BBQ Rub and Seasoning with Coffee and Garlic Recipe- Inspired by Trader Joe's

My sister in law visited from the United States, and brought me along some gifts that I really appreciated- some spice mixes from Trader Joe's. One of them was this delicious coffee and garlic spice rub that I loved to put on nearly everything, though baked chicken was my favorite... but as with these types of things, I eventually ran out of it...
I decided to try to mimic the recipe, and reading the back gave me a good idea of what was in it. However, I found this link to a copy cat recipe for it, and then modified it to use what I had in the house. I left out the orange/clementine peel, but you know what? I think it's just fine without it. Can I say it tastes exactly the same? I don't know, but it's great, and my kids just wanted to sit there eating the spice mix plain, its that good.
Feel free to use this spice mix on pretty much anything you want, such as roasted veggies, chicken, fish, beef, etc... It doesn't need to be barbecued- just baked is fine, or even sprinkled onto your food right before eating.
This is a vegan and gluten free recipe, and depending on how you make it, it can also be paleo (if you use coconut sugar).

BBQ Rub and Seasoning with Coffee and Garlic Recipe- Inspired by Trader Joe's

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons instant coffee
3 tablespoons granulated sweetener of choice (coconut sugar, demerara sugar, brown sugar, white sugar, maple sugar, etc...)
1 tablespoon smoked paprika
2 teaspoons regular paprika
2 teaspoons garlic powder or granulated garlic
2 teaspoons onion flakes
2 teaspoons salt

Instructions:
1. Place all the ingredients into a coffee grinder and grind for a few seconds, until the onion flakes are broken up into smaller pieces. It does not need to be smooth.

2. While this will store a while, I recommend keeping it in the freezer if you won't use it up within a week, since I find that onion flakes attract moisture and can make spice mixes clumpy over time.

3. Sprinkle on foods before or after cooking.

Enjoy!

Note: if you use this to season chicken, I'd suggest also adding additional salt... But that's a matter of taste- you may not find it necessary.

Roasted chicken with coffee garlic seasoning mix

Have you ever had Trader Joe's coffee garlic spice rub? What is your favorite use for it? Have you ever made a copy cat recipe? What was in it? Does this look like a recipe you'd try?