Baked Spicy Sweet Potato Fries

I have been trying to eat more sweet potatoes, rather than potatoes, I find they are better for me, and looked for recipes that duplicated the sweet potato fries that I ate recently. These don't, but are quite tasty. They are baked, and the fries end up being very soft, only slightly crunchy. Add more chipotle powder, or any other dried pepper powder, if you want it more spicy.

Baked Spicy Sweet Potato Fries
Adapted from a recipe from Epicurious
sweet potatoes, 1 large per person
1 Tbsp olive oil
2 tsp spice mix (see recipe below)

Preheat oven to 425F. Peel sweet potatoes and cut into strips about 3 inches long and 3/4 inches thick.

In large bowl, toss together cut sweet potatoes, olive oil, and spice mixture.

Spray flat roasting pan with non-stick spray, or line with parchment paper. Spread out sweet potatoes in single layer. Roast 30-40 minutes, turning about every ten minutes. until sweet potatoes are softened through and lightly browned. Serve hot.

Spice Mix:
2 Tbsp coriander seed
1 Tbsp fennel seed
1 Tbsp dried oregano
1/2 Tbsp Chipotle Pepper
2 Tbsp sea salt

In mortar and pestle or spice grinder, grind together coriander, fennel, oregano, and Chipotle pepper. Mix in salt.

This makes enough for several batches of sweet potatoes, so you'll need a small jar to store the extra.

Santa Cruz Organic Rootbeer

Having tried their Lemon Lime drink, I decided to try some of their other offerings. This organic root beer is a little disconcerting, only in that it's a clear rootbeer, I'm used to the darker coloured versions, but I think that is only a perception thing, as it's not the caramel that gives the drink its inherent root-beer-ness. The natural rootbeer flavour for this drink is comprised of licorice and sarsparilla extracts, sarsparilla is one of the flavour ingredients common to rootbeer. Wherever the flavour comes from, it tastes pretty good, though it's still a little expensive.

Pineapple Curry

I watched Jamie Oliver make this recipe, and quickly scratched down the approximate ingredients (and had to ask my sister-in-law to confirm some of them) and the steps to make this very flavourful and interesting curry. The curry leaves are quite wonderful, you can find them in any good Indian supermarket, they smell like curry and impart an excellent flavour to any curry dish. The plantain in this dish is supposed to mimic chicken, so as to keep it a vegetarian dish; look for ripe plantains, they are much starchier than bananas (bananas will not work in this dish, as they will turn to mush). I also used chipotle chili powder, you can use a less hot chili powder if you wish, but I like it spicy. Lastly, the black mustard seeds are interesting too; when they cook in the hot oil, they begin to pop, and the smell of popped corn emerges; adding the curry leaves will stop them from popping.

Pineapple Curry
Adapted from a recipe by Jamie Oliver
2 Tbsp sunflower oil
2 Tbsp black mustard seeds
Handful fresh curry leaves
3 cardomom seeds
thumb-sized piece of ginger, slivered
2 tsp cumin seeds, crushed in mortar/pestle
1 tsp chipotle chili powder
2 tsp tumeric
2 medium pineapples, cored and diced into bite-sized chunks
2 plantains, sliced thickly at angle
1 can coconut milk

Heat oil on medium heat; add black mustard seeds and let cook until they begin to pop. Immediately add the curry leaves. Fry the curry leaves for a moment.

Add the ginger and fry for a minute or two, then add each of the spices in succession, frying for a moment.

Add pineapple chunks and plantain, stir until they are covered with the herb-ginger mixture, and cook for a short while.

Add coconut milk and continue to cook for approximately 8 minutes.

Breakfast Cookies

The concept of eating cookies for breakfast is probably as good as eating sugared cereal, unless the cookie has healthy ingredients (well, maybe not even then). This recipe was originally designed to duplicate the Baker's Breakfast Cookie popular in the United States, I don't believe we get it up here in Canada. I made some changes, substituting hazelnuts (of course) for the walnuts in the original recipe, currants for raisins, omitting 1-1/2 tsp of cinnamon, and doubling the vanilla. I also added salba seed, also known as white chia, the latest ancient grain health craze, that I've been experimenting with recently. I don't know if this is a duplicate of the commercial product any more, I don't have anything to compare to. I do know that they are quite tasty, with a cakey texture, and, I think, you could eat them any time of the day.

