Getting Saucy

Is is coffee?  Is it a dessert sauce?  Is it a marinade?  Is it a cocktail ingredient?  

My brain had been buzzing with all these questions ever since I tasted Karen’s Saucy Coffee at the Fancy Food Show in New York. I could not make up my mind on how to categorize this find, so I decided to get to the bottom of it.  

I met with Karen (the creator of Saucy Coffee) for lunch one day at Martel in Fairfield.  We picked Martel because they offer a special cocktail on the menu with the Saucy Coffee as its prime ingredient.  I believe its called Dolce with Saucy Coffee. Delicious!  As I chatted with Karen, she enthusiastically made me realize that her Saucy Coffee is all those things.  It seems that only one’s imagination and creativity is the limit to its many uses.  

Karen’s inspiration came from her frequent trips to her second home in Rhode Island.  Everyone she met there, told her that she must try a local favorite: Coffee Milk.  She did.  But she felt that the flavor was lacking and she set out to create a product that would address that problem.  Karen taste-tested tons and tons of ingredients and flavor combinations until she came up with the perfect blend.  And Karen’s Saucy Coffee was born!

Karen’s Saucy Coffee is 100% organic product using fair trade coffee extract.  As soon as I read that on the label, I was intrigued.  Upon tasting, I noted the deep flavors of coffee (it ain’t wimpy) with a hint of caramel.  It is smooth, it is luxurious and it is simply delicious.

Now, for the last couple of weeks I have been experimenting with Saucy Coffee.  I tried it on a simple slice of pound cake, with a dash of this sauce and a dollop of whipped cream, and I watched a transformation to something deeply flavorful and exciting.  It made me think that this sauce will be so perfect for that fabulous bottom layer of a Tiramisu cake (gotta try this at home). This sauce tastes divine with just a scoop of vanilla ice cream.  Those caramel flavor notes do wondrous things to complement the vanilla ice cream.  Oh! and how about a topping for your yogurt?

After the initial taste tests, I started to get bolder and braver.  Think vodka and Saucy Coffee!  Mmmm .....  

One afternoon, Karen blew my mind when she demonstrated (in her kitchen) what this sauce does to ordinary ribs with any BBQ sauce.  Try mixing this sauce with your favorite BBQ sauce to finish ribs coming off the grill. I loved the additional depth of flavor this sauce added to something that was already so flavorful.  It was a hit in my book.  I have seen ground coffee being used to coat meats and seafood for grilling.  This is pretty much the same idea - because it has that same mysterious flavor element being added by the use of coffee.