Vietnamese Ground Coffee 227g - Very Strong Dark Roast Vietnam Robusta - Strength 5 - For Coffee Machines & Vietnamese Phin Ca Phe Drip Filter & French Press - Brown Bear - Donation To Free The Bears

Very tasty coffee and strong

Coarsely ground, fragrant, mild taste

Coffee is not as strong as other varieties and the grounds are so dry and bitter. Not very tasteful and do not work well in a Phin filter due to being so dry. Glad to have helped a good cause but quality is lacking.

Very good

Very nice coffee not too bitter relatively strong.

Not strong coffee as advertised. Very weak and without much taste or flavour. The packaging is very nice, but the coffee itself is disappointing and did not match it's description. The taste is like coffee that has been very very diluted.

The first thing I will note is that if you really want to try this coffee, go for the pre-ground rather than the beans. The grounds are really sticky and claggy. I ground some of the beans in a hand grinder, and most of it was either stuck to the sides of the collection 'box' or stuck to the grinding mechanism. It was a nightmare to get it all out and a complete mess with coffee all over the worktop. I wouldn't dare try putting the beans in my coffee machine as I fear it would clog things up inside. Secondly, presumably a consequence of this stickiness, the grounds tend to float rather than mix with water. This nearly resulted in a second complete mess all over the worktop when I poured the boiled water into my AeroPress over the grounds, as the grounds all kind of foamed up floating on top of the water and came within a gnat's whisker of spilling over. It also makes it not very easy to stir because of the risk of it going everywhere. As an aside, the pre-ground stuff (I have tried both the beans and the pre-ground) suffers from the same problem. This coffee would probably be better suited to a cafetiere than an AeroPress. I suspect that one of those drip feed thingies may not be optimal either if the coffee is floating on top of the water rather than properly mixing with it. Perhaps I am stating the obvious, but as this is 100% robusta beans you should expect something very different indeed from your usual coffees. The aroma is very nutty, and with the beans in particular (which makes it such a great shame that grinding the beans is such a mess), it's a gorgeous aroma which greets you as you open the packet. The taste is very very earthy. If you are a 100% arabica person you would probably generously describe it as an "acquired taste". There is an 8 step procedure described on this page for making "authentic" Vietnamese coffee, using some specialist equipment (phin ca phe drip filter) I don't have, and using condensed milk (the sweetness of which I can imagine would make for a nice drink, though I don't put milk in my drinks). It says it takes 4 to 6 minutes to drip through, though other sources I looked at give a much longer time, as much as 20 minutes. Life's too short for that.

I'm pleasantly surprised by the rich, robust flavour of this coffee. I'm not used to milder coffees so this one packs a punch and I like it. It would be a good choice for those who love their coffee strong and flavourful without any bitterness. I'm aware, the vietnamese coffee needs a milk but since I can't drink milk I still enjoy the black one. This coffee is also affordable, its comparable to the high street market prices, but the flavour is I'd say, richer. I would love to get the beans version of this coffee rather than grinded, I could imagine the flavour would be even more intense. From what I've read in the product description, the company behind this coffee is committed to making a positive impact - they donate a portion of their profits to Free The Bears, an organization that helps rescue bears from the illegal wildlife trade. I like the coffee and I like that initiative. Hence my 5 stars.