Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in Overland Journal’s Gear 2022 Issue.
I have a secret to share with you: I’ve been drinking instant coffee for the last few weeks and have been enjoying it. I know this may come as a surprise to some of you, especially after past articles where I have no doubt portrayed myself as some sort of coffee aficionado, but hear me out. Life gets busy, and sometimes instead of going through a lengthy morning routine of grinding beans, measuring water, determining ratios, and steeping my beloved black gold through a variety of contraptions, I’d rather just boil water and get on to savoring my warm beverage. But this doesn’t mean that I don’t care about flavor.
Lucky for me, I’m not alone in my desire to simplify the brewing routine while retaining the high-quality coffee that I have become accustomed to. Case-in-point, there is an overwhelming number of gourmet instant coffee options on the market these days, from single-serve disposable pour overs to freeze-dried granulated concentrates.
But how does one even begin to select a specific coffee when all promise to provide convenience paired with good flavor? Instead of taking the roasters at their word, I decided to call in a panel of my peers for an instant coffee blind taste test of eight different products. Some of these coffees are widely available, and others you will have to order online.
The Process
All of my friends who I enlisted were excited at the prospect of being served eight different coffees to start their day. I was just thrilled to have some help because testing that many coffees myself wouldn’t have been impartial and may have resulted in the need for a valium.
Jokes aside, I prepared for our taste test by creating a standardized points system for my peers to judge the products by. Each would receive a scorecard with five categories to rate, including appearance, aroma, flavor, mouth-feel, aftertaste, and personal preference. Within each category, participants could award anywhere from 1 to 5 points (1 being “bad” and 5 being “good”), with the lowest possible score being 5 and the highest being 30. While most of these categories are straightforward, the personal preference category was intended to be the sum of your drinking experience.
Additionally, I included a section for personal thoughts about each coffee, some of which I have included for your entertainment. And because this is a blind taste test, none of the participants knew what products they were trying. This was done to provide a level playing field, free of biases or pre-existing assumptions about particular brands.
Each participant was served approximately 8 fluid ounces of coffee in total, one ounce for each sample in our test. Samples were labeled with letters to help me keep track of which feedback corresponded to which product.
Finally, all of the coffees in this taste test were prepared according to the manufacturer’s directions, including brewing temperatures and water volumes if specifics were provided on the product packaging or manufacturer websites.
Medaglia d’Oro Espresso Instant Coffee
Score: 20.6 out of 30
The only true espresso roast in our lineup of instant coffees, Medaglia d’Oro is an Italian-style espresso that was originally introduced to the United States in 1924. It is very reasonably priced at approximately $6 (or nearly half that, depending on the store) and is widely available at many national grocery chains and online.
Medaglia is the only product in our group of instant coffees that came in a sealed glass container, a quality that I appreciated versus the plastic-lined single-serve pouches and sachets that are more typical. Upon opening its container, this granulated espresso had a pleasant yet unusual aroma that I would describe as slightly sweet. It was very fine in appearance, and when mixed with 6 ounces of hot water or milk, it dissolved quickly, resulting in a very dark liquid with a mix of white and amber foam (not dissimilar from regular espresso).
Of the eight coffees that our panel tasted, Medaglia scored 20.6 out of a possible 30 points, making it one of the highest-rated. One tester described it as “crisp, clean, and smooth, like something from a French café,” while another commented on its pleasant “maple” smell. Other testers were surprised to find that it was not bitter.
$6 | medagliadoro.com
Starbucks Via Instant Pike Place Medium Roast
Score: 18.4 out of 30
This infamous (and now worldwide) coffee chain got its start in Seattle’s famous Pike Place Market in 1971. Starbucks’ moniker was inspired by Moby Dick and the seafaring nature of early coffee traders, hence, the mermaid logo. Although they may have started small, Starbucks experienced explosive growth in the ’90s and through the turn of the century, and now they can be found on just about every street corner. These days, they serve millions of customers every week.
