Best Instant Coffee, Plus Instant Coffee Vs Fresh Coffee.

By: Kev
Updated On: December 14, 2023 at 11:05 am

If you found your way here by searching for the best instant coffee, then I'm hoping this post will open your eyes and help & broaden your coffee horizons!

Just a few years ago, I thought I was drinking speciality coffee when I was buying the best instant coffee I could get my hands on – or the most expensive, which I assumed would also be the best.

I started deinking coffee with sugar as a kid whilst night fishing, I loved it, I don't now obviously but memories of sitting with a flask of coffee waiting for the fish to bite is such a great  and happy memory.

What I learned with my journey into speciality coffee, is that there's just no comparison between even the very best instant coffee on the planet and freshly brewed speciality coffee.

So I really hope you stick with this post through to the end and end up on your way to truly experience the best that coffee has to offer – because even the very best instant coffee in 2023 can certainly not achieve this!

Best manual coffee grinders review

Craving Cafe Quality Coffee?

If you're here because you can't find an instant coffee that quite hits the spot for you, this probably means that you've outgrown instant coffee..

If you regularly drink coffee at decent coffee shops, your palate may have just moved on from instant. This is happening with an increasing percentage of the population.

As a nation our palates are developing away from the mainstream “normal” coffee, in which coffee generally just tastes like coffee, and towards speciality coffee.If this is you, then I'd recommend these posts:

Best Coffee MachinesAeropress Review

For anyone who wants as close to instant as possible, but way, way better taste, I'd recommend an Aeropress, they're inexpensive, very easy to use, very fast, and you can make espresso style coffee with them, filter coffee style or cafetiere style, just depending on the filters you use, and the method you choose.

Right now, you can even get one free!:

Pact Coffee Discount Codes

Pact Coffee are currently offering these discount codes exclusively for coffeeblog readers:

Free Cafetiere Worth £37 With Any Subscription: COFFEEBLOGCAF

If you want to make coffee shop favourites at home that will rival the latte, cappuccino or Americano you get at your favourite cafe', then you need an espresso machine, most people moving from instant to an espresso machine would probably be best matched to a bean to cup coffee machine

So what's the difference between Instant Coffee and Speciality Coffee?

Just quickly before I carry on, in case you're not sure what I'm on about when I talk about Speciality coffee.

There's commodity coffee, and there's speciality. Similar to the difference between just “wine” and “fine wines” and the difference between “beer” and “craft beer”. 

Commodity coffee is a market where, to all intents & purposes, coffee is coffee – and the important thing is the price. I'll talk about this more a bit later in this post, but basically, commodity coffee is bought in massive volume, roasted in massive volume, and in terms of taste, you're unlikely to detect any real differences between one coffee and the next. 

Not all commodity coffee is instant (it does sell whole bean and pre-ground) but pretty much all instant is commodity, or this was the case, but it's beginning to change very slowly, as I'll talk about a bit later in this post. If you're buying jars of instant coffee, from the supermarket, this is commodity coffee. If you think “coffee tastes like coffee” – then this probably means you've never really properly experienced speciality coffee. 

Speciality coffee is a market where it's literally all about the taste, not the price. It's grown differently, it's purchased differently, it's roasted differently (in smaller batches by speciality coffee roasters), and it's usually brewed fresh, not made into instant. 

Going back to the wine analogy, if you buy a cheap plonk, you'll just expect it to taste like “wine”, you won't expect anything interesting or particularly enjoyable. It's the same with commodity coffee, whether it's instant or whole bean, it's just going to taste like “coffee”. 

When you start to get into speciality coffee (and beware, it's an addictive and expensive rabbit hole to jump into!) you'll begin to realise that coffee has a great deal more to offer in terms of the range of tastes, aromas and body or mouthfeel, than you'd ever dreamed of, if you (like me) were brought up with an instant coffee spoon in your mouth…

Having said that, I have no problem with instant coffee. It's how I was introduced to coffee as a kid, and how most of us were. It's cheap & it's ultra convenient, you really can't get any quicker coffee than chucking instant coffee granules into a cup and pouring hot water on top. But, once you start to get used to speciality coffee, you'll start to find it very difficult to drink commodity coffee, either speciality or freshly brewed, so be warned ;-). 

So to begin this post, I'll discuss some of the best quality instant coffee available, and then I'll get more into comparing instant coffee vs ground coffee.

 

Voila Speciality Instant Coffee

Sachet of Voila instant speciality coffee.

Check Price - Voila

Voila, are one of a very small number of companies freeze-drying speciality coffee, to make speciality instant. 

I think it's a great thing that there are companies starting to do this – but like everything new, I don't think it's quite at its best just yet.

Don't get me wrong, the speciality instant is infinitely better quality than the standard instant coffee that I've tried, but it's still not quite there. 

The main issue with speciality Instant is the price. It's such an expensive process to produce small batch instant, and therefore this stuff is pricey.

The Voila coffee is $16 (£12.50 ish) for 5 sachets, so that's around £2.50 per coffee if you're using one sachet per cup. Plus, if you try to buy this in the UK, there's another $13.54 for shipping, so if you're buying one pack it ends up at £4.63 per coffee.

Obviously, it's cheaper if you buy a load, if you buy 10 packs it's $22.80 for shipping to the UK, so about £2.86 per sachet including delivery.

A box of speciality instant coffee.

So I haven't tried any of the Voila coffee directly yet – BUT, Barn roasters in Germany produced one of their coffees recently via Voila, and were selling them on their website. The shipping wasn't quite as pricey, the coffee was just under 17.50 Euros, shipping was 4.90, so 22.40, or £19.35, so £3.87 per sachet when all done. 