Breakfast Cookies
2 cups demerara sugar
2-1/2 cups rolled oats
2 Tbsp salba seed
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup canola/sunflower oil
1/2 cup prune puree
2 tablespoons water
5 egg whites
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
3/4 cup currants
1/4 cup chopped hazelnuts
1/3 cup chopped dried apricots

Preheat oven to 350F/180C. Grease cookie sheets or line with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, stir together the sugar, oats, salba seed, flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Make a well in the center and pour in the oil, prune puree, water, egg whites and vanilla. Mix until well blended. Stir in the currants, hazelnuts and apricots. Roll into golf ball sized balls. Place cookies 2 inches apart onto the prepared cookie sheets. Wet your hands and flatten the cookies to 1/2" tall.

Bake 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from cookie sheets to cool on wire racks.

Lindt Creation Chili

This new chocolate bar from Lindt, the second of three in this series (the third is orange), features a smooth truffle centre, with a cherry coulis accented with a hint of spicy chili. The dark chocolate is the famous smooth dark chocolate that Lindt is famous for, with 70% cacao content. The ingredient listing, unlike other chocolate bars from Lindt, is quite long, cocoa mass, sugar, cocoa powder, cocoa butter, glucose syrup, milk ingredients, almonds, cherry, pectin, concentrated cherry juice, hazelnuts, concentrated lemon juice, natural bourbon vanilla bean, soya lecithin, artificial flavour, carrot, grape, chokeberry and chili extract.

I must say I'm not a fan of these either. These too, felt like I was chewing marshmallow. The chili was sweet, not spicy at all (hint is more than correct, and, like most foods offered that are spicy, is not at all like you would spice them at home), which would have done wonders to the flavour; the chili, nor the cherry (I had to read the packaging later to realize that it was cherry flavoured), do not add anything to the smooth dark chocolate, it would have been better without them.

Lindt Creation Caramel

This new chocolate bar from Lindt, the first of three in this series (the third is orange), features a smooth truffle centre, with a creamy caramel coulis. The dark chocolate is the famous smooth dark chocolate that Lindt is famous for, with 70% cacao content. The ingredient listing, unlike other chocolate bars from Lindt, is quite long, cocoa mass, sugar, cocoa butter, cocoa powder, glucose syrup, lactose, invert sugar, sorbitol, soya lecithin, natural bourbon vanilla beans, barley malt extract, sorbic acid, natural and artificial flavours.

I must say I'm not a fan of these. Chewing them, I couldn't help but feel like I was chewing marshmallow. The caramel does not add anything to the smooth dark chocolate, it would have been better without it. Too, in reading the ingredient listing, I would not have chosen this bar, mostly for a lot of the ingredients, too much sugar.

Ethiquable Dark Chocolate with Cocoa Nibs

I have written about Fair Trade products before (paying local farmers fair prices, and making their farming sustainable - see Max Havelaar for International Standards of Fair Trade), this dark chocolate bar with cacao nibs by Ethiquable is made from Fair Trade cacao from the Dominican Republic. With 60% cacao content, it's ingredient listing is good, cocoa paste, cane sugar (also a Fair Trade product), cocoa bean nibs, cocoa butter, soya lecithin and artificial vanilla.

I first thought that this chocolate was off, as it has an earthy taste to it when I first bit into a square. Overall, it's quite tasty, the cocoa nibs enhance the chocolatey-ness.

Restaurant Review - Chi's Congee & Noodle House

Around the corner from the Lion City restaurant that I reviewed earlier, in the same mall (1177 Central Parkway West, Unit 66), is Chi's Congee and Noodle House. Sort of non-descript on the outside, we chose this restaurant over another, based on the number of people in the restaurant. I know, perhaps not a great indicator, but there were certainly not only a larger number of people, but a much larger number of tables full in this restaurant. We elected to take out what we ordered. As the name of the restaurant might indicate to you, this restaurant features congee, the Chinese dish made with rice that can only be described as rice soup, at least by me. Slightly chunky and creamy, congee is easy on the digestion, and its flavour comes from the combination of ingredients, often meat or seafood or egg, or vegetables. Deep fried dough fritters goes well with congee, though we did not order any. We chose the sliced fish congee, not noticing the sweet corn and fish Super Bowl (which has little to do with the Football season-ending championship game) on the menu, also we ordered Deep Fried Wonton (with shrimp) and Fried Stuffed Bean Curd. All of these were fairly tasty, and we came back again to order some more another day, we'll keep it in mind for a good, and closer, place to buy congee.

