The Good: Easy to prepare, Great taste
The Bad: Fairly expensive (especially in prepackaged tubes), Environmental impact of packaging
The Basics: Folgers 100% Colombian instant coffee is, hands down, the best instant coffee option for serious coffee drinkers, despite the environmental and financial impact of the single-serve tubes.
When it comes to coffee, I tend to like fresh-brewed pots, as opposed to instant coffee. My wife, however, had a giant jug of Folgers Instant Coffee crystals with her when we moved back in together this autumn, I discovered she had been drinking instant coffee all summer. I mention this at the outset of my review of Folgers 100% Colombian instant coffee, because the big jug of instant coffee was Folgers, so I know they know how to make coffee in environmentally-responsible packaging. The Fresh Breaks 100% Colombian coffee is trying to compete with the instant coffee lines from Taster’s Choice, like the Hazelnut Instant Coffee (reviewed here!). The packets of instant coffee from Folgers are something of a redundancy, though the 100% Colombian coffee is pretty good on its own merits.
The 100% Colombian Coffee is a decently-strong instant coffee, though it is tough for me to get by the packaging and enthusiastically recommend it.
Basics
Folgers Fresh Breaks 100% Colombian instant coffee is part of Folgers's new premium instant coffee line and one suspects that the company is trying to compete with the flavors from the International blends instant coffee line. This flavor does, though it is a less creative flavor than many of the blend instant coffees. The 100% Colombian Fresh Breaks come in an eight packet box of .11 oz. instant coffee packets.
Ease Of Preparation
Folgers 100% Colombian instant coffee mix is exceptionally simple to make. The single serving is the packet and six oz. of water. There is no measuring of the product involved, one need only open the packet. This is a very simple beverage to prepare.
The top of the single-serve packet has a perforated edge and one need simply tear open the top, which is quite easy, and pour the contents of the packet into a mug that is at least eight ounces large. Then, simply pour hot water - near boiling, but not actually boiling as boiling water cooks the ingredients as opposed to simply dissolving them - over the powder and stir. Stir the powder until there are no blobs of coffee granules visible in the water. The beverage will have a dark brown color to it and it will be fairly translucent.
Taste
Folgers 100% Colombian Gourmet instant coffee smells very dark. In fact, compared with a standard dark roast coffee I had around, the 100% Columbian smelled deeper and richer. The aroma effervesces to make the consumer anticipate a very strong black cup of coffee.
The 100% Columbian is appropriately strong and bitter. When it washes over the tongue, it buries any other taste left in the mouth. This is a forceful, dark coffee that is the embodiment of what coffee ought to be. The 100% Columbian has a strong, bitter aftertaste that remains in the mouth for several minutes.
The use of sugar or cream with the 100% Colombian instant coffee cuts the bitterness, but otherwise does not reduce the force of the flavor of this instant coffee. Cream, especially, cuts the aftertaste.
Nutrition
Folgers 100% Colombian instant coffee is a coffee mix and therefore is entirely lacking in nutritional value. There are no calories or fat in this drink, though there is caffeine. How much is a bit of a mystery to me. This is not a beverage intended to be a health drink or one one might survive on.
Storage/Cleanup
So long as one gets Folgers 100% Colombian instant coffee mix in the packet, it ought to stay usable. Visiting my local supermarket, most of the packages of this instant coffee had an expiration date over two years away. One assumes it will last quite a while and dissolve appropriately when one attempts to use it. The packets, for those of us who consider the environmental impact of such things, are terribly wasteful and expensive. The foil/plastic wrappers are not recyclable anywhere I've been.
Cleanup is very easy as well. If the product spills while dumping it into the mug, simply wipe it up or brush it up with a dry or damp cloth. If it has already been reconstituted with water into coffee, simply wipe it up. Light fabrics are likely to stain if this gets on them, in which case consult your fabric care guide to clean it up.
Overall
Folgers makes a great cup of coffee with its Fresh Breaks 100% Colombian blend. In fact, outside of the packaging and the proportionally high expense as a result, I can find nothing wrong with this blend!
For other Folgers Coffees, please visit my reviews of:
Gourmet Vanilla Biscotti Coffee
Gourmet Supreme Coffee
Black Silk Coffee
8/10
For other food or drink reviews, please visit my Food Review Index Page for an organized listing!
© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
| | |
No comments:
Post a Comment