Useful tip: Keeping instant coffee fresh

Instant coffee granules usually lose their flavor over time after the bottle is opened. This is a dilemma when you wanna save some money by buying a bigger bottle but yet have to take a longer time to consume all of it.

Learned a neat little trick from Jap drama Detective Galileo. Instead of removing the foil entirely, just punch a hole at the side. Instead of scooping the granules with a spoon, just pour out directly from the bottle.

Two significant advantages: Firstly, opening a small hole exposes much lesser of the coffee to the air and therefore losing less of the flavor. Secondly, when we use a spoon (especially a metallic one) to scoop, there tend to be moisture introduced to the coffee simply because of the slight difference in temperature (metal is cooler). That's why over a longer period of time, the coffee may "clump" together or even get moldy.

I think it's a great idea. Can anyone think of other applications for this idea?

Kopi revisited

Managed to patronize Rui Xing kopi stall again (had to take leave off work!). See earlier post.
Their kopi is strong and hence can be super addictive. Still long queue.

Difference between coffee (like espresso, americano etc) and kopi (Nanyang or South-East Asian coffee) is in the roast. Understand that in Vietnam, they roast their coffee beans with corn. For Nanyang coffee, butter is usually added. I once had a service captain who adds a little butter to the regular coffee to make it "smoother" and tastier. Not quite the same IMHO... would have preferred to use Nanyang coffee beans directly. Anyway, this means that different varieties can be created if someone studies into different possible additives that can be used for roasting the beans. In that way, product differentiation can be achieved and price differentiation can be made (ie., possibility of higher profits). I would love to visit a coffee roasting facility one day...

Due to the usage of butter, one tends to feel more thirsty after a cup of kopi, especially if you have it with condensed milk. The liquid is also denser compared to western coffee. I like it when Black Canyon Coffee from Thailand served a small tiny glass of Chinese tea with the coffee. I was told back then that the tea will help to cleanse the palette from the bitter coffee aftertaste. But I think it will also help to neutralize the "oil" in our kopi. So, if I start to sell kopi, I'll serve a small glass of water with lemon juice. That would be great service and will set me apart from other coffee joints. You read it here first!!