Via Instant, marketed as a premium instant coffee, is a mix of instant and microground coffees, the same ones that Starbucks uses to make their freshly-brewed in-store refreshments. Simply mix one sachet of the powdered beans with 8 ounces of hot water, stir, and enjoy. Via Instant is available in multiple varieties, including light, medium, and dark roasts. For this taste test, I chose their Pike Place medium roast.
Via Instant finished up the test toward the top of the pack, with a score of 18.4 out of 30. When it came to our panels of tasters, many remarked on how “strong” the Via tasted, with descriptions ranging from “rich and complex” to “dark” and even “burnt.”
$5.40 (8-pack) | athome.starbucks.com
First Ascent Ethiopia Light Roast
Score: 18 out of 30
First Ascent started as a small café in Crested Butte, Colorado. Eventually, they closed the door of their café to focus on perfecting the art of roasting, with the goal of “producing the most delicious instant coffee on the market today.” To their knowledge, they are one of the only companies who roast, brew, freeze-dry, and package—all in-house. But despite their change of direction, they are still a small specialty coffee shop, and they can still be found in Crested Butte.
First Ascent’s Ethiopian roast was awarded “best all-around coffee” by another popular outdoor magazine, and it scored well in our test, too (although it wasn’t the winner). It did stand out amongst the rest of our field in appearance, with a mix of matte and almost sparkly looking granules. As a light-roast coffee, Ethiopian beans tend to have a sweeter taste, and our panel of testers picked up on this, using words like “sour” and “fruity” to describe the brew. Interestingly, two of them also described it as “grainy” in texture.
With a score of 18 out of 30 points, First Ascent’s Ethiopian roast was enjoyed by most of our testers. On a personal note, I would like to mention that this was one of my favorites and worth trying if you favor light roasts.
$20 (8-pack) | firstascentcoffee.com
Trail Rated Rubicon Dark Roast
Score: 15.8 out of 30
Trail Rated Coffee Company is using its business as a force for good. Seeing that federal land management agencies are overburdened (and under-budgeted) when it comes to trail maintenance, they are pitching in to revive, repair, and reopen one million miles of trails across America. A portion of every sale they make goes to trail preservation, and additionally, they provide resources and volunteer services directly to non-profit organizations and off-road clubs.
While not technically an instant coffee, Trail Rated’s single-serve pour overs are a completely self-contained product that only requires a mug and hot water to brew. With that in mind, I thought that it was still appropriate to include them in this taste test.
Trail Rated’s Rubicon (named after the famed Rubicon Trail) was one of the darkest coffees in our test, and it was also one of only two single-serve pour-over products in our group of coffees. While I assumed that it was going to score highly, it ended up being a bit polarizing, with testers either really enjoying it or really disliking it. Scoring a 15.8 out of 30, it was described as “dark,” “bitter,” “easy-drinking,” with a “good smell.”
$22 (10-pack) | trailratedcoffee.com
Death Wish Dark Roast Instant Coffee
Score: 14.6 out of 30
Death Wish Coffee Co. may utilize a skull and crossbones in their logo, but their product isn’t deadly—quite the opposite. It might even give you superpowers. Why is that?, you might find yourself asking. Each sachet of their dark-roast instant coffee contains 300 milligrams of caffeine—that’s 3 to 5 times more than your average cup of coffee. Death Wish describes it as “out-of-this-world strong,” and here’s what they have to say on their website:
“Why Instant Coffee? So the people can drink coffee in space. In 2018, we launched our Instant Coffee to the International Space Station to fuel astronauts and their work aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 Rocket. And the World’s Strongest Coffee officially became the Galaxy’s Strongest Coffee.”
While it definitely wins the title of highest caffeine content in our lineup, Death Wish received the lowest score in regard to taste, with 14.6 out of 30 points. But despite those low numbers, our testers still liked it. They described it as “burnt,” “remarkable,” and “palatable.” One tester said it was “a decent cuppa joe, inoffensive.”