They did say on their website that you can get 2 coffees from one sachet – I suppose it depends what size cup of coffee you're making, if you're using a 10/11 ounce mug (280 – 300ml ish) I think realistically you're going to use a full sachet, it's only 4.5g.

So, yeah, a bit pricey. BUT – flipping good. Does NOT taste like instant at all, well this particular one made using The Barn roasted coffee didn't anyway, as I said earlier I've not tried any of Voila's own instant.  

This coffee that I tried from The Barn, produced by Voila, is, without doubt, the best instant coffee I've ever tasted. OK, it didn't have all of the subtleties and properties that you'd expect with brewed speciality coffee, and I think this is something that will continue to improve over time with firms making small batch instant. But it was very enjoyable, and I'd never have guessed it was instant if I didn't know. 

OK so now let's talk about the type of instant coffees most people are thinking of when searching the web for the best instant coffee.

Nescafé Gold Cappuccino Coffee Sachets

Check Price - Amazon

 

Nescafe Gold Cappuccino Instant are sachets that most brits will be familiar with, often found in company kitchens.

While they may not be quite up to the standard of cappuccino I'm used to, given these things come from a sachet & just require hot water, and sugar if you're that way inclined, I think we have to give them their due.

If you REALLY love cappuccino and you want amazing cappuccino at home, at a completely different level than you'd get from a sachet, then you're going to have to look at an investment of significantly more than what you'll pay for a box of these instant cappuccino sachets. 

If you're not all that fussed, and you just want some sachets in the cupboard for an occasional very easy cappuccino, then why not? 

These are unsweetened, so you can add sugar if required – oh and by the way, Nescafe hasn't quite perfected these instants to the level that they'll end up with the chocolate powder or sprinkles on top as per the image – so if you want that you'll need to do that manually ;-).

 

Mount Hagen Organic and Fairtrade Instant Coffee

Check Price - Amazon

Mount Hagen is a German brand of organic, fair-trade instant coffee.

This coffee was ranked the best instant coffee in a piece by New York Times a few years back and generally gets decent reviews when ranked among other higher-end instants. 

It's not cheap when compared to your everyday jar of instant, but it is actually very cheap when you compare it speciality instant. So if you're looking for something higher quality than the normal four or five quid jar or instant, but you're not wanting to spend around three quid per cup, I think Mount Hagen is worth a try.

What kind of coffee is it?

Mount Hagen is 100% Arabica, from the high altitude regions of Papua New Guinea. It's also organic & fair trade.

 

Cafédirect Fairtrade Machu Picchu

Check Price - Amazon

I'm putting this one at the very top in terms of commercial instant coffee (i.e the stuff you'll buy from a supermarket, vs the speciality instant that a few firms are starting to create) because:

1: it's 100% Arabica. 

Most instant coffees are a blend of the lovely Arabica & harsh Robusta, to bring the costs down.

I enjoy an intense Italian espresso blend, which tends to be heavy on the Robusta. This gives a decent crema and a proper smack in the mouth – sometimes I crave that from an espresso.

But instant coffee isn't espresso. Most Brits drink big mugs of it, and mix milk & sometimes even that white granulated crap with it too ;-). (I'm just kidding, I used to take sugar, but getting addicted to speciality coffee helped me to ditch the sugar).

If I was drinking instant coffee (which I haven't done, for quite some time, since I got addicted to speciality coffee, which I'll get to shortly) I would want something well balanced, strong yet chuggable without making my eyes water. This is what 100% Arabica has to offer.

2: it's a single origin.

This means that, unlike most instant coffees, all of the coffee beans used for this instant, come from the same country, which in this case is Peru.

OK, Cafe Direct doesn't go as far to tell you what varietals they use in their instant, which would really impress me (it's the norm for speciality coffee, by the way, but unheard of with instant).  But all the beans coming from the same origin, well, that's one thing. As long as the beans haven't been roasted within an inch of charcoal, maybe there will be one distinguishing characteristic that will stand out.

3: and most importantly – because Cafe Direct put half of its profit back into the communities where their coffee is grown. I know, you probably jump to the same conclusion that I would initially, and think “not much profit after the accountants have done their jobs…” but now in 2019, this has equated to $19 million that has gone back into coffee farming communities, on top of the fair trade prices they have paid for the coffee.

 

Nescafé Azera Americano Instant Coffee

Check Price - Amazon

 

You'll probably be familiar with Nescafe Azera, it's become one of the best selling instant coffees over the past few years.

Azera is one of the “Barista Style” instant coffees, which is made using a blend of instant coffee & finely ground coffee beans, which is what gives the illusion of crema.

“Barista Style”  which is a term I think Nescafe started, and others have come up with similar terms, means putting finely ground solid coffee beans into an instant coffee.

It's usually fairly pricey as far as instants go, but check out the current price of the 500g tubs on Amazon, as it's occasionally on offer at substantially reduced prices.

What kind of coffee is it?

Something you'll find out if you read all of this post is that there are lots of different kinds of coffee. The two main different species of coffee that we drink, are Arabica and Robusta, and then there are dozens of different types of Arabica, which all taste different.

When you drink Instant, you'll very rarely know what coffee you're drinking, other than whether it's Robusta or Arabica, or a blend. Robusta is very strong and pungent, but it's cheaper than Arabica, so it's usually blended with Arabica, to lower the price, and also to give some intensity.

As with most instant coffees, Azera is a blend of Arabica and Robusta. I suspect that there's more Arabica in Azera than there is in the cheaper Nescafe coffee such as original, from tasting them both, but I can't tell you for sure as this is something Nestle won't tell (I've asked).

