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At Bon Appétit, we love obsessing over coffee: choosing the best beans, selecting our favorite brewing method, and tweaking our techniques. So the phrase “best instant coffee” might seem like an oxymoron. But don’t be so sure—instant coffee brands have come a long way since the very idea of instant coffee was invented in the late 1800s. A market once dominated by industry giants like Folgers now also includes craft brands that offer a cup of instant coffee that is– cue fireworks, gasps, hysteria– actually good.
For coffee purists, instant coffee may never replace your beloved pour over or espresso. But a quality instant coffee can be a lifesaver when camping, traveling, or on any particularly hectic morning. For times when we should be out the door before we can even think about turning on the drip machine, it’s a game changer. All it takes is a few stirs to combine hot water with coffee crystals and you’re in business.
But as instant coffee drinkers know, not all are created equal. Some instant coffee packets yield a rich, deeply aromatic cup of coffee with layers of fruit and spice with a bright, clean finish that invites the next sip. Other single-serve packets leave you with a sad cup of old-tasting, diner-quality coffee.
After actual centuries of bad coffee, how did all our favorite craft roasters suddenly get really good at instant? We did some research, and it turns out that many of the best all go through the same small cutting-edge facility at Swift Coffee in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
We spoke to Swift's founder, Nate Kaiser to find out how he managed to take a coffee style known for prioritizing convenience over taste, and transform it into a vehicle to deliver the flavor we coffee snobs prize to a wider public.
"Prior to Swift, my business partner and I were part of the founding team at Passenger Coffee," Kaiser said. "Working in the more progressive end of specialty coffee, it became very clear there was a gap between the educated, curious specialty coffee drinker and the more conventional coffee drinker."
The knowledge and equipment involved can be a barrier to entry to the less nerdy among us who still crave delicious daily coffee. Kaiser believed that instant coffee could be the way to remove those barriers, despite its horrible reputation.
"I started Swift as an experiment with some pieced together lab equipment in the dirt floor basement of our rented farm house in Lancaster," Kaiser said. “A lot of trial and error, dozens of undrinkable cups of coffee, and we finally started to get somewhere.”
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Jump straight to some of our favorites
Café Grumpy Heartbreaker Instant Coffee, $16
Swift Coffee The “One of Everything” Bundle, $100
Kloo Coffee Tasting Set, $75
Saturnbird Coffee Instant Cold Brew, $35
Tandem Coffee Roasters Time and Temperature Instant Coffee, $15
What is instant coffee anyway?
The process of making instant coffee powders looks a lot like brewing regular coffee. First, beans are roasted and ground, then hot water is poured over them to brew. Think of it like a giant French press. The resulting coffee is concentrated through evaporation, then freeze-dried or spray-dried and broken into granules. Those granules are shelf stable for years, ready for resurrection with just a little water– if the process is done right.
"Historically, instant coffee manufacturers have prioritized quantity over quality," Kaiser said. “There are only a handful of manufacturing plants around the world and they do an incredible job producing a lot of instant coffee very cheaply. Unfortunately, for most discerning consumers, this coffee is barely drinkable and has been dismissed by the Specialty Markets for good reason.”
How we tested
To find the absolute best instant coffee, we sniffed, gargled and slurped over 40 offerings from 20 different brands, from light roast to espresso. We sought out fan favorite specialty coffee roasters from backpackers, road warriors and doomsday preppers, as well as a few grocery store brands to keep things interesting. We judged the flavor, aroma, and complexity of each cup to find the one that most closely resembled the flavor of freshly ground coffee, and snacked on plenty of palate cleansers in between cuppings. We tasted each contender two times, using hot water that wasn’t quite boiling. And absolutely no cheating with milk, creamers or sugar. Read on for what we found:
What are the best instant coffees?
Cafe Grumpy's instant offerings are made in collaboration with Swift, and they were the favorites for a couple of our tasters. A packet of the Heartbreaker instant awakened into a perfectly balanced cup of coffee that captured every nuance of one freshly brewed from an actual brick and mortar Cafe Grumpy (you know, from HBO's Girls?)
The real miracle, though, is that Cafe Grumpy’s instant decaf tastes better than any instant or decaf coffee decaf has a right to. For those of us who drink decaf infrequently, this is exactly how we’d want it: in a packet that can keep forever in the cupboard.
We're stashing Swift packets in our glove compartments, our luggage, our cupboards, first aid kits, etc– and we're never going to worry about being deprived of delicious coffee without all our fancy equipment ever again.
Swift is responsible for the recent wave of specialty roasters getting into instant coffee, and their own offerings show off their expertise and feature a coffee for anyone's taste.
The Mainstay Blend has a rich, toasty aroma and flavor notes of caramelized plums, finishing with just a pop of citrus. Their East African single origins offer all the spiced berry, fragrant florals we'd expect from the freshest brews, and their South American coffees smell and taste like tearing into a bag of fragrant nuts.
