So I was watching Single’s Inferno, and to semi-avoid spoilers(I won’t include specific names), there was an instance in one of the seasons a contestant was so enamored with the concept of sweet corn coffee that, at least it seemed like this to me anyways, she dumped all of her other prospective suitors to pursue a guy she didn’t initially seem interested in, just because he worked at a cafe that sold it. To me, that seemed a bit ridiculous, since she literally had zero interest in him prior to him revealing he worked at a cafe that sold sweet corn coffee, but at the same time, it gave me a good laugh, and a great inspiration to try making a variation on it myself! A lot of the sweet corn coffee recipes I found online use canned sweet corn and sweetened condensed milk. Using those two ingredients makes a lot of sense, since canned sweet corn is really sweet, almost artificially sweet, while sweetened condensed milk just makes anything taste good – I personally love Vietnamese coffee because of the condensed milk inclusion! However, since I made this recipe while I was going through my granulated sugar fast, I could not really go that route, since I wanted to actually make this coffee for my own consumption(especially with me being a functioning caffeine-holic). I made an exception for eating fresh corn, since while it does contain sugars, it’s still technically a vegetable, and I was not planning to add any additional sugar on top of that(you’re totally welcomed to do so though if the taste of this recipe is not sweet enough for you!).

With my take on sweet corn coffee, I wanted to focus more on the natural sweetness of corn itself, so I opted to make a corn milk using fresh ears of corn instead of the canned corn with sweetened condensed milk. I will be honest, making corn milk was a lot of work. Corn milk is made by steeping corn cobs and kernels into milk. That mixture is then blended up and strained to leave a pleasantly sweet, corn-flavored milk! The reason why the cobs are used in this process is because they contain a majority of an ear of corn’s flavor. Think meat with bones. Cooking meat on the bones results in the meat being more flavorful. The same concept applies here with corn kernels and cobs. After I stew the cobs in the milk, I scrape them to remove all of the softened pulp – this is where all of the really intense corn flavor lies, which will translate to the final product. I also strain my corn milk through a cheesecloth, because that will remove all of the lumps and help the corn milk retain a really smooth, velvety texture. I won’t lie, I had to squeeze the cheese cloth for about 15 minutes straight, since it was so fine that even the corn milk was struggling to get through, but the end result was well worth it! I used the corn milk in two ways – mixed directly with the coffee, and folded into a whipped cream to make a sweet corn foam. With the coffee itself, I grinded my own beans that my parents got for me from their trip to Peru, but any ground or even instant coffee works nicely here! The end result is a pleasant and creamy coffee that is not too sweet nor too bitter. The corn is detectable, but it has a caramel corn-like flavor profile!

For the corn milk:
4 ears sweet corn
1 cup milk
a pinch of salt

Shuck and remove the kernels from the corn. Place the corn kernels and cobs into a pot, and add in the milk and salt. Simmer the ingredients together on low heat for 10 minutes. Then allow everything to cool down before removing the cobs. Scrape the sides of the cobs to extract as much of the pulp as you can – this has a lot of that intense corn flavor! Place that pulp into the pot with the kernels and milk. Either transfer that to a blender, or using a stick blender, puree the kernels, pulp, and milk together. Pour that mixture into a cheesecloth, and squeeze, extracting as much liquid as possible, before discarding the solids. Refrigerate the corn milk until time to use.

For the coffee:
1/4 cup ground coffee beans
1 cup lukewarm water

Brew the coffee using either a filter or a French press, adding the water to the beans.

For the corn milk foam:
3 tbsp heavy cream
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp corn milk

In a bowl, whisk the heavy cream with vanilla to stiff peaks. When ready to serve, fold the corn milk through the heavy cream.