No two coffees are the same. Everything from the beans to the roast to the preparation makes a huge difference. As a result, I’ve become a bit of a coffee snobbish. I simply can’t drink instant coffee. But with bills and rent seemingly constantly mounting, I’ve had to cut back on the lattes from the coffee shop and settle for something at home.
So I decided to test the cheapest instant coffees to find one that I could stomach and that was good value for money. So I compared coffee from Lidl, Aldi, Tesco and Iceland.
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Lidl
Lidl’s luxury Colombian instant coffee, weighing in at 100g, will cost an eyebrow-raising £2.09, which seems like a lot for such a miniature quantity. It also has the worst smell, which gets things off to a very bad start for the usually reliable, budget supermarket.
It’s no better either, with a watery taste despite the two teaspoons of coffee and an intensely bitter taste. With the most elaborate branding of all four jars, let this be a lesson not to trust any promises of luxury when it comes to instant coffee.
Overall: 3/10
Aldi
Alcafe Affluent Roast coffee from Aldi is not the cheapest – it cost £1.85, but it offers the best value for money in terms of volume – it weighs only 200g, which is still relatively low for this price.
In terms of taste, Alcafe smells good and is only slightly beaten by Iceland at the top. The taste is what you would expect from instant coffee, much richer than Lidl but not overwhelming and perhaps a little less than the smell that was initially suggested.
Overall: 6/10
Tesco
Tesco’s Gold Blend instant coffee is also available in 200g jars, but it comes at a hefty £2.50. So unless this is the absolute best of the four, then Britain’s biggest supermarket has a problem.
It comes in third in the smell test, and after tasting it, it’s clear that this is a good indicator of its level. While it’s a clear improvement over Lidl’s and much less bitter, it still lacks flavor, which marks it out as fairly average.
Overall: 5/10
Iceland
Iceland’s best deal was the Affluent Roast Lyon instant coffee for £1.50, which comes in a 100g jar. This smaller size offers slightly less value for money in terms of total volume, but there was plenty of room to recoup that value with its great taste.
The coffee smelled best straight from the jar, which suggests that the taste does justify the price. For an instant coffee, it was remarkably velvety, without a hint of bitterness, and actually enjoyable, rather than just a caffeine carrier. That said, it doesn’t pack as much of a punch in terms of strength, if that’s what you like in your coffee.
Overall: 8/10
Verdict
Yes, Tesco won. It wasn’t as good as my handcrafted latte from an independent coffee shop, but it did the job. It wasn’t too bitter, but had a forceful flavour that gave me enough of a kick.
I will still treat myself to a fancy coffee from time to time, but it’s nice to have some financial security.
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