Today we're gonna talk
about instant coffee. We're gonna taste, a lot of instant coffee and I'm not gonna lie,
I'm a little bit nervous. More and more of you,
you've been asking me to do a big taste test to tell you which is the best instant coffee. And to be honest, I was
pretty reluctant to do that. I have pretty strong feelings
against instant coffee and I'll tell you why. I spent the last 17
years of my coffee career trynna make coffee taste
as good as possible and trynna do so in what
I hope is an ethical way, that runs contrary to
the targets and the goals and the aspirations of instant coffee. Instant coffee first and
foremost wants to be convenient and convenience by a large
results in a sacrifice of quality. But more than that,
instant wants to be cheap. Now coffee is kind of incredible. The idea that there's some fruit, was grown in another country. It was picked, it was processed once after harvest processed
again before export it was then imported and it was roasted and it was then ground and
turned into a giant cup of coffee and then, dried
down to a kind of weird powder and then packaged and then
shipped and delivered to you and you can drink a cup
of coffee for pennies.
That's astonishing. But I'm not sure it's good,
because those companies there's very large companies
producing these products aren't sacrificing their
profits along the way. But something has to give and
by a large that's producers. These are enormous
corporations who are very happy with the neo-colonial system
that is coffee production. And I'm not really okay with that. Now there are in amongst the coffees we're gonna talk about today,
some more ethical coffees than others, but broadly
speaking instant hasn't been good for producers, I think. It's a very personal statement. But that's how I feel. But. I'm so curious, if I'm
gonna have a bias against them. If I'm gonna dislike it, I
probably should be informed and maybe actually something tastes good.
Maybe one of the more
ethical ones tastes good. That would be kind of okay,
but I guess we should find out. So I went to a delivery website and I bought every instant
coffee that they stocked which turned out to be
38 different products. Which is a lot more than I
expected for some reason. Now the were, I think about another 12
decaf products available but I didn't pick those up this time. I felt 38 was enough. Instead of taking each coffee
and dissecting it one by one I thought it would be more fun
or entertaining I hope to do a giant tournament bracket. So here's what I did. I took a list of the coffees
that I had and I generated a like a four digit alphanumeric
string for each one to begin a kind of process of turning these into a blind tasting. I then entered those little codes into a tournament generating
website and that's how things are gonna play out. So, I don't really know
what I'm gonna be tasting but I'll make sure you
know what's happening so that you can follow along.
Now we got a slightly unusual number here so there's gonna be some
three-way ties to start with before going ultimately head to head. And that's it. All of these have been weighed
out, same amount of coffee in each one, same water in each
one, same water temperature, water weight, all that kind of stuff. This is a pretty standardized testing. I'll test both. I'll pick a winner and very
quickly, I'll tell you why.
Before we get stuck in a quick
note on what I'm looking for, what I think is good
and what I think is bad. Easier to start with bad. I think bad is strong bitterness. I think bad is kind of
woody, earthy or rubbery kind of flavors that are common in
many cheaper instant coffees. Good would be relatively
low on the bitterness end or low on the unpleasant bitterness end, a little bit of sweetness would be nice, tasting of somewhere would it be good, tasting fresh would be incredible.
So that's roughly what I'm looking for. Is it harsh and Woody and bitter or does it have some redeeming qualities? Come myself my fancy spoon
was important for tasting, not essential but nice. Your definitely out as the
harshest and bitterest of them. This one is the least bad of the three. This is very harsh, very
bitter, definitely out. This one is less better
and tastes of somewhere. This one wins it's a bit odd. These two, just a little bit
dominant on the bitter front not that interesting though
this one probably better than that one. Not a lot going on on this
one, to be honest, neither good nor bad it's kind of lawful neutral, this one bit harsh, bit Woody, this one less better which is good. Quite an unusual taste to it
which would be a little bit more might for a lot of people, I like that it taste of something other than sort of harsh cheap coffee. Winner. This is very classic instant
coffee profile to me, this I find the most
unpleasant of the three by quite a long way.
I don't really like any of these three. This one has a weird little
kind of vanilla note in it that seems almost artificial but not. Very odd, unusual enough
I guess to take the win from this round. Honestly, not a huge fan of anything here, too harsh, too bitter, some in here really harsh, bitter, Woody. This one moves forward
on the grounds of being, the least bad of the three. This is the last of the three-way ties. We're gotta head to heads after this one. Pretty easy and conclusive win, for this particular coffee
here, very harsh bitter don't like this one at all.
This cup here actually very
similar to this one here, harsh, Woody, earthy, rubbery. That is a clear cut winner. Now we're into the head to heads, should go a little bit quicker now. This is really weird, I don't
know what's going on here but I'm really definitely
not into the flavor profile, this I don't love this, but
it's better than this one.
Weird but interesting. This one's just a little
bit more harsh and bitter. Here's my winner. Very harsh, bitter, quite earthy, not at all that quite a
different cup of coffee, not bad definitely a winner. Not a big fan of either one. This one just harsher, more bitter. This one is kind of weird tasting. I'm not sure it's good,
it's definitely interesting. You. Not a big fan of either one. This one loses out for being
that little bit more harsh, more bitter than this one.
