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.
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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.