DIY Kits

This year I saw more DIY kits than I ever remember seeing before at the Winter Fancy Food Show. Here are some that particularly stood out.

Copper Cow Coffee. This premium Vietnamese drip coffee kit is quite ingenious. It all hinges on a well-designed filter that hangs on the sides of your mug. You pour boiling water through the filter then add the condensed milk, to taste. Depending upon the size of your mug or glass, you could put the condensed milk in first. The company uses actual Vietnamese coffee and condensed sweetened milk from Callifornia. It's absolutely delicious. 

If you want to drink Vietnamese coffee on a regular basis you might want to invest in a stainless steel press, but if you drink it infrequently or want to take it on a trip or to work, this kit couldn’t be more convenient! You can buy a pack of 5 for $14. 

Cultures for Health. This company offers an amazingly wide range of DIY kits allowing you to make your own sourdough (even a gluten free version), mozzarella and ricotta, kombucha, kefir (water or milk style), yogurt, kimchi or saurkraut. Can you make some of these without a kit? Yes, but these kits include the instructions as well as some of the harder to find ingredients. 

What impressed me the most are variety of yogurts—vegan, Bulgarian, Greek, and a collection of mesophilic heirloom yogurt starters should you want to make Finnish viili, Armenian matsoni, Estonian piimä (similar to buttermilk) or my favorite, Swedish filmjölk, a kind of fermented sour milk that somehow combines the best of buttermilk and yogurt. The website offers advice too in the form of articles, videos and recipes. The price of each kit varies from about $10-20. 

Hummustir. This product comes in three flavors, has no preservatives and uses organic and non-GMO ingredients. It’s basically hummus on-demand. Instead of buying a container of fresh hummus that must be refrigerated, this kit comes with the chickpea puree, tahini and spices to blend when you’re ready to consume it. The tub it comes packaged in functions as a bowl to stir together the ingredients and for serving. Not surprisingly it was an Israeli who developed the concept. The texture is very smooth and creamy, though you may want to doctor it with a splash of olive oil. It comes in Classic, Mediterranean with lime and garlic and Village with garlic and cumin. 

It's perfect to keep in a desk drawer with crackers or take to a picnic or even on a trip.  Right now it’s available in a few markets but also online, where a pack of 4 sells for just under $20. 

Disclaimer: This post includes some affiliate links. I received samples of these products to try at the Fancy Food Show. I was not compensated monetarily for this or any other post. 

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