For those who seek strong coffee but don’t like dark roasts, Death Wish just released a new medium-roast coffee this year. But don’t worry, it still has a ridiculous amount of caffeine.
$15 (8-pack) | deathwishcoffee.com
Mount Hagen Regular Coffee
Score: 20.8 out of 30
Mount Hagen is a single-origin freeze-dried instant coffee that comes from Papua New Guinea. It is available in single-serving sachets, a bulk glass jar, or a resealable plastic bag. It is fair-trade and certified organic, and according to their website, it is the “uncontested winner of organic instant coffee worldwide.” While I can’t corroborate that claim, I can confirm that Mount Hagen’s regular coffee was the favorite in our blind taste test, with a winning score of 20.8 out of 30 points.
Our panel of testers had many positive comments to share regarding this coffee, including “it felt lighter and enjoyable,” “totally drinkable,” “smells good and nutty, fully dissolved, mild aftertaste,” and “drank all of it.” Admittedly, leading up to the blind taste test, I prepared this instant coffee on more than one occasion because it tasted great, and with 25 single-serve pouches, I knew I would have plenty for my testers.
When it comes to coffee, cheap and good are two qualities that don’t generally correlate, but in the case of Mount Hagen, it was both. Perhaps most notably, because a single serving costs just $0.43, this one proves that you don’t need to spend a bundle of money to get a decent cup of coffee.
$11 (25-pack) | mounthagencoffee.com
Kuju Coffee Angels Landing Light Roast
I was a bit surprised that Kuju’s light-roast, single-serve pour over was outscored by a few of their freeze-dried competitors, but that just goes to show you, it all comes down to taste.
Kuju Coffee was founded by two brothers who are also both Eagle Scouts. They claim that their single-serve filter pouches contain 100 percent specialty-grade coffee with more grounds (by what measure, I’m not sure) than anyone else producing a similar product. Each pour-over pouch is individually sealed in a plastic envelope to preserve the freshness of the coffee.
When you are ready to brew, simply fold out the little cardboard arms attached to the filter and place it on your mug. Tear off the perforated top to expose the coffee, and slowly pour your hot water through the grounds. Within a short amount of time, you’ve got a steaming cup of freshly brewed coffee.
A couple of our tasters specifically identified the light roast in their notes, with one commenting that it was “probably one of my favorites [in the lot].” Multiple testers remarked that the smell of this brewed coffee was strange, but they enjoyed the taste nonetheless. One also pointed out a “silky” mouth-feel (this was filtered coffee).
Score: 17.2 out of 30
$22 (10-pack) | kujucoffee.com
Alpine Start Original Blend Medium Roast
Score: 18 out of 30
An alpine start is waking up before the sun rises to pursue an objective, often a rock climb, ski tour, or mountaineering route. Alpine Start (the beverage company) was founded by professional climber Matt Segal. After decades of waking up early to pursue his adventures in the mountains, he wanted to make the pre-dawn routine of brewing coffee a little bit easier for his fellow climbers (or anyone, for that matter).
Alpine Start’s original blend is a medium-roast coffee made from Colombian beans that requires no fancy methods or apparatus to prepare. Just boil your water, mix, and serve (it can also be prepared cold). Each serving is individually packaged in a sachet, making it a convenient option for human-powered endeavors as well as vehicle-based travel when you don’t want to carry around a large bag or glass jar.
Alpine Start scored 18 out of 30, establishing it as a middle-of-the-road affair for our group. Feedback included describing it as “smoky,” “burnt,” and “strangely synthetic.” Personally, I thought it tasted like an average cup of coffee with no big surprises. Despite differing opinions on the smell and taste, all of our testers were very pleased with its appearance right after mixing, which was foamy, almost like a freshly pulled espresso shot.
$9 (8-pack) | alpinestartfoods.com
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