Original portrait / with coffee and spoon

Hi there and a question if you don't mind. Nice paintings and thanks for sharing techniques. I've fiddled around with painting with coffee a little bit (because I got the urge to paint, but had no paint). My first coffee painting was with actual coffee from beans. It was so-so. I quickly learned that I simply could not get darker shades. I had to layer, layer, layer; still didn't get too dark. I moved to instant coffee which gave much darker shades. It seems from a photo you posted you use instant coffee, is that correct? And the spoon, is that to shovel in pasty, thick coffee? So, I guess my question is, how do you get the very dark shades so dark? Take care, keep painting. :)