4 Things you’d never expect to find in a cup of coffee.

A little milk and sugar, maybe. Beyond that we don’t expect to find anything else in our coffee.

We certainly don’t expect to be totally surprised by what we find.

Here are 4 coffee ingredients that may raise your eyebrows a little. And a 5th that should raise your eyebrows a lot!

Surprise #1 – Charcoal in coffee

In Indonesia you can find something called kopi joss, or charcoal coffee.

It’s not like they just add charcoal to your coffee. They actually brew your coffee with hot, red charcoal.

A red hot lump of charcoal is added to a glass containing ground coffee and water and left there for one minute. The hot ember heats and brews the coffee. You then take the charcoal out and drink the coffee.

I have never tried it myself, but would like to one day.

Surprise #2 - Egg shells in coffee

Adding ground eggs shells to the ground coffee before brewing is common in some countries, like Sweden.

And it seems people have been adding egg shells to coffee grinds for a long time now. In the movie "The Big Store", Harpo adds eggshells to the coffee maker's basket when he's making Groucho's breakfast.

The calcium in the egg shells helps neutralize the acidity in the coffee, resulting in a milder and less acidic brew.

Surprise #3 – Butter in coffee

You may have heard of “bulletproof coffee” before.

You make the coffee as you normally would, but instead of adding cream and/or sugar, you add grass-fed organic butter and a little Coconut oil. Then you put it all in the blender.

I tried it once and didn’t enjoy it much. But its fans swear by its ability to sharpen your mind, give you extra energy in the morning and even lose weight.

Surprise #4 – Salt in coffee

It’s said that adding a pinch of salt to your coffee can cut back on its bitterness, I tried this myself a while ago.

First time around I added a quarter teaspoon to the ground coffee before brewing a full pot with my Bonavita drip brewer.

It turns out that was way too much. The coffee was salty and horrible. Next I tried just a pinch of salt. That’s one pinch for a whole carafe f coffee.

And you know what? It works. No salty taste, but it did get rid of any bitter aftertaste when drinking the coffee.

It turns out that adding a little salt to your coffee is quite common in some areas of the southern U.S.

Surprise #5 - Bits of wood in coffee

Wood chips? I have read reports in the media about people finding twigs, bits of soybean and even dirt in some of the cheaper brands of coffee. I wasn’t sure what to make of it.

Then someone left a comment on this site, talking about his own experience...

“I was maybe half way through the tin and I found a wood chip the size of a splinter. So I poured out the grounds onto some white paper and found even more, I call the number on the tin and to my surprise thy didn't seem to care.”

The moral of that story is that you should be careful about buying those cheaper brands of coffee.

Treat yourself to something a little better.

That’s it...5 things you might be surprised to find in your coffee.

About the author: Nick Usborne, aka Coffee Detective, is a writer and long-time coffee enthusiast. Read more…