On 25 March 2009, initially in London only, Starbucks will start selling what it has been calling a “breakthrough in instant coffee”. VIA™ Ready Brew, according to the company, is a transformational instant coffee that replicates the body and flavour of Starbucks coffee in an instant form. Quoting from their official press release, “While some instant coffees use lower-quality coffee beans and add chemicals and by-products, Starbucks VIA™ Ready Brew is 100% natural roasted coffee, made without preservatives or processing aids. In developing Starbucks VIA™ Ready Brew, Starbucks developed a proprietary, patent-pending technology to preserve the coffee’s taste, quality and freshness.”

Starbucks VIA™ Ready Brew was launched first in Chicago and Seattle on 3 March, to much initial acclaim. It is the product of nearly 20 years work and bestcuppaintown was excited to receive pre-launch samples to taste test. In fact, we had enough samples to allow us to put together a ‘tasting panel’ consisting of friends who regularly visit cafés like Starbucks. None of us are professional baristas, and so our thoughts and opinions are those of the vast majority of Starbucks customers.

The idea behind Starbucks VIA™ Ready Brew is that you carry around either a wallet of three sachets of coffee (UK price £1.20) or a box of 12 sachets (price £3.95), so that when you can’t get to a Starbucks to buy a coffee, you have this equally acceptable substitute to enjoy instead. [Yes, yes, it's been said already, "when are you ever not near a Starbucks?!] There are two varieties of Starbucks VIA™ Ready Brew – a rich Italian Roast and a medium Colombia. I asked our tasting panel to comment on appearance, smell, texture, taste/aftertaste, packaging, and price, and a precis of their opinions follow.

Gary Kifford and Zane Runge

Aroma: Did not have same aroma as filter coffee, in fact there was a slight fishy smell
Acidity: Weak acidity, no aftertaste
Body: Too watery/too thin
Flavour/Aftertaste: No aftertaste, rather flat
Packaging: We like it
Price and overall opinion: We buy instant coffee in 400gms jars of which we will get more than three cups of coffee, yet paying a similar price to this new Starbucks coffee. We would drink this coffee if it was offered in a hotel or similar establishment, but we would not buy it for our personal consumption. Too expensive and although better than most instant coffees, it still is a long way from filtered coffee. We preferred the stronger Italian roast.

Tony and Dawn Sigrist

We preferred the Italian roast (the stronger one). We thought it was distinguishable from instant and was more alligned to coffee made with a cafetiere. We felt the aroma on both was weak as we prefer a bold aroma, which this product did not provide.
Body: The Colombia was a light bodied coffee which, while pleasurable, did not excite us in any way. The Italian had a fuller body, more alligned to filter coffee.
Packaging: Handy sized sachet, nice classy design. Non-recycleable, didn’t like brand name.
Price: Didn’t feel the product was value for money. It works out more expensive than better brands of filter coffee. Not good enough to act as a substitute for filter coffee and is therefore an expensive instant coffee which we would not buy.
Overall:  We were not impressed. If we were buying these for work (as we often do) we would just stick to Nescafe, as it works out cheaper!

Steve and Georgena Bowdidge

The initial thoughts when I poured the contents was “cripes, it’s Mellow Birds (texture)! I was pleasantly surprised by the dry smell as it did smell like real coffee, but that’s about as good as it gets. Tasting first the Italian roast the smell was rather nutty, but then to my nose had an overpowering scent of fish! We both thought the taste was ok (we tried it black), although nothing jumped out at us. It did appear quite ‘thin’ and we found it left an awful bitter aftertaste that lingered for ages (the Colombia sample was less bitter but still didn’t like the aftertaste). Compared to other instants I don’t rate it too highly and it certainly wasn’t anything like a ‘freshly brewed’ real coffee.

Tracey Kifford and Huw Kidwell

Aroma: To us, coffee is like bacon (!) - it’s the smell that first draws you in. With both these samples, we were disappointed with the lacking top notes of the aroma.
Acidity: Very weakly acid – certainly didn’t hit us in the back of our throats!
Body: Far too watery, even when you diluted the samples with less water than they suggest.
Flavour/Aftertaste: Found the taste quite weak. Didn’t taste like freshly brewed coffee, but did taste a little like cafetiere coffee. Didn’t notice any aftertaste.
Packaging: The packaging is functional, but not exactly inspiring. We thought that given Starbucks has spent 20 years researching this product that they’d have chosen some mega innovative packaging, using recycled materials. Instead they used the tried and tested coffee stick packaging.
Price and overall opinion: It is expensive and we’re not sure we’re prepared to add £1.20 or £3.95 to a Starbucks order to ensure we’ve always got some coffee sticks at hand. To us, Starbucks VIA™ Ready Brew is nearly there, but not quite. It tastes better than most instant coffees, but it lacks body and aroma and is still some way short of filter coffee. It is difficult to see where it fits into the marketplace, but we do believe it would be very well-placed in hotels that offer in-room drinks facilities.

So there you have it. A bit of a mixed bag. From our limited survey it is unlikely that any of us will be rushing to London on 25 March to be the first in the queue to purchase Starbucks VIA™ Ready Brew. If they could keep the price down and offer the coffee in a jar, I think there will be more interest, because there’s no mistaking that it is a really good instant coffee … According to Starbucks chairman, president and CEO Howard Schultz “This is a big move for us – the opportunity to reinvent a category, create new rituals and grow our customer base is substantial.” This is Starbucks we’re talking about, and they must have done their homework – but  is the European market (or even the US market) really going to go a bundle on sticks of nearly-real coffee? We just don’t think so – but get some main hotel chains to showcase it alongside the Suchard Hot Chocolate and Twinnings English Breakfast Tea sachets in in-room refreshment bundles and I’m sure the company will make a packet!