Instant Coffee
Ugh instant coffee, brings up images of watery, weak tasting, dirty dish water looking cups of steaming yuck. My parents used to drink instant, Tasters Choice I think it was. For the first 10-12 years of my life that was my only exposure to coffee. Those little innocuous light brown crystals, the way they would almost sizzles as the boiling water hit them. Foaming just a little bit as you stirred, almost in a taunting, “you could be having a decent espresso” kind of way. Still makes me shudder.
These days I take my coffee very seriously. I buy whole bean, I grind just before brewing, my french press is my preferred method of brewing, I even roast my own beans sometimes. So then why am I writing about instant coffee? The no name Mac’n'cheese dinner of coffee? Well I tried the new Starbucks Via instant coffee, and while it is easily distinguishable from real brewed coffee, for an instant it’s pretty good. Starbucks was doing taste test challenges as a promotion when it was launched at beginning of the month. Side by side with a cup of their regular brewed coffee, there was just no comparison.
If you want to have something on hand that is quick and easy, that has a much longer shelf life than roasted beans, then this is the stuff. If you make it in the correct ratio that is. The packets state 240 ml of liquid and if you go over that, it is quickly back to the standard watery crap that instant is famous for. The interesting thing is that Starbucks claims that since it is “microground” you can mix it with cold liquid, i.e. milk if you wanted an iced coffee stat! I haven’t had the chance to try this yet, but the coffee mixes into water really well.
I am not going to start drinking this stuff exclusively, but on a day when I haven’t roasted any beans, or haven’t gotten out to the store to buy more beans this is a reasonable substitute.
