not too smart.

So I fancy myself a bit of a coffee aficianado, not so much a snob anymore, but someone who's simply addicted to all things coffee; not just the caffeine. Very quickly: I have a ton of different ways to make a ton of different styles of coffee/espresso, and I'm especially fond of experimenting w/ more exotic ways of preparing the drink. Today's story is about the Vietnamese Iced Coffee I had at a multi-asian-culti restuarant in Old Town, Alexandria.

I've researched how different countries/cultures make coffee and I'd been dying to get my hands on some VIC. So at at the end of the dinner I got one as a dessert. Now I know what the ingredients are (condensed milk, coffee) and I had a vaugue idea of how it was prepared. For some reason when it arrived at my table, I just looked at it like it was an alien device. I'm surprised that the waitress didn't notice my stupor, but she took off w/out a word.

So here's this metal device sitting on top of my cup, and next to it is my glass w/ ice. I attempt to pull the lid off the top of the filter, but it was on there pretty tight. Finally it came off and I started to get my coffee bearings. Water goes in on top of a screw down filter top which is situated over the ground espresso. The grind and the pressure that you provide by screwing the top filter down alters the speed in which the coffee is extracted through the final filter on the bottom. Water on top, coffee out the bottom.

The process was already completed so I picked up the cup and started pouring the drink into the ice filled glass. Yep, I forgot to stir the condensed milk while the coffee was hot and still in the cup... Once it hit the ice there was no stirring back. I eventually got everything to the right consistency, but I can't believe how dense I was for as long as I've been dealing w/ coffee preparation.

I went right out and picked a filter up from one of our local Asian Mercados. It's the Arlington Melting pot. Asian, Latino, African, and the Blancas! Now I'm making them fast and furious in the privacy of my own home. No one can see me screw things up now. I'm still working on the ratio because my grinder doesn't really do espresso anymore. I've been adding more grinds to the prep and it seems to be altering the brew time just right. Now I'm happy.


T-Tags: coffee, Vietnamese coffee, caffeine