17 Hacks All Coffee Drinker's Should Know

Your body naturally releases a stress hormone called cortisol which gives you energy. Your body does this throughout the day in 5 hour intervals. If you use coffee as a means of energy, you will benefit from drinking your morning cup of coffee about 2 hours after waking and your afternoon coffee about 2 hours after lunch.

The supplement industry is loaded with falsified ads for workout energy drinks that promise to build bigger muscles. The truth is that the FDA has banned almost all substances that show any promise in those workout drinks because they are deemed unsafe. The pre-workout drinks you buy today, are really nothing more than a dose of caffeine. You are better off having a cup of coffee 20-40 minutes before your workout. Coffee is natural; those pre-workout energy drinks are not.

Try a slice of butter in your next cup of coffee. Not only is it healthier for you than cream, but it taste amazing. Go with an unsalted natural butter.

Coffee won’t make you any smarter, however it will make your mind sharper and it will improve your ability to work faster. When you have a redundant task ahead, like data entry, try a cup of coffee before. Coffee contains caffeine which raises your heart rate and increases the electrical pulses from your brain to your hands..

Can’t get enough of coffee? You can use coffee in most of your baking recipes as a substitute for water. The result will be a coffee flavored desert.

If you love coffee but are sensitive to acid, try cold brewing your coffee. Unlike warm brewing, cold brewing reduces the acidic levels in coffee. To cold brew coffee, place your coffee beans in a container of water and allow to sit for 12 hours. After 12 hours you can strain the beans out. You can serve as ice coffee by adding ice cubes to the batch, or you can simple pour a cup and microwave it for a nice cup of warm goodness.

For those people who need to cut sugar out of their diets and refuse to drink their coffee black, try using cinnamon as your sweetener. Not only does it taste great, cinnamon helps fight off bacterial and fungal infections and may ward off Alzheimer’s disease.

A strange trick you can do If your batch of coffee is too strong, is to add a pinch or two of salt. The salt counteracts the bitterness leaving a smooth flavor.

People are fanatical about how their coffee is served. How many times have you gone to the fridge after brewing coffee, only to realize you’re out of cream? True coffee lovers will tell you there is a big taste difference between milk and cream. If you're out of cream and need to please the cream lovers you can make your own cream using milk and a few drops of vanilla extract.

Skip that massive cup of coffee and favor a smaller cup. It’s better to consume four small cups of coffee throughout the day than two large cups. Your body can only absorb so much caffeine before the effects wear off. By drinking smaller cups more frequently, you ensure your body gets the benefits of coffee for a longer period of time.

Never throw your unused coffee grounds away. There’s simply too much you can do with them. Spread used coffee grounds over your garden; they make a great fertilizer and pest repellent. Coffee grounds are also great at absorbing odors. You can use the coffee grounds as an exfoliate or even use it in a hair treatment.

One way to make your coffee stay fresh longer is to store it in your freezer after its been opened.

To get the most out of your cup of coffee, try adding the flavorings to your beans before they are ground. Cinnamon, lemon zest and chocolate work best for this and will leave you with a flavorful pot of coffee.

Ice coffee lovers, this one’s for you. Ice coffee is usually brewed stronger than regular coffee because the ice cubes melt and dilute the coffee flavoring. You really notice the diluted flavor as you’re near the end of your cup of coffee. An easy solution to this is to freeze coffee in an ice cube tray. The results will be ice cold coffee chunks that will chill your beverage without diluting the coffee.

When you have some time in the morning, try making your own latte. It’s easier than you think and it tastes amazing. All you need is a milk frother which cost around $20. Add your cream and sugar to a mug and microwave for about a minute, then use your frother to make it foamy. Pour the foam over your cup of coffee. It really is that easy.

If you’re a big fan of coffee syrup flavorings, you can make them yourself and save a boat load of money. All coffee syrups start with a simple base that is composed sugar and water. Add 2 cups of sugar and 2 cups of water to a pot over low heat. Heat and mix until the water dissolves then you’re ready to add your flavoring. You can use vanilla extract, cocoa powder, caramel, or crushed fruit to the mix. When using crushed fruit, you may need to strain out the fruit seeds and chunks.

The effects we get from caffeine tend to wear off over time. Our bodies adapt to the caffeine intake and that morning buzz we use to get from coffee, eventually diminishes. When this happens, try adding a splash of grapefruit juice to your coffee. Grapefruit contains a healthy fat that will slow the absorption process of the caffeine in your body.