Flagrants Desirs Chocolate Noir

This dark chocolate with 70% cacoa content from Flagrants Desirs tastes pretty good, I've tried a couple of their products, of the six in their chocolate bar line, they also have Dark Pear, Dark Mint, Extra Dark 85%, Dark with Cocoa Nibs and Dark Orange. The ingredient listing looks good, just cocoa paste, sugar, cocoa butter, low fat cocoa butter (low fat?!), canola lecithin and artificial flavour.

The bar is quite chocolatey, melts well and tastes good. Not my favourite, but I would eat this again.

Sticky Fingers Bakeries Wild Blueberry Scones

I had never heard of the online bakery Sticky Fingers Bakery, but given that it's headquartered in Spokane, Washington, you'll forgive my ignorance. Perusing their website, I see they make a variety of packaged baking mixes, including brownies, breads, muffins, and what this one is, scones. They also make jams. Too, their mixes are made from all-natural ingredients, with no artificial anything, and no trans fats.

The variety I selected was their Wild Blueberry Scones; as you might know, I love wild blueberries.

They are easy to make, just add water (well, I added rice milk), stir with a fork, and divide into 12 scones.

Then bake for 12-15 minutes and, well, enjoy. Quite tasty.

Santa Cruz Organic Lemon Lime

This carbonated lemon and lime juice is a step above the sugared lemonades that you can buy in stores; it's organic, it's got cane sugar as it's main sugar source, and it doesn't have citric acid to make it lemony, rather, it uses real juice. This is pleasant tasting, rather good, but far more expensive than its commercial competition.

Xi Yue Pot

I was over at my brother-in-law's the other day, and he had a neat pot for making tea. I was intrigued, as I'm always on the lookout for better ways of making tea. The problem with loose tea, while it produces a superior flavour, the tea leaves, whatever is loose, often tends to float on the surface and interferes with the enjoyment of the drink, you're always spitting out something. With green tea, you can chew on the leaves, many people do, often to get the last of the goodness out. He gladly demonstrated the teapot, and I was further intrigued. I asked him where he had got it, and he told me that he had got it from a friend, who had bought it in China.

The other day I was in this Chinese supermarket, and I was finally able to locate one. I bought it, got it home, and had to bring it back to exchange, as it was broken (and learned a lesson about Chinese business people, they were suspicious that I had broken it and was lying that it was broken when I bought it - I guess I looked honest enough that they allowed me to exchange it).

The Xi Yue pot has three distinct parts to it, an outer glass pot, where the steeped tea goes once it is ready; and inner plastic pot, with fine screen and water-stop ball, where the tea steeps; and a plastic lid, to cover the tea while it is steeping.

Here is the inner pot, without the lid, with some green tea, waiting for the hot water.

Here is the steeping tea in the inner pot.

When the tea is ready, there is a water-release button, that, when pressed, lifts the water-stop ball (a ball bearing), releasing the tea into the outer pot, the screen filtering the tea leaves.

Here is the tea in the outer pot.

The tea pot works great, I find, you can add more hot water to the inner pot, to steep the tea a second, or third, time, but it makes only a small amount of tea, enough for half a mug of tea. Fine for one person, I guess, but for larger number of people, I would say that you need a much bigger one. I wonder if they do.

Curried Lentils with Sweet Potatoes and Spinach

My beautiful Bride was making a vegetarian meal, and was washing and cutting some spinach we had bought from the Farmer's Market on Sunday, and I happened to be reading this copy of Delicious Living magazine that I had got recently, it has numerous interesting articles on Organics. This recipe caught my eye, mostly because it is a curry and has lentils and sweet potatoes (of which we had also bought some on the weekend), but it calls for spinach, and so we decided to divide the spinach and make this. I like it when things converge like this. It turned out really good tasting, and it was easy to make (15 minutes of prep time and 15 minutes of cooking time). We had it over rice. You could probably up the amount of liquid to make it into a soup. We used canned lentils; if you use dried lentils, you will have to cook them for 10 minutes and then add the sweet potato and cook for another 10 minutes. To finish it off, the magazine suggested you put a dollop of whole-milk yogurt with some sliced almonds.