This one has a sort of super
fake chocolate oddness to it. This one just a little
bit more harsh and bitter, I think this is the winner. Both super weird if I'm honest. Both of them tasted much lighter, I don't really like either of these but I'm gonna put new forwards. No. Also no. These are both to me quite
harsh, extremely bitter, extremely Woody, I feel like we've knocked
out better coffees, but this is gonna
progress from this round. So this is better and
it's quite chocolatey, it's quite surprising.
This is chocolatey too
but also a little odd and vegetabley and weird. So this one. Again, it's a difficult
round I don't like either of these at all. This one I just enjoyed less, it was just flavor wise a bit
mustier I guess than this one which was still pretty bitter. And so having tasted my way through now 38 different instant coffees. I'm not giving up fresh coffee. There's been some interesting stuff here. There's been a lot of stuff that tasted about what I expected it to taste like. Let's not get stuck on this right now. Let's keep going. Let's find the best one. So let's crack through these
16, get them down to eight. This one's just a little
mustier, mushroomier.
This one will be the winner. These are the super
interesting compared to most of the other ones here. They taste a little bit weaker, they're a little bit less intense tasting. This one is just weird. I remember one of them
is an Ethiopian coffee and I figured maybe it's this one. It has a lot of floral qualities to it that are quite unusual.
They don't taste how I
expect most Ethiopian coffees to taste but it definitely tastes complex and quite surprising. This I think it's just more enjoyable. This one, I think is just a
nicer tasting cup of coffee. Again, both kind of weird
in the same sort of way. This one's a little
almost Tangeriney in a way that I feel weird saying out loud. I don't really like either. I think this one's my winner. Just. This one is quite vegetable
in comparison to this one. I don't particularly like this one either, I feel like we've knocked
better things out, but it is the better of the two.
This one is super chocolatey, quite a pleasant way in
comparison to this one. This is a bit more of a
classic instant profile. This one's a clear winner. I would say this one is just
a touch more interesting, I don't love it but it
is a bit more interesting than this one. It's that chocolate profile back again. This is, almost a little
bit more interesting but the kind of chocolatiness of this I think kinda wins out in this round. Easy and clear win, this
one I just don't like it It's very classic, harsh,
Woody, earthy, bitter, not really good. This is lighter, brighter, friendlier. This is the winner. Now before we hone in on the final winner, there's a couple of things
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sponsoring this video. So the end is in sight. I still don't know any of
these coffees, who made them, where they're from, any of that stuff but we're gonna get to the end soon. So we've got eight coffees still standing. Let's get that down to
one as quickly as we can. Easy win, this one is just
much more pleasant tasting this one's still, like a
little bit vegetabley now it's cooling down a bit more. This one still has this
weird fake quality to it that I can't get over, but it is less bitter than this one here. I'm weirded out by how this one tastes.
It's the chocolatey one again with a little bit of ashtray in the end? I think more people would
find this approachable and pleasant than this one. I'm not in love with either. This one is another chocolatey one again, it's turning a little bit for me now. This one is just a little
bit cleaner in comparison actually a little bit
less, bitter I think. So it's the winner. So into the semifinals now. This One is my winner again,
it's just a more pleasant cup of coffee in comparison. If you like a special milk in your coffee this is probably gonna be
better than this one here, but from a coffee flavor
perspective, Oh it's tough. This one just might edge
it out a little bit. But it's close just know
that this one was close. And that leaves us with a head to head. Who will be the winner. It's difficult. They're both actually quite a
similar profile in some ways, I would say this one
edges it out a little bit, it's just slightly more
complex than this one but your preference may
be different to mine.
I know I've just picked
a winner and I don't know what it is yet. It's code N-four-one-P I
don't know what that means yet I have to look it up. Has probably been consistently
the more interesting of the coffees through
this particular process. It's definitely on the
lighter side in terms of roast than a lot of the other
coffees that we tasted and it doesn't have the
kind of characteristic woody, earthy qualities
of Robusta in there. It tastes like it started
as a pure Arabica coffee. So for me, that's been the winner. Let's find out what it
is and go and get it. And so it was this, this was our winner. Little's Colombian Premium Instant Coffee. It is from Antioquia in Columbia, clean acidity and nice
sweetness is their description, for an instant that's not far wrong. And if I'm honest I'm pleased to see a small
UK manufacturer doing well in the space.
Now I do stand by my comment earlier on, which is instant is a
little snapshot of coffee but it is not the full picture. Fresh ground coffee would
destroy everything here and I can't emphasize
that enough the difference is night and day. If you drink instant coffee just know that there's so much more joy
to be had in your morning cup of coffee in the world of whole
bean, fresh ground coffee, brewed Well, but hey, I'm
not gonna get too preachy. If you follow this channel
you know how I feel about coffee and how good
it is and how exciting it is and this has been an interesting,
fun little taste test. So now I'll hand it over to you. Have you tried any of these? Have you tried this? Did you like it? Have you tried any of the others, were my tasting notes just way out to you? Are you appalled by some
of the things I've said or tasted? I'd be really interested to hear.
For now I'll say thank
you so much for watching and I hope you have a great day..
