Trung Nguyen Gourmet Blend

more corn and chemicals than coffee – The flavour of this "coffee", comes from a host of artificial chemical flavourings. It also has a high percentage of roasted corn to give it its dark colour, and also contains roasted soy beans, which makes it cheaper to produce, as soy beans are twice the weight of coffee. Maybe try asking why this company refuses to export whole beans, and will only export powder.

Chocolatey, nutty, sweet flavour. Completely addicted! – Like the other review, discovered Trung Nguyen coffee in Vietnam and sought it out when we came back to Sydney. Now we don't drink anything else at home. A little testing to get the right brew and you will be rewarded to a sweet tasting coffee with chocolate and hazelnut aromas.

Discovered it in Vietnam – Great coffee, have searched for an Australian supplier, found one locally in Townsville Qld. Love it, prepared to pay just a little more for that amazing taste

Coffee with a tasty difference – A Vietnamese colleague gave me a packet Vietnamese coffee after her trip home: it changed my coffee habits. I used to drink Italian-style roasts, espresso or shortish long black. US long black or the sourness of German light roast never appealed to me. Vietnamese coffee is very different from all others, it is a veritable silk purse out of sow's ears. Much-maligned Robusta and Catimor are turned into a superb coffee by a cooler, longer roasting process. This leaves caramellized sugars rather than burning them off, creating a unique flavour. The roast is dark, very rich, aromatic sweet with a (to me) pleasant slightly bitter, nutty back palate.

Having tried a number of them (mail order from viet-coffee.com.au), my favourite is the Trung Nguyen Gourmet Blend. Trung Nguyen is the largest Vietnamese coffee company and cafe operator. Their numerous roasts use all types of coffee alone or in blends (purists can have Arabica). My everyday preference is the Gourmet Blend, for special occasions or presents I get some of the Creative packs. It comes as a coarse grind designed for the Vietnamese cup-top mini percolator that still works well both in a plunger or many espresso machines. Of the latter, manuals should all cope, it works using our Saeco Magic Deluxe's bypass option, but did not work in a DeLonghi Magnifica whose mechanism could not eject the sloppy coarse-grind puck and got clogged. The unparalleled rich flavour totally lacking in sourness Coarse grind limits application and requires some learning