Instant coffee has been around for some years, having been invented in 1901 in the US. The product has always been a poor relation in the US but in the UK and Europe it has always had its own special place in the market – although I have an expensive coffee machine in the kitchen it is sometimes just convenient to whip up a cup of instant. However, to be honest, instant coffee is not a cheap product and when all is said and done you get what you pay for (the Mellow Birds and Maxwell House served after Church on a Sunday doesn’t quite cut it anymore). Nescafe, who has been producing instant coffee since 1938, has always been a market leader, but even they have expanded their range to include a vast array of speciality instant coffees and with Fair Trade and Rainforest Alliance coming to the fore it means that the consumer, particularly in the UK and Europe, has a huge choice of products. Of course the sceptic in me would just say that all this is just a case of clever marketing and a load of different pretty labels attracting the consumer to what is basically the same product but displayed in an almost overwhelming coffee ‘power wall’ in every supermarket. Well the only way to discount this was to actually try some different coffees and to run a taste test with family and friends to determine what their favourites were.

What to choose for the morning cuppa?

We picked a range of ten instant coffees and made them all up at a medium strength (1.25 teaspoon) with milk for a blind tasting. The coffees picked were:

Cafe Direct Fair Trade Mountain Reserve Machu Picchu freeze dried instant

Clipper Fair Trade Organic Papua New Guinea

Nescafe Espresso

Douwe Egberts Pure Gold

Percol Rocket Fuel

Carte Noir Instant

Kenco Really Rich

Maxwell House Rich Blend

Mellow Birds

Fair Instant gold

With a tasting panel of 12 (each gave a score of 1–10 for each coffee) the results were rather mixed but we did draw some conclusions. Firstly, there is not that much difference between the premium brand coffees and, secondly, the uneducated palates of the taster’s means that everyone is looking for different characteristics that they think are important (most just know what they like and can distinguish between the really cheap brands and the premium ones).

Don't forget the Mellow Birds

However we did get some clear winners. In first place with a preference score of 103 was the Nescafe Espresso (rich and nutty), second with 98 was Kenco Really Rich, third with 89 was Fair Instant Gold, fourth with 76 was Clipper PNG coffee and joint fifth with 69 was the Cafe Direct Macha Picchu coffee along with the Douwe Egberts Pure Gold; the Percol and Carte Noir received 52 and 51 points respectively and bringing up the rear were Maxwell House (39) and Mellow Birds (24). We determined from this that powder and granule coffees are inferior to freeze dried (with the notable exception of Nescafe Espresso) and that price does mean something with the ‘cheap’ coffees bringing up the rear (although not that cheap with a 100g jar of Mellow Birds costing £1.88 and 100g of Maxwell House costing £1.50).

Nescafe Gold Blend is one of the best selling brands

I am sure most consumers go with what they know and choose the market leading Kenco and Nescafe brands and then those with more of a conscience lean toward the Fair Trade brands. So maybe taste isn’t important and Fair Trade and a fancy label take precedence. None of these products come close to real coffee but in the compromise that is instant coffee it seems from the comments we obtained that everyone is looking for something different and taste is a secondary consideration.

How many times have you visited a cafe or restaurant and found that your chair wobbles or the table rocks on three legs? Some say that a wobbly table is one of the biggest turn offs for perspective diners at a restaurant. I must say I have found this problem in pubs, bars, and restaurants and usually have to resort to a folded beer mat or a menu that has been hastily torn and folded to steady the table. Well now the problem has been addressed with the Wobbleg and although there is a competitor product in the form of Stabletable the inventor of Wobbleg, Julian Bradbrook, insists it is the superior product (supposedly much easier to use that Stabletable).

The Wobbleg

The Wobbleg, which is a black rubber disc with a variable thickness edge, works by being placed it under the leg of a wobbly table or chair and then being rotated until its thickness matches the gap between the leg and the floor. Julian though of the idea while sitting at a wobbly table in a pub and contemplating the use of a beer mat he said the thought just came to him “There has to be something better than an old beer mat to solve the problem” and now there is Wobbleg “It’s a really simple idea but it does the job perfectly”. The Wobbleg hit the market with a launch at the start of 2008 and almost immediately Julian attracted investment from a Shropshire based web entrepreneur with 20 years business experience (who is now his partner) called Robert Taylor. The plan is now to market the product hard over the next two years and to try and sell 5 million units.

The Wobbleg in action

Although the Wobbleg is mainly available in black (retails at around £3.99 for a pack of three) they can be printed with a logo for bulk orders of over 100 and even manufactured in different colours to match corporate logos and livery. They seem to be the ideal corporate giveaway promotional item, being both quirky and useful. Get your Wobbleg now and banish the wobbly restaurant table forever!  

A brilliant Christmas stocking filler

For more detail contact www.wobbleg.com