 

Kenco Smooth – Instant Coffee Sticks

Check Price - Amazon

 

I've never quite understood coffee sachets if I'm honest. If you're going to drink instant coffee, why not just have one big jar or tin, rather than loads of individual packaging? 

I suppose they're intended for offices & similar environments, where it's maybe not particularly hygienic to have loads of people digging into a big jar of coffee with a spoon. Especially given that so many people like to use the same spoon for sugar and coffee, so you end up with sugar in the coffee and coffee in the sugar. 

Whatever the case, Kenco smooth sachets sell very well – they're one of the best selling instants at the moment, even outselling some of the really trendy barista style instants.

What kind of coffee is it?

It's 100% arabica, and although the packaging of this particular product doesn't seem to state it, as far as I'm aware Kenco smooth is Rainforest Alliance Certified – but don't quote me in case this is only their bigger tins of this coffee, although that wouldn't make much sense. 

It's a standard freeze-dried instant coffee, and they list it as medium roasted, although some of the big coffee brands appear to have a bit of a different idea of medium roasted to the speciality coffee market, where medium roasted is probably a bit lighter a roast than this.

 

L'OR Classique Freeze Dried Instant Coffee

Check Price - Amazon

L'OR is a relatively new brand from Jacobs Douwe Egberts, spanning the instant coffee and pod coffee markets.

You may know L'OR for their popular L'OR Nespresso compatible pods, they even make a Nespresso compatible machine which features in my Best Nespresso Machines post.

What kind of coffee is it?

They're not particularly clear on this, but from what I can gather it's an Arabica Robusta blend. Anyone reading this from JDE, please correct me if I'm wrong – or congratulate if me I'm right ;-). 

Some retailers including Waitrose use what I find to be slightly deceptive blurb that talks about “the presence of Arabica” without calling it 100% Arabica, and without mentioning the presence of Robusta.

Not that I think there's anything wrong with Robusta, depending on what Arabica it's blended with and what the % is, I really enjoy some Arabica Robusta blends.

The Arabica beans used for this instant are from Colombia, and while that's about all I can tell you about the coffee beans, that's more information than you're usually told about instant coffees. 

 

Kenco Millicano

Check Price - Amazon

 

This is another “barista style” – or “Barista Edition” instant coffee, in this case, meaning that it's an instant coffee blended with finely ground whole beans.

The tin says “professional” on it, so – must be good.

Honestly, I do wonder who these big firms get to come up with some of their marking blurb. Did you know that this coffee is even suitable for vegetarians? So unlike other brands of coffee, this instant has no meat in it, great! 🙂

Why aren't Quorn creating their own vegetarian coffee by the way… Quoffee?  It would be no dafter than their “ham free slices” 😉 – which could be goat for all we know or HAMster. Actually, no it couldn't be hamster, Quorn ham is square, and hamsters are oval.

By the way, Quorn people, if you're reading – I'm a veggie, and you know what I miss? Corned beef! Why the heck haven't you come up with Quorned beef yet? 

Seriously, though, come on – how hard can it be? You've made facon (fake bacon), you've made Quorn sausages (Quosages?) surely Quorned beef is doable? 

Anyway, going back to the coffee…

What kind of coffee is it?

From what I can tell, Kenco Millicano is a Robusta/Arabic blend which is then blended with finely ground Arabica coffee beans, for the “Barista edition” bit, which basically means that the very finely ground solid coffee floats which give the illusion of crema.

Crema, by the way, is the head that you get on espresso, which is a side effect of well-extracted espresso. The “crema” you'll get from these “Barista Style” instant coffees isn't the same, and it doesn't actually taste different from the rest of the coffee. True espresso crema has a distinctive bitter taste, which some people enjoy drinking on top, and some people prefer to stir in.

 

Nescafe Gold Blend

Check Price - Amazon

 

Gold blend is an instant that doesn't need much of an introduction. It's been one of the best selling instants in the coffee for years.

What kind of coffee is it?

Gold Blend is also a blend of Robusta and Arabica. I can't tell you which varietals, or what percentage of Robusta is used, as Nescafe don't provide this information.

By the way, a quick fact for you. Nescafé was created in 1929 when the Brazilian government asked Nestlé to find an outlet for its huge coffee surplus.

A food scientist working for Nestle called Max Morgenthaler invented a new way of making instant coffee, which dissolved better and tasted better.

 

Nescafe Gold Blend does deserve some respect, I think. You may not expect this coming from a speciality coffee lover who hasn't stepped foot near a cup of instant coffee for quite a few years – but I was brought up on instant coffee, and if you'd have asked me at any point during my teenage years up until probably my mid 20's what was the best instant coffee, I'd probably have replied Nescafe Gold Blend. 

Many other people would do the same, and this is down to the brilliant job done by Nescafe over the years in marketing what was for a long time their premium coffee before they came out with barista style coffees and Nespresso.

By the way, did you know they turned down what we know as Nespresso, at first, because they were worried it would hurt sales of their instant coffee? True story.

The guy who invented it (Eric Favre) played a very long game. He joined Nestle in the warehouse, worked his way up, pitched the decision-maker, got turned down – carried on working for them, became a food scientist for them, and 8 years later pitched the CEO of Nestle Japan, who loved it. See: The rocket engineer who invented the Nespresso coffee pod

 

Nescafe Original

Check Price - Amazon

 

I'm not a fan of this at all, I actually find the smell quite horrible, it's like burning rubber, not something I'd want to drink.

But again, Nescafe original deserves some respect, it's been one of the best selling instant coffees for decades, and many offices all over the UK probably have a big tin of this in the kitchen.

It's Nescafe's original instant coffee (pointing out the obvious), and it's known for its bold flavour. I suspect it has a fairly high Robusta content which gives it that distinct slightly harsh flavour that some people love.

