Okay.. here it goes... My favorite drink long time ago was 'Sirap' ... an artificial red color rose syrup (laden with unheard of chemicals not worth researching here) that you mixed with water and sugar syrup and then topped with ice. When you were poor, it was already a luxury drink that you can enjoy during those long hot afternoons.. On a good day, i got to drink Coca-Cola instead.. hi hi..
Anyway, it is going to be a long story to get to how I (along with million others) love drinking coffee now. Wish I can get my hand on Starbuck's iced vanilla latte (Venti) everyday, but that can burn too much holes in the pocket... so let's revert to what a regular person with just a bit of money can do to satisfy his or her coffee need.
WHAT YOU NEED - I think the cheapest under RM100 ( below USD30) preparation will be to make French Press Coffee. If you have money, go and buy lah all those hundreds or thousands of dollars worth of equipment, but that would defeat the purpose of being just a regular, cheap drinker. So after much poking and looking around, this is probably the best set up...(for me)
- The French Press cup can be bought in most Supermarkets or most coffee chains.. cheapest so far about RM50. Some get it free when signing up for Credit cards.
- The coffee itself can be bought from most major supermarkets. I got mine usually from Tesco for RM10.. you can also get the same 220 gm at Starbuck or Coffee Bean for RM30. It is more expensive but they say it is more fresh (well I think the machine there makes it taste better.. controlled temperature/pressure and everything) . Back to the cheap and regular stuff.. Cold Storage offers ~RM20 stuff and you can get Colombian type like the one in the photo above. Anyway, Giant and Cold Storage also offer grinding service and sell coffee beans. Got Colombian type the other day for RM12 (200gm) but have not tried the beans yet. Love collecting beans :-) 200g can usually last for a month. Can't stock up since I only drink every other day.
- As for the preparation it self, 1st decide what you want to make... see the simple guide below (courtesy of Lokesh Dhakar) I usually go with Americano (Kopi O lah ni) at work and Latte (Kopi susu lah ni) at home. Both are already good enough to meet your regular coffee need.. In both preparation, it is always 3-4 spoons (~28 g) per drink (that was what the friendly Starbuck girl told us before)
- For Latte, add the 4 spoon of coffee into the French cup. Fill water to a QUARTER full. 30 sec brew is good enough (Starbuck girl tip again). Stir and close the cup lid and after the 30 sec press down the lever, add the espresso to 200ml of fresh milk (use Dutch Lady or Farmhouse). I add thick coconut palm syrup (Gula Melaka) for better flavor. Still thinking whether to pursue Vanilla based syrup or not (maybe will blog that in some other posting once I go for it. still undecided. if somebody wants to share the high cost of Vanilla bean order, decision will be a snap). Ok DONE! Got your Homemade latte.. add ICE obviously to turn it into iced Latte.. enjoy it. Ohh, the coffee smell you leave behind will help remove those unwanted odour from your kitchen or your friends :-) Neat ehh.
- For plain Americano coffee, pour water and brown sugar to your own. Adjust sendiri lah :-)
Anyway, as you can see all my coffee preparation has added syrup or sugar.. hidden Calories right there.. but I am not a coffee purist just yet...so pardon me..
Till then...Make coffee not War
Another good link on coffee- watch this Video on Coffee!
