Instant Coffee Sticks – The New Convenient Coffee???

Officially, instant coffee sticks have now hit store shelves.  Will this new product replace the old jars of other brands of instant coffee?  Do we need another form of freeze dried coffee??

It wasn’t that long ago that Starbucks popped a new, instant coffee product onto store shelves, and now the “Ready Brew Stick” packets have hit the shelves.  Apparently, these have been touted by nescafe’s Tasters Choice as being much tastier and quite a bit cheaper than the Starbucks instant coffee.

Nescafe’s instant coffee sticks are currently retailing for about $4.00 at supermarkets, which are sold in boxes of 20, making each cup about 20 cents.  Starbucks is selling their single cup instant coffee packets for around $10.00 for a dozen packets, or about 85 cents per cup.

The Chicago Tribune ran a few taste tests, blind of course, with six panelists.  They served up both brands of instant Colombian coffee along with a pot of drip brewed Colombian coffee.  The results were obvious.  The winning cup was the drip brewed coffee, offering the ‘most complex notes’.  In second place was the Starbucks instant brew.  Tasters commented that the Tasters Choice coffee sticks were weak, thin bodied and had an unpleasant ‘cardboardy’ flavour.  One taster commented that the Starbucks cup was bitter and sharp, and prefered the Tasters Choice cup.  It was however unanimously agreed that instant coffee has come a long long way from the days of old!
The Chicago Tribune also left a few recipes to make some instant Iced Coffee seeing as its the season for cold beverages now:

• Sprinkle a packet of instant coffee over your favorite soft-serve frozen yogurt, custard or ice cream for a bitter counterpoint to the sweet, creamy treat.
• Empty a packet into a glass or carton of milk.
• Stir a packet into a blender full of shaved ice to make an easy granita.

I must say……….you’d still be hard pressed to have me consuming instant coffee for any reason at all!

Sources:  Chicago Tribune