What kind of coffee is it?

Again, the original is a Robusta and Arabica blend.

I can't tell you what percentage the blend is, as they don't give information like this away if they're asked (I asked), but I would suspect that Original has a higher percentage of Robusta than some of the other Nescafe instants.

To me (and I've only tasted it in recent years for research purposes, I assure you) this tastes almost purely Robusta. It tastes, again – to me, like it smells, which is of burning rubber.

But some people love the stuff, and who am I to argue? If you like it, great, it's cheap – you're lucky! 

And there we go, that's just about the lot you're going to get from me on instant coffee ;-). It's not something you'll find me discussing much on coffeeblog, as it's not something I've consumed for a few years now. You'll understand, once you catch the speciality coffee bug!

This brings me nicely to:

Instant Coffee Vs Ground Coffee

Not so long ago, I was chatting to a young guy who didn't know there was any difference between instant coffee and coffee made from fresh ground beans.

When I say young by the way, I don't mean 5 or 6, I mean early 20s! ;-). For whatever reason, he just wasn't aware of any difference between instant coffee vs freshly brewed coffee, made with ground coffee beans.

He's not the only one. There are a lot of people in the UK who are brought up with instant coffee and haven't experienced freshly brewed coffee made with freshly ground roasted coffee beans.

As I was informing him about how instant coffee is made, and the difference between this vs freshly brewed coffee, I thought I'll bet there are quite a few people who aren't aware of this either.

So I'm writing this guide for anyone who is not sure of the difference between instant/soluble coffee, and brewed coffee made from ground coffee beans.

If you're a coffee connoisseur then you really don't need to read this ;-).

So, all coffee starts as a seed in a coffee cherry, and there is a pair in each coffee cherry, except with Peaberries, which are cherries that only have a single seed, which is oval and pea-shaped hence the name Peaberry.

Coffee grows in warm climates, in over 50 countries, the top ten producers by volume being Brazil, Vietnam, Colombia, Indonesia, Ethiopia, India, Mexico, Guatemala, Peru and Honduras.

coffeecherries
Coffee Cherries Growing. The Red ones are the more ripe ones, they're a deep red colour when ripe. Photo Credit: Joe Driscoll.

If you want to annoy your friends or family with some useless info, you can tell them that coffee beans don't actually exist. A coffee “bean” is actually a seed, not a bean.

All beans are seeds, but not all seeds are beans – only seeds that are part of the bean family (Fabaceae, Leguminosae or Papilionaceae – see Wikipedia for more) are beans, which isn't the case with coffee seeds, so the term “coffee bean” is technically incorrect. Anyway, this isn't as weird as the fact that cashew nuts come from a fruit!

The Coffee cherries are picked, they're then dried and processed, and eventually, they look like this:

Green Coffee Beans.
Photo Credit: Pen Waggener

They look like peanuts, don't they?

I wouldn't recommend trying to eat them though, probably break your teeth 😉 they're like little rocks until they're roasted.

They're known as green beans, or simply ‘greens'. They're sold and exported like this, and then are roasted before the coffee we love, can be enjoyed.

Once they're roasted they look more like what you probably recognise as a coffee bean:

coffee beans
Roasted coffee beans. Photo credit: olle svensson

Roasting isn't as simple as it might sound, it's a real art; the folk who do this are highly skilled experts, and the better the roaster, the better the resulting coffee.

Coffee Flavours Profiles by OriginSpeciality coffee-why make the switch

For roasters in the UK see my list of UK coffee roasters, most of them sell their freshly roasted coffee online.

I also sell a range of freshly roasted single origins and blends, which you can buy whole bean or pre-ground. If you order pre-ground, by the way, we grind as we're bagging up your order, for supreme freshness. 

Use discount code CBNC25 for 25% off your first order at Coffeeworks

A roasted coffee bean is either ground for brewing fresh coffee (either sold whole and ground at home, or sold ready ground in a pack or in coffee pods/capsules), or it can be turned into instant coffee by instant coffee manufacturers, such as Nescafe, Kenco, Maxwell House and so on, or by instant coffee processing companies who manufacture for other brands.

Well, these are the main things that happen to coffee beans once roasted, anyway. Some are chocolate coated, and some are even made into bracelets! But most are consumed either freshly brewed or via instant.

Instant Coffee:

Instant/soluble coffee is brewed concentrated coffee that is dried to be brewed again by adding water. Usually, instant coffee manufacturers buy green coffee beans and roast them in-house prior to grinding them also in-house, and then brew massive quantities of coffee which are then heated and condensed, into a thick concentrated coffee liquid to be dried.

Why is Instant Coffee So Popular?

The reason instant coffee has been so successful in certain parts of the world is availability, cost and convenience – in fact, I think if you get this combination right, you can probably sell just about anything, regardless of quality.

Just look at McDonald's, is it the best food you can get? I'll let you answer that question. I'm not lovin' it, since I'm pescetarian and I don't eat white bread (if I eat just a few rounds I'll be obese within a week), so even their fillet o' fish is off the menu for me. But is it inexpensive, is it available, and is it convenient? Tick, tick, tick.

Just to mention Quorn again, why has McDonald's still not struck a deal with Quorn so that they can actually give vegetarians something that they'll actually want to eat? I don't get it. Anyway…

Once someone is used to drinking freshly brewed coffee, they're spoiled for instant – so areas where fresh coffee has been prevalent for some time, and where affordability is generally higher, tend to be less successful areas for instant coffee.

The USA is a good example of this, instant coffee went down there like a lead balloon, as fresh coffee is such a ritual for so many Americans.

