Instant coffee (p. 31) and Kai (p. 37)

I know absolutely nothing about coffee. I swear that I am the only person in the world who doesn't know how to make coffee (every time I try is a failure). So Instant coffee (p. 31) seemed right up my alley. I took my Folger's crystals, added boiling water, and voila!



Coffee. Sort of. Is that what coffee is supposed to look like? I thought it tasted okay but, as I said before, I don't know anything. So why did I make instant coffee?

I've been intrigued by Kai (p. 37) for a while. It looked good and I wanted to try it but I needed coffee. I have lots of coffee drinking friends and family but I never thought about Kai when I was around them (and most people don't have heavy cream and malted milk powder on hand--other than me, of course). It occurred to me that I could use instant coffee! So that's what I did.

I mixed sugar, malted milk powder, and unsweetened cocoa powder together. It was challenging because the malted milk powder was lumpy for some reason:



I microwaved some heavy cream and added my sugar mixture:



Hmmm. Not promising.

I then added my hot, strong coffee.



It was delicious! The only way I can enjoy coffee is if it's creamy and sweet and the chocolate was delicious. It was a real pick-me-up up, too, due to the double dose of caffeine (cocoa and coffee) and all the sugar. TJOC says it was used by the British Royal Navy to keep men awake on night duty and I totally believe that. Next time I just need to iron some of the chunks out!

Random facts:

• Instant coffee comes from freeze-drying or spray-drying brewed coffee beans (Wikipedia)

• "High-vacuum freeze-dried coffee was developed shortly after World War II, as an indirect result of wartime research into other areas. The National Research Corp. was formed in Massachusetts as a process-development company employing high-vacuum technology. It developed high-vacuum processes to produce penicillin, blood plasma and streptomycin for US military use. As the war ended, NRC looked to adapt its processes for peacetime uses. It formed Florida Foods Corp. to produce concentrated orange juice powder, and originally sold its product to the United States Army. That company later changed its name to Minute Maid." (Wikipedia). Fascinating!

• In some countries, instant coffee is made with hot milk rather than hot water (Wikipedia). I think I should make it that way. Wikipedia also points out that it is nearly impossible to screw up instant coffee, making it the perfect coffee for me.