The advances in freeze dried instant powder are impressive, but if you're willing to carve out a flask-sized slice of your refrigerator for Kloo's gorgeous bottles of coffee concentrate, you’ll be rewarded with some of the most luxurious coffee we've tasted. Kloo's founder is a Q grader, someone with the experience and refined palette to dub them something like a sommelier for coffee. Kloo's Columbian concentrate was reminiscent of an almond topped blackberry pie. The Ethiopian smelled like walking through a patch of spring flowers, with a lingering peach finish. Apologies for getting a little too poetic about it, but it's just really good coffee.
Saturnbird's instant coffees take a detour from the usual packets and come in absolutely adorable doll-sized takeout coffee cups. Each one is color coded and numbered to indicate how dark or light the roast is. That range is a little hit or miss, but the hits are home runs.
The Latte Express smelled like marshmallows on a campfire, and tasted like melted Oreo ice cream, a lovely little comfort that made us quite surprised when Americano Express ended up giving spoiled fruit and chemical acidity. The 1, 4, and 5 had astonishing differences in their complexities, from 1: Natural Processed's aroma of dried fruit with a winey black tea and blueberry flavor, to 5: World Blend's silky smooth tobacco, almond and molasses.
The Time and Temp seasonal blend from this Portland, Maine roaster smelled like sweet dried fruit, and had a round, cashew nut complexity that gave way to a grapefruity zip. Some of us enjoyed the punch of acidity, but one taster said it reminded them of a having a stomach ache. The exact blend and profile of Tandem's Time and Temp changes seasonally, and we'd love to keep trying it to see how it evolves year round.
Partners’ Brooklyn blend, a sensible medium roast, had some subtle fruity notes that we really enjoyed. It was berry-forward on the nose, but those flavors were more balanced during tasting, when a sharp zing of acidity pierced through the fruitiness. The only potential drawback with Partners’ instant coffee was a slightly weak body. But as Partner's is one of the coffees made in collaboration with Swift, we thought we'd ask Nate Kaiser about it. He told us that perception of mouthfeel is difficult to judge due to subjectivity, and is quantitative (meaning if we'd had a full cup during testing, the issue might resolve itself).
Almost all tasters enjoyed their samples of Canyon’s Ethiopian single-origin instant coffee. Food director Chris Morocco found it slightly vegetal but wonderfully bright, while other tasters noticed a distinctly fruity note in addition to some of the sharper, earthy flavors that Chris described. Coffee lovers will adore the aroma, which was warm, inviting, and strong, and it was a real contender for first place, until we noticed a slightly sour note that just slightly threw off the flavor balance in our cups of black coffee. Still, we’re confident in saying that a pack of Canyon instant coffee will leave you with a very respectable cup.
Tasters agreed that this contender wasn’t bad—but it wasn’t great either. The consensus was that it was a bit of a nothingburger in terms of flavor and aroma. However, it's a lot more exciting when you “brew” it as a super-concentrated espresso-like shot and use it in a sweetened, milky latte.
We're bigger fans of Blue Bottle's New Orlean's style instant, which presented nearly as well as a freshly brewed cup straight from the French Quarter. Sweet chicory's presence in coffee can be divisive, but if you're already a fan, you'll probably enjoy the instant version.
A well-balanced medium roast, Verve’s Streetlevel blend is everything we want in a cup of coffee. It has a delicious, deep chocolate aroma; a strong, dark roast taste; and a bit of an acidic bite for balance. Chris was pleased to find that this was a high-quality cup of coffee that had “character and nuance” to it. It had all the rich flavors and robust body of a beautiful pour over with the easy smoothness of a cold brew. This coffee checked all our boxes and more, making Verve Streetlevel one of the best instant coffees we tried.
Others we tested that were…not the best
Some thoughtful sips of Intelligentsia’s instant espresso placed it in the middle of the pack. The brewed coffee was supposed to have notes of marshmallow, dark chocolate, and raw sugar, according to the packaging, but those flavors didn’t come through for our tasters. The cup of brewed coffee wasn’t as strong as we’d have liked—more of a medium roast rather than espresso—and some tasters likened it to diner coffee. Still, it would work in a pinch—which is generally when you’re drinking instant coffee anyways. Food director Chris Morocco described it as “rough and ready,” because, while it’s not the best, you could do far worse.
Cafe Bustelo’s instant espresso fell extremely flat on flavor and aroma. Chris generously described the flavor as “vegetal,” but other tasters noticed the distinct flavor of soy sauce in every sip. It was hard to draw comparisons between a cup of Cafe Bustelo instant espresso and an actual cup of coffee made from real coffee beans—Bustelo is in its own instant coffee universe. The coffee was watery and weak, falling short of the rich, dark roast we want from any instant coffee, let alone an instant espresso powder.
Velty’s instant coffee powder was the only decaffeinated option we tried besides Cafe Grumpy's, but, really, Velty is more than coffee, and also the only contender that claims to improve your digestive health. It contains small amounts of ingredients like lion’s mane mushrooms, ginger, and inulin, which the brand says can aid in gut health and brain function. The flavor of those additions is undetectable, but commerce producer Alaina Chou found she enjoyed notes of “tropical fruit” while Chris said the coffee had “an inherent sweetness.” Unfortunately, Velty failed another baseline criteria: easy dissolving. Despite vigorous stirring, lots of granules remained floating around in our cups, which led to a gritty feeling sip after sip.