The aroma, the process of brewing it (often via electric filter coffee machine or cafetiere, or ‘French press' as most Americans would call it), is part of the daily routine for most Americans since childhood. The thought of spooning some instant coffee into a cup and adding water, to re-hydrate a cup of coffee that was made who knows when isn't a concept easily sold to Americans.

Differences Between Cafetiere and Filter CoffeeBest coffee for espresso

It's a similar story in most of Europe, freshly brewed coffee is part of the daily routine for the majority in nearly all of Europe except the UK & Ireland.

I watched a TV program a while back where some people in Italy were asked about instant coffee, and many of them didn't have a clue what the researcher was talking about – instant coffee, what?? Probably a similar reaction to most Brits when they're told that some people make cups of tea using a jar of instant! ;-).

Instant coffee has done incredibly well in the UK, and even though freshly brewed speciality coffee has become increasingly popular in recent years, the sales of instant coffee still swamp the sale of whole or ground coffee beans in the UK. It's changing, and it will continue to do so as future generations are brought up with freshly brewed coffee.

How is Instant Coffee Made?

The process of drying the coffee is done in two ways, spray drying & freeze drying.

Spray drying is done by spraying a fine mist of brewed coffee through hot and dry air, in a tall chamber. When the droplets land, they have dried into coffee powder, which ends up in jars of instant coffee.

Freeze drying uses a scientific process called sublimation, which is the same process which is used to make dry ice, and also the same process which is used to decorate giftware (using special inks/dyes and a heat press) in which the process is known as dye sublimation.

This involves the concentrated coffee being frozen, smashed up into granules, and then heat is applied in a vacuum, which forces the coffee to go from the liquid phase into a solid without going through the liquid phase, in order to dry the coffee granules out with as little aroma loss as possible.

Oh by the way, if you're wondering how the “Barista style” much more expensive instant coffee is made, they do this by mixing instant coffee with very very finely ground coffee, with the soluble coffee, which gives the illusion of crema.

Freshly brewed coffee:

Coffee beans are roasted, and either packaged as whole bean, or ground and packaged as pre-ground coffee or to be put into coffee pods for the various coffee pod machines. There is a huge variety of different coffee beans, from various different coffee varieties, various different blends, and several different fresh brewing processes.

Is there a difference in taste between instant coffee and freshly brewed coffee?

Taste is a subjective thing, but in my opinion, there is just no comparison, but then again it depends on what you're comparing.

If you're comparing the taste of instant coffee with the taste of a coffee made from a skilled Barista (a coffee brewing expert at a specialist coffee shop) using high quality coffee beans, then I think unless there is something very strange going on with your taste buds, you would not believe the two drinks were related.

If you're comparing instant coffee with filter coffee or espresso made at home from someone who has made a terrible job of it using poor quality stale coffee, wrong temperature water, dirty equipment etc., then the difference may not quite be the same.

It's not just about the taste either, there is something magical to me about freshly brewed coffee, the whole experience including the wonderful aroma, it's not the same when you just pour hot water over a spoonful of instant coffee.

Best Filter Coffee Machine Review

Here's a challenge for you :-). Try my coffee from The Coffeeworks, via any brew method, try two different coffees (if you buy two bags or more you get free delivery) just in case one of them isn't quite for you, and I'll bet you never go back to drinking instant. 

Use discount code CBNC25 for 25% off your first order at Coffeeworks

I think it's probably to do with the freshness of all the naturally occurring compounds and the amount of caffeine, see this recent post for more about that.

Speciality Coffee. its time for a change!

Commodity coffee Vs. speciality coffee.

It's not as simple as instant vs fresh brewed, however, as there are different types of whole bean and pre-ground coffee beans. I'm not talking here about the type of bean, such as Arabica vs Robusta, or the coffee tree varietals, I'm talking about two completely distinct industries: commodity coffee, and speciality coffee.

Commodity coffee is coffee that is imported and roasted in vast quantities to be packaged (either whole bean or pre-ground) and sold via retailers, mainly via supermarkets, either in bags or in individual pods for the various coffee pod/disk machines.

Best Pod Machine Review

Some of this coffee will have fancy labels on it, some are even called “single origin” and are made to look like speciality coffee when really it's just cleverly marketed commodity coffee. It usually has a stamped shelf life of a year or longer and doesn't have a “roasted on” date, and you don't usually have any idea of how old the coffee is when you buy it, or even by the time it ends up on a shelf ready to be purchased.

Speciality coffee is a completely different kettle of fish from commodity coffee. The farms that are growing the coffee for this market are usually smaller growers or cooperatives, who grow, pick and process their coffee beans completely focused on the quality of the resulting cup, rather than being focused purely on production.

The location of the farms, the coffee tree varietals, and everything else all the way through to sacking up the dried beans, is all done purely with quality in mind.

It's called speciality because everything is done with quality in mind rather than production and price in mind, similar to commodity wine vs. fine wines.

The speciality coffee roasters who import this coffee, sometimes directly and sometimes via brokers, are also just as focused on quality.

They are usually small batch roasters, that is, they roast in small volumes, so that they can remain completely focused on roasting the best possible coffee, as roasting in big volumes can be better for the price but with a reduction in the quality of the resulting cup of coffee.

The coffee they roast is single origin, or even single estate meaning that it has come from the same farm or the same co-operative, and they are experts who know exactly what flavour notes they should be getting from the beans.

The coffee they roast is usually packaged up for sale only a day or two after roasting, and the only reason for this delay is to allow the carbon dioxide to escape the roasted beans, which is known as “de-gassing”.

You will usually find a “roasted on” date on packs of speciality coffee, and with some of the more popular roasters, you will also often find that they supply speciality coffee shops, as well as retail.

If you're lucky enough to have a roaster locally to you, you'll probably find that as well as supplying you with great coffee, they will also provide great brewing advice, and information about the coffee you're buying.

