Looking for a new variable to add to your coffee brewing? Putting eggs in coffee might seem a little bit strange but it is a hearty tradition rooted in American Midwest church basements.

When I did research for my post on cowboy coffee, something that I came across quite a few times was the concept of putting eggshells in coffee while it brews. There is apparently something in the chemical makeup of an eggshell that binds with the ground coffee and makes it sink to the bottom.

If you are interested in clarifying your cowboy coffee a bit, I recommend giving the eggshell method a try. Start with my cowboy coffee recipe and simply add one or two crushed eggshell.

Recipes for Norwegian egg coffee take this concept in a different direction and include a whole egg minus the shell.

As I was reading about Norwegian egg coffee, I came across claims of the proteins in an egg binding with some of the astringent and bitter compounds contained in coffee and essentially removing them.

I was curious.

Even though I know that a great coffee, brewed properly should not be astringent or bitter (or at least the bitterness should be balanced with the sweet and acidic flavors), the thought of throwing an entire egg into the mix was too interesting to pass up.

Conventional wisdom says that adding an egg to your coffee would not be an improvement but as they say, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. The only thing to do was to get a few eggs and try it out.

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