When we read the words “instant coffee,” this grocery store standard is what we expect—for better or for worse—and that may just be why instant coffee has a bad rap. “Dead last,” said one taster bluntly, after her first sip. The rest of the tasters agreed wholeheartedly. Nescafé had an unpleasant smell that some tasters described as “fishy” and others likened to a cafeteria. Either way Nescafé was not great, to put it generously, and we can’t recommend you drink it if you’re looking for a great, good, or even average cup of coffee.
“Charred,” “burnt,” and “sad” were all words used to describe the taste of Starbucks Via Colombia instant coffee, which is made with the same arabica beans used in-store at Starbucks locations. Perhaps that’s why Morocco noted that even the smell, which was acrid and stale, would be enough to turn him off from trying a cup. The crystals didn’t quite dissolve, which left us with a gritty cup of coffee, and it got low marks for taste as well. Without much positive to say, Starbucks Via ends up towards the bottom of our list.
House of Word instant coffee has a brewing process that makes it somewhat unique; instead of the French press method, ground coffee is cold brewed, then filtered and dehydrated to create, according to the brand, an especially smooth cup of coffee. But our panel found House of Word to be somewhat flaccid, not really tasting like much more than darkened water. House of Word instant coffee wasn’t actively offensive in terms of flavor, body and aroma, but it didn’t give us much to love either. It was generally agreed upon that it had a very “instant coffee taste” which, for our tasters, wasn’t a compliment.
Sightglass initially lost us at its aroma, which had an almost chemical quality. Our tasters warmed up much more after an initial sip, however, although many found it had more of an acidic bite than they wanted. A second sip revealed some lightly fruity notes of blueberry or grape. Perfectly drinkable, but there are plenty of others we preferred.
Cometeer isn’t like other instant coffees—they source coffee from specialty roasters like Equator and Counter Culture, brew it at ten times the strength of normal coffee, and then freeze it into a puck. When you’re ready to make a cup, you simply pour hot water over the frozen coffee concentrate. When tasting this blend from Onyx Roasters, the overwhelming note was that it was sour. First and second sips left tasters with a puckery feeling in their mouth and a dry aftertaste, which, we agreed, was not ideal. As tasters’ palates acclimated to the acidity on subsequent tastes, though, the roar of sour became more of a pleasant purr, and they enjoyed their sips of Cometeer. Still, we felt it was a touch harsher than regular coffee and that there was room for improvement here.
Four Sigmatic juices up your brain with more than just the caffeine from some coffee beans. Their Think instant coffee is infused with Lion's Mane and Chaga mushrooms, which are rich in vitamins and essential minerals, and studies suggest they may help improve mental focus and mood. But all that promise isn't going to do anyone any good if it tastes like hot liquid fungus. Thankfully, we did not think it did! Any hint of mushroom only presents as a papery, vegetal scent, with no hints at all of "good for you" in the brown sugar and milk chocolate taste. However, their freshly brewed coffee is so much better than their instant, we can't recommend it unless you're already a mushroom coffee diehard.
Alpine Start is a backpacker classic, and we found it to have a nice blend of chocolate and toasty cereal on the nose. It smelled better than it tasted, but it certainly didn't taste bad - a pretty middle of the road instant that we could tell was instant. Like Four Sigmatic, Alpine Start also offers a mushroom coffee in their Latte with Benefits packets which come pre-blended with powdered milk, and we were big fans of that. We thought it smelled like a dusty library in a good way, and tasted like freshly roasted hazelnuts, well balanced and warming.
Many of the instant coffees we tried stuck to the lighter end of the roast spectrum, but if you’re someone who prefers their roast dark enough to get lost in, Death Wish might be one to try. In terms of aroma, it was one we couldn't mistake for non-instant, with burnt battery interrupting an otherwise inviting woodsy quality. But a mouth coating smack of bold and bitter cocoa with a pipe tobacco finish had us ready to fight anyone who would try to take it out of our hands. Though that could also be attributed to the caffeine level. Death Wish boasts almost twice as much per serving as most other instants.
ReAnimator states that their Foundation Blend is a take on Italian espresso, but with a lighter roast. When we sampled their instant version of this blend, we were greeted with a toasted to nearly burnt honey smell. Light fruit blossomed into a floral finish, but it was just a touch too acidic for our taste. A solid offering from another of Swift's partners, and we'd be happy to have this to reanimate us on a particularly grueling excursion away from our usual brewing equipment.
Happy's fluorescent white packaging looks similar enough to subway ads for mental health apps, suggesting that it contains something like therapy in a jar. Unfortunately, when the hot water hit the coffee crystals inside, it released a skunky petrol that reminded us more of a gas station than a cozy shrink's couch.
We were stunned that nose hid roasty, sugar smacks cereal flavor with a light vanilla bean finish. Looks like there was a breakthrough in that session after all, but given the competition from humbler packets, we can't recommend.
https://www.happyproducts.com/collections/instant-coffee/products/dark-roast-8ct-instant-