While commodity coffee is often more heavily roasted, speciality roasters are much more careful to ensure that the flavour notes that should be distinguishable with a particular bean from a particular origin, are there, and this often means light or medium roast.

If you have only ever tasted supermarket coffee in the past, and then you taste speciality coffee, your taste buds are in for a treat!

Even if you have bought “single origin” coffee from a supermarket in the past, if it's over roasted and then sitting in a bag for several months or even longer, it's unlikely (in my humble opinion) that the flavour notes that are synonymous with that region are going to be all that noticeable in the resulting cup.

Grinding

The Smart Grinder Pro

 

Check Price - AmazonCheck Price - Sage Appliances

Check Price - CurrysCheck Price - John Lewis

Smart Grinder Pro Review

I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt, from my own experience, that the best possible way to enjoy speciality coffee, is to grind your own.

You just can't get the same taste from freshly brewed freshly ground coffee from pre-ground, as the taste begins to diminish only minutes from grinding.

Best Manual Coffee GrindersBest Electric Coffee Grinder

If you do buy pre-ground, at least if you're buying from a speciality roaster, they will give you a grind specifically for the brew method you plan on using, that is you can buy it ground for cafetiere, or for drip filter, V60, or Espresso.

Hario V60 Pour Over Dripper Coffee maker

If you're buying pre-ground supermarket coffee, it tends to be more of a one grind size fits all approach, and grind size makes a big difference to the resulting cup of coffee.

Want to brew fresh coffee at home? This is what you'll need:

Home Barista Gear From Coffee Hit

Looking for a wide range of home barista accessories, including tampers, milk jugs, knock out boxes, manual brewers, manual grinders, brew scales, and loads more?

Coffee Hit.

Checkout my friends at Coffee Hit, one of the UK's most established suppliers of pro and home barista gear.

 

A pourover dripper and filters.

The drip filter brew technique is used to freshly brew coffee by mixing ground coffee beans and hot water in a paper filter, the resulting extracted coffee drips through into the cup below.

Depending on which you go for, the dripper can be bought from about a fiver, and another fiver or so for enough filters to make 100 cups.

V60 is a hugely popular pour over dripper, I'm a big fan of the V60, and they're very inexpensive. Kalita Wave is another popular dripper, and Chemex is a very popular choice, and good for making bigger pots rather than single cups.

If you want a V60 dripper free, by the way, Pact coffee are offering a free V60 coffee start up pack worth £11 to coffeeblog readers – click here for that. They're also offering an alternative discount (off their wholebean coffee, pre-ground coffee, and Nespresso compatible pods) of £5 off your first order.

You can go for an electric dripper if you prefer, just keep in mind that if you get one with a warming plate, the longer you leave it keeping warm, the worst it's going to taste by the time you drink it. I prefer to make filter coffee using the pour over method and drink it straight away.

A great thing about this method as well as the taste of the coffee is that the equipment is very inexpensive, and it's very portable; you can take it anywhere with you, on holiday, to the office, camping…

All you need is hot water, you don't need electricity as long as you have some other way to heat water such as a flame, meaning it's good for camping or brewing on the beach for example.

Filter coffee is lighter and cleaner than other brewing processes, in terms of mouth-feel and taste. If you get the extraction right (i.e. the grind size is right and you're using the right water to coffee ratio) you should end up with a very enjoyable cup, as long as you're using decent fresh coffee beans that is, but I'll talk about that shortly.

Or…

A Cafetiere

 

Kichly 350ml Stainless Steel Cafetiere

Cafetiere, also known as French Press, or press pot, is a pot with a plunger attached to a mesh filter. You mix ground coffee with hot water, leave it for about 4 mins, then plunge gently to separate the grounds from the extracted coffee.

You can walk into most supermarkets and pick up a cheap cafetiere if you want to try it out first before investing in something a bit better, I have a stainless steel cafetiere which is great.

Just keep in mind that when the manufacturer tells you the number of cups you can make each time with their cafetiere, they seem to be basing this on teeny weeny cups!

The average coffee mug holds about 10 fluid ounces or 284 ml, so when they tell you you'll get 8 cups from a 1000ml capacity pot, even if we assume you'd fill to the brim and don't account for the lost capacity due to the coffee grounds in the bottom, we're still only talking about 125ml or 4.4 ounce cup, which is a very small cup of coffee.

Cafetiere coffee tends to have a heavier mouth feel than filter. The mesh filter doesn't filter out as much of the coffee oils, and I find the overall mouth feel and taste to generally be darker and heavier than filter. I'm not saying this is a bad thing, in fact, sometimes I'll crave the heaviness of cafetiere coffee and nothing else will do.

Besrt Filter Coffee MachinesBest Caferieres Review

Or…

Aeropress

Bear Grylls and Stephen Fry enjoying Aeropress Coffee.
Bear Grylls and Stephen Fry enjoying Aeropress Coffee.

Aeropress is a great coffee brewing method that has become hugely popular in quite a short space of time, there are even world Aeropress championships, which is really something given that it was only invented just over 10 years ago!

With Aeropress, you put ground coffee beans into the chamber of the coffee maker, add hot water, stir and then plunge.

When you plunge, unlike with cafetiere where you're just separating the grounds from the coffee, you're actually generating some pressure, which causes some of the coffee extraction.

The result is a fantastic tasting freshly brewed coffee which I describe as being somewhere between filter and cafetiere.

It's a very versatile brewing process though, you can do it standard or inverted (upside down), and you can make a very concentrated espresso style coffee which you can enjoy as is, or dilute with water or milk to make a wide range of different coffee drinks. You can use paper filters or a reuseable metal filter, and this will also impact on the taste and mouth feel.

