Gifts for Coffee Lovers: Café Flavours at Home with Spice Drops

In short: The best gift for a coffee lover who already has the machine and the beans is a new way to flavour their coffee. The Barista Flavour Collection holds four award winning Spice Drops, Cardamom, Chai Spices, Cinnamon and Vanilla, for café style lattes, cappuccinos and chai at home without syrups. Each 5ml bottle holds around 150 drops and keeps for up to three years.

Coffee lovers are hard to buy for. They usually have the machine, the beans and the favourite mug already. What they may not have is an easy way to make café style flavoured drinks at home without bottles of syrup. The Barista Flavour Collection gives them four natural flavours to add a drop at a time.

What is in the Barista Flavour Collection?

• Cardamom Spice Drops, 5ml (Great Taste 2015, two stars)
• Chai Spices Spice Drops, 5ml (Great Taste 2016, two stars)
• Cinnamon Spice Drops, 5ml (Great Taste 2015, two stars)
• Vanilla Spice Drops, 5ml (Great Taste 2017, one star)

How do you use Spice Drops in coffee?

Put one to four drops in the empty cup, then pour the coffee and milk on top and stir. Start with fewer drops and add more to taste, because the flavour is concentrated. The same method works for tea and hot chocolate. Every bottle comes with its own dropper.

How much should you use?

These ratios come from our product pages. Start with them, taste, then add more if you like.

What can you make with it?

• A vanilla latte: a few drops of Vanilla in the cup before the coffee and milk.
• A cinnamon cappuccino with Cinnamon stirred through the milk.
• A chai latte with Chai Spices and warm milk.
• Cardamom in black coffee, the way it is often served in the Middle East and India.
• Cinnamon or Vanilla in hot chocolate on a cold evening.

Why are Spice Drops a good gift for a coffee lover?

Each 5ml bottle holds around 150 drops and keeps for up to three years when stored in a cool, dry place out of direct sunlight, so the set will not be finished or stale within a few weeks. Spice Drops are made by Holy Lama in Kerala, India, where more than 80% of our workforce is women, and the range won best new ingredient at the World Food Innovation Awards 2015.

Spice Drops contain no artificial colours, flavours or preservatives and are oxalate free. They are vegan, gluten free and alcohol free, and contain a plant derived emulsifier, polysorbate 80, which helps them mix into food and drink.

How are Spice Drops made?

Spice Drops are made at our own factory in Kerala, India, by a family business that dates back to 1946. The spices are crushed in a hammer mill or under a roller without heat, then extracted, and the solvent is removed under vacuum. For some flavours the distilled oil of the same spice is added back. Leafy herbs such as Mint are distilled essential oil only. The result is real spice flavour: the natural compounds that give each spice its taste and aroma are still there, such as piperine, which gives black pepper its heat.

How can you make it a bigger gift?

• Pair it with our Tea Spices Collection for someone who drinks both tea and coffee.
• Add our handmade gift wrap, a fabric scarf they can keep, for £2.50.
• See every set in our Spice Drops gift collections, or read our guide to Spice Drops gift sets for every food lover.

Ordering for Christmas? Check our Delivery page for the last order dates.

Shop the Barista Flavour Collection.