Review : Kenco Millicano "Dark Roast" and coffee flavoured iced biscuits!

I think it is well documented on this blog, how interested all of us here are in coffee.  It all started with the incredible Aeropress filter coffee maker - a real Damascus moment with regard to coffee flavours.  Then, we got interested in Vietnamese coffee and wound up getting a coffee Phin, which makes a truly impressive single cup of excellent filter coffee.

Then, by a stroke of sheer bad luck, I began to react in a bad way to filter coffee.  IBS has no rules - if it decides you've had enough of enjoying something, then there's absolutely nothing you can do about it.  So for the last few months, I've been bereft of coffee.  Now that's not as critical for me as it might have been for many others, but I enjoy the occasional cup of Joe and I missed it.

You can imagine how torn I was then, when I was offered the chance to review Kenco's new Millicano "Dark Roast" instant coffee.

I eventually agreed to the review on the basis that son & heir loves a cup of instant every so often and he would be able to review the beverage side of the coffee for me.  Additionally, I thought I would make some coffee flavoured biscuits, to review the use of Millicano "Dark Roast" as a coffee flavour in baking.

However, as it turned out, the warm heady aroma of the Millicano instant coffee was so tempting, I decided to take a chance and have a small cup of extremely weak coffee.  Well that worked most deliciously and without any payback, so I've been steadily increasing the amount of granules I use in each cupful.  So far, I'm up to an entire teaspoonful without any repercussions.  So far so good - and coffee!  Yay!

All of which is terrific news, because if I can't drink filter coffee - this Millicano is about the next best thing!  The flavour is everything that corny coffee adverts of old wittered on about, being dark, smokey, rich and satisfying (unlike the corny old coffees of old!).  I think everyone in the family has had a try of the Millicano, with thumbs up all round.  This is one product that is going to continue to appear beside our kettle for quite some time to come.

Having sampled the coffee as a drink, I felt sure that it would do really well as a flavouring in baking.  Now we love the flavour of coffee and it is very welcome in all its incarnations - from the coffee flavoured Revel, through Tiramisu, to a Coffee & Walnut cake.

However, one thing that doesn't turn up very often is a coffee flavoured biscuit.  There are the obvious Coffee Kisses, but they are a mutation between a cake and a biscuit, strictly speaking.  No, I was interested in making a biscuity biscuit.  One that snapped when you broke it and went admirably with a cup of coffee.  I also wanted to make the most of the coffee flavour, but the use of buttercream (as with the coffee kisses) was too cakey.  So I decided to make some coffee rippled, coffee iced, biscuits instead.

See the ripples? Looks like marble!

The idea of rippling the coffee flavour through the biscuit dough was relatively easy to bring about, as I mixed a percentage of the liquid coffee (I used 2 teaspoonfuls, dissolved into a tiny amount of warm water) into the dough, then used the remainder to lightly mix it through, which helped to create the heavier ripple marks.

Now don't go looking for the biscuit recipe, because I wasn't terribly impressed with the one I used.  However, although I've never tried it, the one from Ed Kimber at http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/fancy-iced-biscuits seems to address all the problems I encountered with my batch of biscuits.  You just need to substitute the coffee mixture for his lime zest and vanilla bean paste.

Where the icing is concerned, if you fancy coffee flavoured icing, just substitute the lemon juice for liquid coffee, made up to be heavy on the coffee and light on the liquid.

The very great joy with making iced biscuits, is going crazy with the sugar butterflies and edible glitter thereafter.  *wink*

Well, I can safely say that Kenco's Millicano "Dark Roast" thoroughly lived up to its billing when used as a flavouring.  The biscuits were deliciously nutty from the baking and the coffee flavour was right up there in the flavour spectrum.  The ripples were fun to create and very effective to eat, as the coffee flavour ebbed and flowed across your tongue most satisfactorily.

Because this coffee is so robustly flavoured, it is a fantastic one to use for icing.  Icing sugar can have the effect of wiping out a weaker flavour (which is why it, for example, works so well with lemon) - but the Millicano stood up to the flood of sweetness, holding its own most bravely and refusing to be bowed.

I wanted coffee flavoured biscuits - and that's certainly what I got.  Thumbs up, Kenco Millicano "Dark Roast"!

I have not been paid for this review, but simply received a sample of coffee to try, for which thanks go out to Katie of Golin.

Rich chocolatey coffee flavours with a Vietnamese Coffee Phin

If you already know what a Vietnamese coffee Phin is, you'll be nodding your head wisely and agreeing already.