Aeropress Review

As with pour over, all you need is hot water and ground coffee beans, and the Aeropress is very portable. So, as the photo to the left shows with Bear Grylls and Stephen Fry, a camping trip doesn't have to involve instant coffee! If you're going on an adventure with Bear Grylls, you really need fuelling with proper coffee! 😉

Or…

A moka pot/stove top pot.

Bialetti Moka Express Stovetop Coffee Maker

Check Price - AmazonCheck Price - John Lewis

This is a small metal pot that brews concentrated, espresso style coffee. Moka pots are fairly inexpensive in comparison to espresso machines, and although it isn't “true” espresso as not enough pressure is involved, it still makes a good espresso style coffee, in my opinion.

I have an espresso machine, so I wouldn't choose to use a moka pot unless I was camping for instance.

Since what you make with a stove top is espresso style, this is also the same with the drinks you would make with it. For instance, you can drink it neat, or you can dilute it with water to make an Americano, or dilute it with textured milk to make a flat white, cappuccino, latte etc.

Or…

A Pod / Disk Coffee Machine

 

Grind One Nespresso Compatible Pod Machine

Grind One Nespresso machine review.

Check Price - GrindCheck Price - Amazon

 

Nespresso, TassimoDolce' Gusto are the most well known pod/disk coffee machines. They're very clever and very convenient.

Just stick the pod in, and press the button. With the possible exception of one or two of the pods or disks for specific coffee drinks, coffee pods and disks are ground coffee beans and not instant coffee, so you are usually drinking freshly brewed coffee when you drink coffee from a disk or pod machine.

There are also ESE coffee pods that work in most of the lower end consumer espresso machines that come with pressurised portafilters.

I did have a Tassimo for a while, and a very good friend of mine swears by Nespresso, so I've had many of these while round at his.

I don't use the Tassimo anymore, and I chose not to go for a Nespresso as I like to try different speciality coffees – having said that, some speciality coffee roasters are now selling Nespresso compatible pods, and pods/disks which are compatible with other machines. There are also Seal Pods, which allow you to grind your own speciality beans to be used with Nespresso.

Or…

A Bean to Cup Coffee Machine.

The Gaggia Brera

Gaggia Brera bean to cup espresso machine

The Gaggia Brera Review

Espresso is a versatile coffee that you can, of course, enjoy neat, or mix with water or milk to make most of the coffee drinks you'll be aware of (Americano, cappuccino, cortado, flat white, latte, long black, macchiato…).

This is the most expensive end of the range when it comes to budget, you can spend anything from around a hundred quid to several thousand.

Best Bean to Cup Espresso MachinesBest Cheap Traditional Espresso MachinesBest Home Coffee Machines

When it comes to espresso machines, you can go for a manual or semi automatic machine similar to the kind of machine you'd see in a coffee shop, or you can go bean to cup, which is where you put the beans in the top, press a button, and you get whatever coffee you've selected.

I really like using a traditional espresso machine, so after a week of using the Sage by Heston Blumenthal The Oracle (on loan while I reviewed it), I bought the Gaggia classic, which is more within my budget.  As I mentioned in this post, I bought a used one locally for £100, and it's brilliant!

You'll also need a coffee grinder. You can always buy ground if you prefer, whether you're buying from a shop, a local roaster or a speciality coffee supplier, you can select to buy pre-ground.

I've found though that having a grinder and being able to grind your own coffee beans as you use them, really adds to the whole experience most importantly when it comes to the taste.

Coffee beans start to go stale as soon as they're ground, so grinding your own is best if you're after the best fresh tasting coffee possible.

I used the Hario Skerton for a while, which is a hand powered grinder – but I got sick of grinding by hand, quite quickly ;-).

Firstly I hacked it by using a cordless drill, and then I spent some time trying to decide which electric grinder to go for, and ended up going for the Sage smart grinder pro, which I absolutely love!

So anyway there you go, if you weren't sure of the difference between instant coffee and freshly brewed coffee, you should be now.

Best milk frothers review

How to Make the Best (Nearly) Instant Coffee…

Want to know how to make the best (nearly) Instant coffee?

I'm not talking about actual instant coffee now, I'm talking about NEARLY instant coffee, which consists of:

  • Freshly roasted speciality beans from one of the several hundred small batch coffee roasters we're lucky enough to have in the UK (if you're in the US or Aus, or any other country for that matter, you'll have loads of roasters in your country too).
  • Hario Skerton hand grinder. (Or skip this step if you want, order pre-ground beans from your roaster – but grinding fresh will always produce the best results.
  • Aeropress

You can take this kit with you anywhere, all you need is hot water.

If you're out and about in towns or cities – there are places you can get hot water from, such as self-service coffee machines by simply pressing the hot water button, or if you're hiking or camping, you can heat water via a camping stove.

No, it's not quite instant, but it's much faster than most traditional fresh coffee brewing processes including filter and cafetiere.

Soluble instant coffee is ultra convenient, you just spoon in some granules and pour in some hot water – but, for the difference in taste, aroma, and overall experience, the method I'm suggesting isn't all that less convenient.

Whether you go for Aeropress or The Wiccacopresso, you'll be off with your STUNNING tasting coffee within a minute or two, and the little bit of extra time it will take you vs using instant will be well worth it!

I'm talking about The Oomph or Aeropress in particular because of speed and convenience.

There are other brew methods, of course, drip filter, syphon, cafetiere, Espresso – but if we're talking about a way to enjoy fresh coffee with similar convenience to instant coffee, it's got to be Aeropress.

I'm not saying you'll never drink instant again, many people still use instant in certain circumstances – but what I am saying is that you don't HAVE to always drink instant just because of the convenience, as brewing with Aeropress or the Oomph is also really convenient.