Curried Lentils with Sweet Potatoes and Spinach
Adapted from a recipe from Delicious Living Magazine
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 cup chopped onion
1 large garlic cloves, minced
1 Tbsp curry powder
1 Tbsp minced fresh ginger
1 tsp ground cumin
1 cup canned lentils, rinsed
2-1/2 cups low-sodium vegetable broth
1 medium sweet potato, peeled and cut into 1/4-inch cubes
4 cups baby spinach leaves
salt, to taste

Heat olive oil in a medium pot on medium heat. Add onion and garlic and sauté until soft, about 5 minutes. Stir in curry powder, ginger and cumin and let cook for 1 minute. Stir in lentils and broth. Bring liquid to a boil. Add sweet potatoes and bring back to boil. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 10 minutes, until sweet potato is tender and water is reduced. Stir in baby spinach and cook for 1 minute longer, covered, until spinach is just wilted. Add salt to adjust seasonings.

Blog Action Day

The idea for Blog Action Day is to get bloggers together to blog about a subject; this year's subject is the environment, what is wrong and what we can do about the problems. I'm a day late, it's supposed to be October 16th, but I'm posting my small contribution.

A particular thorn in my side regarding the environment, is the plastic bags one gets from every store, it is hard to recycle them, one can only use so many for garbage, and they don't break down when they do end up in the waste system. These plastic bags clog the environment in so many ways. Even recycling them is not so good, as the plastic ends up being more brittle and does not last as long. Cities and towns are taking the initiative, banning plastic bags, and now I see stores selling large canvas or plastic bags to replace the thin plastic shopping bags. The idea that I have, which probably is not new, is for these same stores to provide some sort of credit if shoppers use their bags, say 5 cents for each bag used. I don't see why it wouldn't be a win-win for the stores, each bag could be sold for 5 dollars, that means 100 visits to the store for each bag before they would lose their investment, plus the savings in plastic bags, and the good public relations.

Just my two cents, but I think that people would embrace this idea sooner if they received some sort of compensation for using this new shopping bag.

Saray Prens Sandwich Biscuits with Hazelnut Cream

I found this Turkish product in a Chinese supermarket, honestly the only reason I bought it, was that it has hazelnuts. The ingredient listing looks pretty similar to any store-bought cookie, at least it contains real hazelnuts as opposed to artificial flavour.

The buttery sandwich biscuit is fairly tasty, the hazelnut flavour comes through, mixed with chocolate, overall these were not bad.

Hershey Kissables Special Dark

This candy coated dark chocolate offering from Hersheys is likely another example of a Chocolate company bringing out a version of their regular milk chocolate product, with dark chocolate, to join the bandwagon, to offer consumers what they are slowly beginning to prefer, dark chocolate. Hopefully, they will begin to demand good dark chocolate, this, while better tasting than its milk chocolate kissing cousin, does not have a great flavour. It is crunchy on the outside, less so than Smarties or M&Ms. I don't think I would buy this product again.

The candy coating is interesting for its colour choices, lilac, purple, red and brown.

Thai Frozen Banana Cake

This is a traditional Thai dessert found in local markets, my beautiful Thai Bride remembers enjoying them since Primary School. They are prepared fresh, usually steamed, and are not found frozen like this; this product is likely only for the export market, we found it at a Chinese supermarket. Why have it frozen when you can have it fresh? Too, they are not sold in restaurants, only at certain local markets.

Inside the package are two wrapped banana leaves tied together, four in total.

The ingredients are glutinous rice (60%), banana (25%), coconut milk (13%) and sugar (2%).

The bananas used are not the ones found in North American supermarkets, they are smaller and have more flavour. Definitely quite delicious.

Civet Durian Pancake

Another of the varied baked goods that I came across recent that contain something of the King of Fruit, the Durian, is these crispy pancakes.

These are quite tasty, they both smell and taste of Durian, and, looking at the ingredients, I see that they contain Durian juice, along with Coconut Juice; at least the flavour does not come from artificial Durian flavour.

