Flavored tobacco products such as cigars and cigarettes are hugely popular, especially with younger tobacco users. Most of the trendy flavors are fruity, like peach or apple, but why not infuse your tobacco with a more mature taste such as coffee? How do you do it?
Here’s how to flavor tobacco with coffee:
- Grind the coffee beans
- Store the beans in an airtight container
- Put a coffee filter over the beans
- Add the cigarettes or cigar
- Close the lid and wait
The above method is one such way of adding a light touch of coffee goodness to tobacco, but it’s not your only option. You can also use flavor oil. We’ll provide step-by-step details ahead, so keep reading!
Flavoring Tobacco with Real Coffee Beans
If you want the best depth of flavor in your tobacco, then using real coffee beans is the way to go. Should you have tobacco in its purest form, such as the leaves from the Nicotiana plants, you can infuse these with coffee goodness. You can also do the same if you have rolled cigars or cigarettes.
Here’s how it’s done.
Step 1: Grind the Coffee Beans
Choose your highest-quality, most flavorful coffee beans for grinding. Some users have said that flavoring tobacco with real coffee beans imparts only a mild taste, so the stronger the coffee beans, the richer the flavor should be.
Grind your coffee beans until they have a smooth, even consistency. You want a bed of grounds for our premium cigar or cigarette, so no chunky coffee beans here, please.
Step 2: Store the Coffee Beans in an Airtight Container
Once you smell the full depth of the coffee bean’s aroma, you can stop grinding them. To trap in that pleasing fragrance, transfer the coffee beans to an airtight container. You can use Tupperware, but a stainless steel canister with a sealing lid are a better pick. The Coffee Gator and Airscape are great options .
Stainless steel containers won’t allow in the sunlight like translucent Tupperware can. This will keep the coffee grounds fresh until you’re ready to use them.
Step 3: Put a Coffee Filter Over the Beans
If you’re adding coffee flavor to tobacco plant leaves, then you can skip this step. For pre-rolled cigars or cigarettes though, you want to use a coffee filter.
Putting a cigar directly on the coffee grounds can lead to an overwhelming infusion of flavor. It would be to the point of excess, which is not what you want!
Step 4: Add the Cigarettes, Cigars, or Tobacco Leaf
With the coffee filter ready, you can now place your cigar or tobacco leaf on the bed of coffee grounds.
Step 5: Close the Lid and Wait
Replace the airtight lid and put your coffee grounds and tobacco somewhere away from direct sun and heat.
Next comes the hard part, being patient and waiting. The more patient you are, the stronger the flavor will be. You’ll have to give it at least a couple of weeks before you open the container.
Once you finally do, the tobacco should have deliciously dark, roasted flavor notes of coffee.
Flavoring Tobacco with Oil
If you don’t own a coffee brewer, you can always use flavored oil. Oils comes in lots of tastes outside of coffee, such as the above-mentioned fruity flavors.
These oils have their pros and cons. One advantage is that the flavor infusion process is a much easier one. However, since it’s an artificial product, the taste of coffee might not be totally accurate. We recommend sampling the flavor oil before buying it so you’re sure you like it.
Here’s how you use flavor oil to make your cigars taste more like coffee.
Step 1: Prepare Cotton Pads
If you don’t already have some in your medicine cabinet, then head to the pharmacy to pick up cotton pads. You need the sterile, ultra-absorbent kind. If the pads aren’t sized at 1 ½ inches apiece, you should trim them into smaller squares using kitchen scissors.
Step 2: Add Flavor Oil to the Cotton Pads
Now it’s time to impart the coffee taste to the cotton pads. For particularly strong oils, transfer the oil into a dropper and squirt a few drops onto the cotton pad.
If the flavor oil isn’t as in-your-face, then transfer the cotton pads into a plastic zippy bag and soak the pads in the oil for a few hours.
Step 3: Put the Cigar or Cigarette in the Bag
Unwrap the cigar or cigarette and then slip it into the plastic zippy bag. Like you didn’t want to lay cigars directly on a bed of coffee grounds, you also want to prevent the cigar from making direct contact with the soaked cotton pads. The cigar should be in the cotton pad’s proximity to soak up the flavors.
Step 4: Put the Bag in a Humidor
If you’re a regular cigar or cigarette smoker, then you probably own a humidor. This box for storing cigars keeps humidity out, which will come in handy now. Transfer the zippy bag with the cigar and the cotton pads into the humidor and close the door.
For the strongest flavor, give the cigars a few weeks in the humidor.
Does Coffee Taste Good with Cigars?
You’re curious whether coffee is a good match for cigars. To that, we say yes, it certainly can be! It does depend on the type of cigar you choose though.
If your cigar has a light, buttery taste, then coffee isn’t the best option. You’re better off pairing that type of cigar with fruity tobacco.
You need cigars that taste rich and deep if you want to infuse them with coffee flavor.
Why use just coffee alone? You can combine coffee with other pleasing flavors to make your most tasty cigars yet! For example, amaretto and coffee make an extraordinary flavor pairing.
Does Coffee-Flavored Tobacco Contain Caffeine?
The flavor kick you’ll enjoy when you smoke a cigarette or cigar infused with coffee flavor is going to be great. Is part of that kick due to the caffeine?
No. Coffee flavor oil is not caffeinated. After all, manufacturers just want to capture the flavor of coffee, not its energy-boosting effects, so there’s no need for the oil to contain caffeine.
What about coffee grounds, you ask? Coffee beans do contain caffeine, but putting a cigar or a cigarette on a bed of coffee beans is not going to make the cigar caffeinated.
This isn’t such a bad thing. Cigars and cigarettes contain nicotine, which causes the same immediate cessation to the body as caffeine. Your blood pressure and pulse will increase for a short period, and you’ll experience a spurt of alertness.
Since these effects can be quite pronounced when nicotine and caffeine first hit your body, it’s not recommended that you combine the two.
That jolt of energy you feel after enjoying a coffee-infused cigar or cigarette isn’t your imagination, but it’s not caffeine either. It’s the nicotine.
Final Thoughts
Infusing tobacco with coffee is a great way to bring out the depth of tobacco’s flavor, especially a deep, rich cigar. Whether you use coffee oil or grind coffee beans, you’ll love how much more delicious your cigars taste!
Check out 10 ways to flavor your coffee!