What About Taste?

The taste is what it's all about, after all. It's not just about caffeine delivery – if that's all you want coffee for, then there are other ways to get caffeine into your system – coffee is about the taste first, in my opinion anyway.

The reason I think everyone should experience freshly brewed coffee, is for the taste, more than anything. There's such a wide variety of different types of coffee to taste, some of which you might not enjoy as much as others, some of which may blow you away and become your new favourites – but you only really get this with freshly brewed coffee.

If you think “coffee tastes of coffee” – then you REALLY need to begin experimenting with freshly brewed coffee – you'll be amazed. You see, the reason most of us who are brought up drinking instant coffee think that “coffee just tastes of coffee” is that most instant soluble coffee is very similar, it's usually a blend of Robusta and Arabica, and it's usually a dark roast.

This is the easiest way to roast coffee beans (often various different varietals) in huge volumes and ensure that each jar tastes the same.

What this means is that most of the subtle taste profiles that you would taste at a lighter roast are burned away, and also usually masked by the overriding taste of Robusta – so what you're left with is a taste that ‘just tastes of coffee.'

But as I said earlier, there is a really wide range of different tastes to be experienced in coffee – just as there is with wine.

There isn't just one grape, of course, and there isn't just one coffee bean (seed) either, there are lots of different coffee tree varietals which grow different kinds of coffee cherries.

The coffees grown in different coffee producing countries taste different, as do coffees grown at different altitudes.  There are different processing types too, which changes the taste profile, and then the way the beans are roasted makes a difference too.

You can have sweet coffee, bitter coffee, coffee that reminds you of marzipan, and coffee that tastes like nuts (as I'm typing this I'm drinking a coffee that reminds me of a Mars bar).

My coffee at The Coffeeworks, by the way – there is coffee that reminds me of custard creams, coffee that reminds me of chocolate brownies, coffee that reminds me of fruit cake – this is the way I've named the coffees at The Coffeeworks, by the main flavour they remind me of. Check them out:

Use discount code CBNC25 for 25% off your first order at Coffeeworks

These aren't flavoured coffees, by the way, and the flavours I'm describing in the flavour profiles aren't “in your face” flavours as they would be if you'd added syrups, for example, they're subtle, enjoyable taste descriptors. 

There are so many different varietals and origins available that you can just keep on trying different coffees until you start to find particular origins and particular varietals that you particularly enjoy.

This is even without talking about blends – there are also blends of the various different varietals and origins, which introduces even more potential different flavour profiles!

Until you start experiencing freshly brewed coffee, you're just never going to experience the full potential that coffee has to offer.

What About Cost?

There's no doubt that instant coffee can be cheaper than freshly brewed speciality coffee – and by quite a lot.

I say can be, because some of the “Barista Style” instants aren't all that cheap compared to freshly brewed coffee.

Speciality coffee isn't all that expensive though, in my humble opinion. Speciality coffee freshly brewed at home will cost you somewhere in the region of 20p to 60p per cup, depending on the cost of your beans. I really don't think this is a lot to pay for a lovely cup of energising satisfying and tasty coffee.

Compare this to wine, the average glass of wine from an £8 bottle is £2 per glass, depending on how big your glasses are, obviously. So why don't you just pick up the very cheapest bottle of wine on the shelf?

Most people don't do this because they want a nice tasting wine, and they know there's usually a difference in taste to be experienced when going for the cheapest possible bottle.

I actually don't think cost comes into it that much when it comes to the reason that in the UK 80% or more of the population drink instant coffee (which is way, way higher than most other countries, by the way). I think it's mainly about convenience and the fact that so many of us are just brought up with instant and don't see a reason to consider doing anything differently.

The huge success of pod/disk coffee machines such as Nespresso illustrates the importance of convenience, with people more than happy to pay five or six times the price per cup of instant – from the same company.

Where to buy your freshly roasted coffee beans.

We are really lucky in this country to have a huge wealth of small batch coffee roasters, and many of us even have one (or even more than one) locally. See the UK coffee roasters directory to find your local roasters.

My favourite way to buy coffee from these roasters, though, is with coffee subscriptions. Coffee subscriptions such as Blue Coffee Box & Pact Coffee, are a great way not just to keep topped up with coffee, but also to broaden your horizons by trying lots of different coffees, from different origins, different varietals, different processes, and so on.

Blue coffee box.
Look what just landed on my door mat from Blue Coffee Box.

If you found this post interesting, why not Click here to subscribe to my Brew Time newsletter?

I'll email you some really cool stuff about coffee, and I'll let you know when I've uploaded a new blog post that may be of interest – I'll never spam you, or share your email with anyone, and you can leave the list whenever you like by clicking a button. Just enter your name and email below to join:

Also see Difference Between Filter Coffee and Cafetiere CoffeeFilter Coffee Vs. Espresso & Freshly Roasted Speciality Coffee Beans Vs. Supermarket Coffee, Why convert to Speciality Coffee?

Life is like a box of chocolates, subscribe to my YouTube Channel,  try my coffee at The Coffeeworks (use discount code coffeebotherers), follow me on Twitter & Instagram, follow the coffeeblog FaceBook page, and that’s all I have to say about that.

Discount Code Cworks.

 

March 2024 Giveaway

March Giveaway.

 

Support Team Robyn

Team Robyn

 

First Box FREE @ Blue Coffee Box!

Use  discount code: CBFREE at bluecoffeebox.com for pre-paid subscriptions 3 months +.
Use code: CB999 for £8 off monthly rolling subscriptions.

UK Coffee Roasters Directory.

 

Coffee Forums


UK Coffee Forumshome barista forums