Dede Instant Thai Tea

Having tried and sort of liked the Thai Instant Coffee by DeDe, I wanted to try the Instant Thai Tea offering. I enjoy tea, mostly in the morning, and, like how I drink coffee, usually drink it "black", meaning without cream or sugar, and more than likely it is a herbal tea or a green tea, so I looked at the ingredient listing of this instant tea with trepidation. Instant Thai tea, sugar, non-dairy creamer (with glucose, palm kernel oil, casein and artificial colour), FD&C Yellow No. 6 and vanilla flavour make up this instant tea. I find it has a little too much sugar; my beautiful Bride added some black tea to it, to give it a little more flavour. Overall, it's not bad.

Russet Apple Hitchhiker

We found this lucky hitchhiker in our bag of russet apples. We were lucky to get some russets this year, the season for them is quite short, two weeks, so some stands at the Farmer's Market had one. Luckily, we found one with lots.

Ceasar's Imperial Cocktail

This is the first of the recipes that we tried from the cookbook Cooking With Asterix, my beautiful Thai Bride thought it looked tasty. To make a nice presentation, dip the rim of glasses in the juice of half a lemon, then in sugar and allow to dry, and decorate with a slice of orange. We found this to taste mostly of grapefruit juice, next time we'll likely half the amount, or omit it altogether. Grenadine syrup is flavoured pomegranate syrup, used mostly in cocktail drinks. I imagine that you can double or triple this recipe, as is, it makes four large glasses worth.

Ceasar's Imperial Cocktail
Adapted from Cooking With Asterix
400 mL orange juice
200 mL pineapple juice
200 mL grapefruit juice
3 Tbsp grenadine syrup
400 mL sparkling water

Pour the orange juice, pineapple juice and grapefruit juice into a jug. Add the grenadine syrup and whisk. Add the sparkling water water and mix well.

Serve with ice cubes.

Cookbook Review - Cooking With Asterix

I grew up liking the cartoons of Goscinny and Uderzo about the adventures of a tiny band of Gauls, the heroes are called Asterix and Obelix, who successfully defended themselves against the advances of Julius Caesar of Rome, with the help of a magic potion that gave them unusual strength; if you haven't heard of them, and want a great laugh, check them out.

One of the many tie-in products for the 33 cartoon books, and several movies, is the 1991 cookbook Cooking With Asterix. There are four main sections, Snacks and Starters, Main Courses, Sweets and Beverages, each of them contain recipes that feature a character or characters from the series, like Unhygeniex' Crispy Sardine Sandwiches (the Village fishmonger); Impedimenta's Chicken Drumsticks (the wife of the Chief of the Village); Dogmatix Hot Dogs (Asterix and Obelix' pet guard dog); Pirate's Dark Chocolate Mousse (who recurringly lost ships to the pair); Cleopatra's Exotic Gateau (Asterix and Obelix went on many adventures around the world, one of them they visited Cleopatra). All of the recipes are easy to make with easy to find ingredients, though they use the European measurement of a 'glass' (which equals 200 mL).

Garden Creme Wafer Durian Flavour

My interest in the fruit that is King, the Durian, brings some interesting food products, and some not so interesting. This is a fairly traditional creme wafer, but, when you open the package, you get a good waft of the good Durian fragrance.

The creme wafers are not remarkable, they do taste like Durian, it's the smell that makes it interesting, though this contains really only Durian essence, not any actual Durian fruit. My beautiful Bride prefers the Coconut version, really the original flavour available.

Bellagio Sipping Chocolate

Bellagio from California in the United States makes chocolate products, I have seen several of their different varieties of hot chocolate recently, this is bittersweet sipping chocolate made in a traditional Italian manner.

The ingredient listing looks good, just cocoa powder, cane sugar, chocolate liquor and cocoa butter. To make, use 2 Tbsp and combine with 1/3 cup of hot milk.

I've also added a tablespoon of it to my morning coffee to give it a good flavour.

Valor Dark Chocolate with Mint

I have liked the combination of mint and chocolate in other products, and I like it in this chocolate bar from the Spanish company Chocolates Valor, S.A.. Like the other Valor bars I have eaten lately, this has a cocoa content of 70%, and the chocolate itself is fairly good tasting. The ingredient listing is fairly good, chocolate processed with alkali, sugar, cocoa, cocoa butter, soy lecithin and peppermint natural flavour. I think that I would eat this bar again.

