For many people, it’s impossible to wake up and get going for the day without a cup of coffee or two. This popular beverage provides that much-needed caffeine kick, ensuring you’re alert.
If you want to avoid popping into a coffee shop and spending too much money, it can really help to have a delicious jar of coffee at home that you can rely on. And it turns out one supermarket variety of a premium gold blend has come out on top of competitors such as Nescafé and Douwe Egberts. A taste test was conducted by the consumer experts at Which? in order to find out which own-brand gold blend coffee granules are the best.
The panel carried out a blind taste test of several gold-blend instant coffees and rated them accordingly. The winner turned out to be from none other than M&S.
The supermarket’s Fairtrade Gold Instant Coffee, priced at £6.75 for 200g, left the tasters hugely impressed. It scored points for appearance, aroma, flavour and mouthfeel, with ‘perfect’ flavour and bitterness levels.
Although it may be on the pricier side for a supermarket own brand, it was one of only two Fairtrade coffees that were tried, which could sway your decision if you are looking at the ethical side.
Coming in a close second was the Kenco Gold Indulgence Instant Coffee, costing £7.20 for 195g. Again, it scored points for flavour, aroma, looks, but some tasters said they thought the flavour was a little lacking.
Another big brand costing £7.60, Nescafé, came in third place with Douwe Egberts.
And although Aldi’s Alcafe narrowly missed placing within the top three, Which? awarded it the Great Value item of the test, as it costs just £2.45 for 200g.
However, there were some supermarkets which didn’t fare so well when it came to their coffee.
Lidl’s Bellarom instant coffee came in at bottom place, with the tasters complaining it didn’t have a strong enough flavour.
Asda Gold Roasted Coffee Instant Granules got a ‘mixed result’ from the panel, with some people saying it wasn’t strong enough, whilst others enjoyed the bitterness.