Can IKEA Medium Roast Coffee Powder Be Drunk Directly? How to Drink IKEA Medium Roast Coffee Powder

IKEA Medium Roast Coffee Powder: Can You Drink It Straight?

This bag came from the small food section outside an IKEA main store. I picked it up mainly because the packaging caught my eye — there were open jars of the coffee on display, and after smelling one I found it quite fragrant, so I took a bag home.

Don't expect too much from the quality of a large bag of coffee powder that costs only a few dozen yuan. Still, for someone who isn't very particular, it's perfectly enjoyable once you add milk.

The product needs a French press to filter out the grounds before drinking. IKEA sells French presses, or you can find one online for around a few dozen yuan; they're also fairly easy to clean.

You'll want a sealed container too. Once opened, it's just a vacuum-sealed bag of powder that absorbs moisture easily, and IKEA displays attractive glass storage jars right next to it.

What's in the Bag

IKEA's medium roast coffee powder is a blend of 85% Arabica beans and 15% Robusta beans. Country of origin: the Netherlands.

Arabica Coffee Beans

Arabica beans carry a wide and varied potential for flavor. Arabica grown in different regions, at different altitudes, and in different climates typically develops its own character, capable of expressing distinctly different personalities in the cup.

Robusta Coffee Beans

Robusta beans usually present a plainer, firmer, and more pungent flavor. Differences between regions and climates show up far less clearly, so the variety lacks individuality — but its caffeine content is about twice that of Arabica.

The Blend in the Cup

Taken together, the two give a strong fruity acidity on the nose, with notes that recall blueberry — a very distinctive fragrance. Extraction is drip by drip, and the liquid shows a clear coffee hue. Drunk straight, it has a pleasant acidity without heavy bitterness, and careful tasting makes the character of both Arabica and Robusta easy to pick out: both bring acidity without obvious bitterness, the light fruit aroma coming from the Arabica and the distinctive barley-tea-like texture coming from the Robusta. The roast level of both sits somewhere between light-medium and medium.

Drinking it black lets you experience the different characteristics and personalities of the two beans, though it can inevitably feel a little one-dimensional. At that point, heat some milk and build a rich, dense foam to add to it.

Making a Cappuccino

Combine 1/3 espresso, 1/3 hot milk, and 1/3 dense milk foam. The result is a cappuccino with a thick foam and a smooth texture where coffee and milk come together.

The Perfect Moment

On a leisurely holiday afternoon, make yourself a cup exactly the way you like it, and sit quietly by the window drinking it alone. A cup of coffee can be simple or luxurious — and the same is true of the touching moments in life. When you start enjoying life, a day is no longer just busy work.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

If a French press is your brewer, FrontStreet's Strawberry Candy is a rewarding match. The blend pairs a honey-processed Costa Rican coffee with a washed Geisha from Panama, and because the French press is a full-immersion method it draws out the sweeter, rounder side of the cup: rose, citrus, grape, and raisin on the nose, and with milk the unmistakable aroma of strawberry gummy candy.

For a low-acid, oil-rich black coffee, FrontStreet's PWN Golden Mandheling is the go-to. One of Asia's best-known specialty coffees, it goes through three rounds of hand sorting plus one machine sort, leaving evenly sized, translucent beans. After a medium-dark roast the beans are large and carry dense spice, caramel, cedar, and dark chocolate aromas; brewed in a French press the cup is thick and full-bodied with generous oils.

To get the best out of either bean in a French press, FrontStreet suggests a coarse grind about the size of raw sugar — 10.5 on an EK43s electric grinder, or 26 clicks on a hand grinder — closer to small gravel than fine sand. Use a 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio (15 grams of coffee to 225 grams of water) for a concentration of roughly 1.1–1.2%, and steep for about 4 minutes, adjusting the time slightly for lighter or darker roasts.