you have a particular palate, do a bit of reading on the various gourmet coffee regions before spending a fortune on a pound of beans. You may find that the taste isn’t what you were expecting. Of course, that might be half the fun for someone who likes variety. Check out your local coffee shop and see if they have any freshly brewed coffee with these regional beans. Then you can taste for yourself before you buy.

You may also want to keep some ethical issues in mind when choosing gourmet coffee. Organic coffee means it was grown without chemical fertilizers or pesticides, and fairly traded coffee means that it was purchased for a fair price, usually directly from the coffee growers. Another environmentally friendly choice is shade-grown coffee, found in plantations where the natural forest hasn’t been cleared and the coffee is just grown among the existing trees.

For anyone cutting back on caffeine, don’t worry. Nearly any gourmet coffee you can buy is also available in decaf.

Finding gourmet coffee can be a challenge if you don’t live in a large urban area that has some fine food stores you can go browsing in. Thankfully, many quality coffee suppliers have gone online and you can now order beans from anywhere in the world.

These days, you can order your coffee beans from any of the famous coffee-growing regions around the globe with just a phone call or a click of your mouse. If you’re not sure what to choose from the huge selection out there, here is a quick run-down on some of the finer regions that you should sample from.

Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee is some of the most exclusive in the world, and usually the most expensive to buy. The region is small, but the high Caribbean mountain area has the perfect climate from growing coffee. Blue Mountain coffee is known for its very smooth and mild flavour, with none of the bitterness that you can find in some blends.

The next spot you might want to try would be Hawaii. There are several different regions for coffee in Hawaii, but the best would be Kona coffee. Kona coffee is grown on the slopes of either Mount Hualalai or Mauna Loa on the big island of Hawaii. Coffee from Kona is also smooth, though with a stronger flavour than Blue Mountain. There is a bit of spiciness to it as well.

When buying a regional gourmet coffee, be careful of any that are labeled as a blend. You can end up buying a bag of beans containing only 10% from that region. That doesn’t make it bad coffee, but you shouldn’t be paying high prices for coffee that is made up of mostly cheaper beans.

Most coffee fanatics would agree that some of the very best gourmet coffee comes from the Jamaican Blue Mountain region. It’s one of those unique places in the world that has exactly the right climate and growing season for producing amazing coffee. You can expect to pay anywhere from $40 to $100 for a pound of roasted Blue Mountain coffee beans. The taste is smooth and clean.

The second coffee region that has top-notch coffee beans would be in the Kona district of Hawaii. Coffee grown along the slopes of Mount Hualalai or Mauna Loa are considered to be true Kona coffees, and should not be confused with any other Hawaiian coffee regions. Kona is a bit spicier than Blue Mountain, but without a hint of bitterness.

These are just two of the best locations for coffee, but not the only ones. Excellent gourmet coffee also comes from many areas of Kenya, Ethiopia, Costa Rica and Indonesia.

When looking for the best gourmet coffee, check the labels or descriptions on the website. It should say that the coffee is 100% beans from that region. A Kona blend does not mean a mix of Kona beans, but rather a mix of cheaper beans and a small percentage of true Kona coffee.

Large urban supermarkets may carry beans from these high-end regions, but you may have to search a bit more to find them. Gourmet food shops, or coffee houses might also be able to help you. And there is always the Internet for finding online sources that can deliver right to your door.