I have to admit that at the beginning of this year I had never heard of a Vietnamese Coffee Phin and we were sublimely happy with our Aeropress coffee maker.  Now I'm not saying that the Aeropress has been pushed into second place, but the Phin has very definitely made it shuffle over on the podium for a joint first.

Hubby alerted me to the Vietnamese Phin, his curiosity having been piqued by seeing them in action in a BBC2 programme "The Coffee Trail", presented by Simon Reeve - which was all about how Vietnam has emerged as the largest coffee producer in the world and the shaky future that coffee has there.  He did a bit of research and reading about Vietnamese coffee and the use of a Phin and once we'd discovered they could be had via Amazon, well that clinched the deal.  I bought him one for Valentine's day - along with some beautiful and amazingly flavoured Vietnamese coffee and I'll tell you more about that a little later. 

So, what IS a Vietnamese Coffee Phin?  Well, it is primarily a one-person coffee brewer/maker, made from stainless steel and comprising very few parts - ours has three, the main cup, a lid and a screw down pressure plate.  Already you can tell that it is simplicity itself.

Making coffee with a Phin is not a matter for the hurried.  As with everything good, it takes time, relaxation and a little bit of love.  However, the mechanics of it could not be any easier.  Measure your ground coffee into the bottom of your brewing cup then screw down the pressure plate.  Initially, simply add a touch of your just boiled water which will scald the coffee grounds, causing them to swell and ingeniously form their own filter.  No messy filter papers with this little baby!

If you're doing it authentically, the brewing cup should be placed over a tall glass into which you've added a teaspoonful of sweetened condensed milk.  Now don't go all sharp intake of breath on me, if you take sugar in your coffee you won't need to - and if you don't take it, you're in for a surprise.

Wait for some 30 seconds or so for the coffee to swell, then fill the brewing cup.  Add the lid and then find something else to do for around 5 minutes.  Instructional videos we watched recommended singing, or dancing to your favourite tune.  I applaud this recommendation, although have yet to try it.  We are generally occupied in letting the dogs out in the garden, yelling at them to stop barking at the squirrels and then letting them back in again.

In the meantime, your coffee will have dripped languorously through the last pressure plate and be resting somewhat haughtily on top of the milk, patently refusing to have anything to do with it.  The two colours do look enticing, however!  Oh - and I must add that at this stage, real hard core Vietnamese have been known to drink the coffee neat and black.  Much respect to those die-hards!  In our case, a quick twirl with a spoon sees the two substances combined - and a top up with more boiled water finishes off the process.  Mind you, if you're my Hubby it doesn't stop there.  Out comes the squirty cream and just to finish the process, a dash of sprinkles.  Never let it be said he would spoil the ship for a ha'porth of tar.

So okay - that's how you do it.  But how does it taste, in comparison with something like the Aeropress, or more commonly used brewing methods?  Well, the difference between it and any other is that the slow brewing method seems to knock any raw edges off and produces a superbly smooth coffee even with a Force 5 Java going through it.  The contrast is remarkable, notable and unique.

Now - about the coffee we used, which was Mr Phong's Private Reserve Premium from Weasel Premium Vietnamese Coffees.  If you are curious about Vietnamese coffee, this is a perfect starting point because of its seductively velvety, deeply chocolatey complex flavour notes.

Why "Weasel" Premium coffee?  Well, I can do no better than to quote the Weasel website, which says : 

Sharp looking little fella!

"Somehow, it was discovered that certain weasels (or civets, or 'luwak', depending on the country), dine nightly on the best, ripest coffee cherries. At some point in time, some brave person decided to try and make coffee from the partially-digested beans that had passed through the weasel. The result was the amazing transformed coffee that we know as "Kopi Luwak, or "Weasel", with its distinctive rich aroma and smooth, mocha flavor and texture.

So, the reality is that authentic Weasel coffee does in fact exist. It is safe and thoroughly clean, probably cleaner than regular coffee, and it does taste wonderful if you like smooth, mellow, rather sweet coffee that is more like mocha than "cafe Americano".

 

We picked the Weasel to represent Weasel brand Premium Vietnamese coffees, because he (or she?) represents the best coffee that Vietnam has to offer. Our coffees are blends of the finest, small-plantation, small batch, roasted coffee cherries, selected by the farmers and the Weasels. Our two top prepackaged coffees do contain a small amount of authentic, Weasel coffee. It's what gives them their earthy, smoky, mocha-like flavor and texture".

So there you have it.  Touched by weasels?  A little bit!  Try it and before long, you'll love your Weasel, too.