Schweinsöhrchen or Pig's Ears

They're called Schweinsöhrchen (pig's ears) in German, or Palmiers (palm leaves) in France, Butterflies in Thailand, these heart-shaped pastries are very popular. They often are dipped in chocolate, these are dipped in milk chocolate, though most of the time I have seen them, it is dark chocolate that is used (which is a better choice, otherwise it ends up being too sweet), or strewn with powdered sugar.

To make them, one uses a long slab of puff pastry, roll them up on both sides; when they meet in the middle, you slice them off and bake them. Simple and delicious.

Reed's Cherry Ginger Brew

As you all know, I like ginger, in its many forms, and a good Ginger Beer or Ginger Ale is one of them. This micro brewed Ginger Ale by the American company Reed's, bought recently at a local Health Food store, is better for you than the commercial sugar-oriented pops, the ingredients are carbonated water, fructose, fresh ginger root (22 grams fresh ginger per bottle), cherry juice from concentrate and spices; no preservatives, artificial flavour or colour. I found it to be refreshing and tasty, but not very gingery (despite its description of a strong ginger bite), perhaps I'm now used to far more ginger flavour, this was weak as to what I expected it to be. The combination of cherry and ginger was interesting and good, but I don't think that I would pay the $1.60 that I did (this was even the sale price).

Numi Toasted Rice Green

I have tried the Japanese toasted rice and green tea blend, Gen Mai Cha, many times before, I liked the taste of the toasted rice combined with green tea, but was always disappointed by the quality of green tea that came with the more readily available offerings, usually they contained broken leaves and sticks; with the loose tea brands, I would end up eating the slightly nutty delicious brown rice, but I would have to pick out the sticks before I could enjoy the brown rice. I know that I could go to any Japanese store and purchase the more expensive selections, I've never got around to it, so I was intrigued by this offering from Numi Tea, a company I've bought lots of tea from. Organic Sencha green tea (a traditional Japanese green tea with needle-like leaves that are rolled, flattened and steamed and makes a very pale yellow-green tea) and organic toasted rice are the only ingredients in this tea, and, while I miss being able to eat the rice, the flavour is quite good and refreshing.

Numi Ginger Sun

What a name. Ginger Sun.

Makes me oh so want to drink this tea! And I oh so want this tea to taste really good.

This offering from Numi Tea features Fair Trade Certified organic Selim Hill Estate decaffeinated green tea, organic ginger and organic lemongrass. Normally I like full strength teas, and coffees, this should be interesting to taste, given the kick ginger normally gives. The decaffeination process is done through "Effervescence", using CO2, which does not extract the flavour or antioxidants of the green tea, which means it takes out the "bad" caffeine, and leaves the good stuff.

How does it taste? Well, not as gingery as I'd like, the colour of the tea however was quite amazing, a golden brown. The taste of the green tea was very subtle. Overall, not my favourite.

President's Choice Sour Cherry and Aronia Juice

I like sour cherry, actually much more than its sweet cousin, and when I saw this new offering by President's Choice, I picked it up. This also contains aronia, a berry found mostly in Europe, that is both astringent and not sweet, it's also high in antioxidants and Vitamin C. I found it as an ingredient in my sour cherry tea. Other than water, the main ingredient is concentrated apple juice, down the list of ingredients is concentrated sour cherry juice, concentrated pear juice, concentrated aronia juice, citric acid, natural flavour and ascorbic acid (Vitamin C). So saying, it tastes very much like sour cherry, and I enjoyed the flavour. I definitely would drink this again.

Dede Instant Thai Coffee Drink

You might wonder why I am interested in this coffee drink, seeing as I like my coffee black and the beans from Costa Rica, I must say that the only reason I tried this, is that my beautiful Thai Bride recommended it (well, actually, she recommended the Tea version, but I prefer coffee to black tea).

Ka Fae Yen, or Instant Thai Coffee Drink, comes from Thailand, I found it in several Chinese supermarkets. The ingredient listing is very short, just non-dairy creamer (48%), sugar (27%) and coffee powder (25%). You can drink it hot or cold, just add 200 mL of hot water to the contents of the package.

How does it taste? Not bad, though I don't think it will replace a good cup of Costa Rican coffee prepared slowly, it does make for a quick cup of coffee on those mornings that I need a little jolt to wake me.