Sunday, July 11, 2010

Instant Coffee

I haven't had a decent cup of coffee since Cape Town (over a week
ago). All coffee served in Zambia is instant coffee. It's terrible. In
the supermarket, there is an entire aisle of tea and tea related
accessories, bur only a small shelf of coffee related items. I'm
guessing people in Zambia don't really drink coffee, and I'm expecting
the same in for my future in Malawi & Mozambique. I want *real*
coffee! Where there's a will, there's a way.

While in the supermarket in Lusaka, I bought real ground coffee. There
was only one brand - regular or decaf. It might not be the best
ground, but it is real coffee. I found paper filters in the tea
accessory section, so bought them too. Finding a filter cone to use to
pour water through the filter & coffee though was proving impossible.
There may not be one in the entire country! They had a small French
press plunger for sale, but it was too expensive and made of glass -
which would break with the type of travel I am doing. I had to create
another way.

Thinking outside the box, I went to the automotive section and found a
plastic funnel used for auto oil (new, of course). It cost the
equivelant of 25 cents. I cut the long end of the spout off and put
some filter paper in the funnel hole to slow the drip so the coffee
would steep.

We named the contraption "Sputnik". Goodbye, instant coffee.

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