Coffee Rub for Pork (Grilled)

This is an easy coffee pork rub, but it has complex flavors with just a few ingredients. Made with instant coffee your grilled pork will have an amazing taste without any of the grittiness or burn that come from using ground coffee!

Coffee rub adds a unique twist to your grilled meats. This recipe has been specifically created for pork, but you could certainly use it on beef as well.

After lots of experimentation with different seasonings we decided that the flavor was unbelievable with just 4 ingredients added to the base blend of coffee, brown sugar and salt.

Jump to:

• Ingredients
• Instructions for making coffee rub for pork
• Substitutions
• Storage
• Top tip
• 📖 Recipe
• More favorites for grilling and smoking

Ingredients

Instant coffee granules are made from dehydrated coffee so you get the same earthy flavor in this dry rub that you would get from finely ground coffee beans. The advantage of using instant is that you'll have none of the grittiness.

We used light brown sugar, but as always, we encourage you to use what you have on hand. If that's only dark brown sugar your coffee rubbed pork is still going to be great! The equal proportions of sugar and coffee are what makes this rub best suited for pork.

If you want to try your rub on a steak like ribeye or sirloin I recommend cutting back on the brown sugar. Then just add some salt and the 4 seasonings below:

• garlic powder
• chili powder
• smoked paprika
• cayenne pepper

See recipe card for quantities.

Instructions for making coffee rub for pork

There is really nothing to making this homemade coffee rub. Just dump all of the ingredients in a small bowl and blend them.

Recipe Tips: We like to use a medium coarse Kosher salt in our rub, but if you don't have that on hand any salt will do.

If you have time pat the rub on the dry meat 30 minutes to one hour before grilling. If not, it will still be great!

Substitutions

This is a pretty sraightford blend, but in addition to the brown sugar and salt mentioned above you could make these substitutions.

• Paprika - if you don't have smoked paprika you could use plain paprika, but we highly recommend the smoked type. It adds a lot of flavor!
• Cayenne - Don't be afraid of the little kick you get from the cayenne, but if you must you could substitute ground black pepper.

Storage

Store the coffee pork rub in an airtight container. We like to use a lidded glass jar, but you could also use a plastic container with a tightly fitting lid or a zip-loc bag.

Store it in a cool, dark place like your pantry for up to a month with no loss in flavor. It can be kept another month, but the intensity will start to diminish.

Top tip

For best results this rub is patted on smaller cuts of pork that you plan to grill fairly quickly. Pork tenderloin (check out our marinated version) or pork chops are ideal.

You could certainly put it on a pork loin or Boston Butt but the flavor won't penetrate the larger cuts. The outside would surely taste good though!

📖 Recipe

More favorites for grilling and smoking