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.