Coffee, No Coffee Dry Rub
Coffee, No Coffee Dry Rub
Ingredients
- 2 Tbsp Instant Coffee or Coffee Substitute I like to use Pero
- 2 Tbsp Kosher Salt
- 2 Tbsp Garlic Powder
- 2 Tbsp Paprika
- 1 Tbsp Ground Coriander
- 1 Tbsp Onion Powder
- 1 Tbsp Black Pepper
- 2 tsp Brown Sugar
- 1 tsp Chili Powder
- 1/2 tsp Cumin
- 1 Pinch Cayenne Pepper
Instructions
- Mix all ingredients completely. This is mainly a beef rub. It doesn’t have too much sugar in it, so it will work for anything from steaks at a higher temperature to brisket or tri trip done low and slow. Enjoy!
Blog Post
When I browse the internet for new recipes to try out, I frequently see recipes for coffee dry rubs. I see them at the stores as well, and they sound delicious. There’s only one problem with this though. I don’t consume coffee. For me, it is a part of my religion to not consume coffee. On top of that, I have steered clear of caffeine, and even soda. It’s actually been almost 2 years since I’ve had caffeine! But anyways, enough of that. I’ve been wanting to try coffee rub, but I’m not about to just up and drop my commitments. Then I had an idea. What about a coffee substitute? What about Pero? Not only is it coffee free, it is also caffeine free! So I decided to try it out.
I first came across coffee substitutes when I was on the mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salta, Argentina. As many know, in Argentina there is an extremely popular hot drink called “mate.” I never really loved the flavor of mate, but really needed something nice to have with my breakfast. That’s when one of the Argentines told me about a malted grain drink mix that is a popular substitute for coffee. They don’t drink a ton of coffee type drinks down there, so this drink mix was hard to find at first. Then I found it. If I remember correctly, it was called “Malta.” It was delicious.
When I came back home, I tried to find the stuff in all of the Mexican markets. Heck, there is even an argentine restaurant, and an argentine store close to my house that didn’t carry the stuff. Then someone told me about American coffee substitutes. That was my moment. I remembered something I had heard about before. Pero!
I knew this rub would be good on beef, so I started working on gathering up seasonings and spices that would go great together on beef. Normally I don’t stray too far from salt, pepper and garlic for beef, but I just had to try this. Everybody was raving about coffee rub. I threw all of these ingredients together on a little baby tri tip, and the results were incredible! It left me with what may be one of my favorite barks ever. I took the tri tip to 201 degrees, just like you would with a brisket. The flavor and appearance was incredible! I will do another post on another day to show how to prepare tri trip just like a brisket.
I hope that this cool life experience driven recipe is something that you can use and enjoy as much as I did. The magic of this recipe, is that you can use instant coffee or coffee substitute!