The Good: Easy to prepare, Wonderful rich taste!
The Bad: Fairly expensive, Environmental impact of packaging
The Basics: I was thoroughly prepared to dislike Taster's Choice Gourmet Roast instant coffee until I tried it and discovered it was a rich, strong cup of coffee!
I swear, I am not going soft on my coffee reviews! Had anyone told me before I started reviewing the Taster’s Choice Gourmet Instant Coffee line that I would actually enjoy most of the products in it, I would have told them they were absolutely crazy. After all, I have never liked instant coffee and I love drip coffee. So, when I started finding some that I came to like, I figured it must be a fluke. When I sat down to consider Taster’s Choice Gourmet Roast, I felt like it had to be a p.r. stunt. After all, there was a regular roast, a House Blend and, like, four other blends I had tried that were just basic coffee-flavored coffees.
While the Gourmet Roast may not be the best of the line, it is a wonderful instant coffee and one that Taster’s Choice ought to be proud of!
Basics
Taster's Choice Gourmet Roast instant coffee is part of Taster's Choice'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 mix now comes in plastic containers easily found in the grocery store, though for my review, I was provided with premeasured samples which each create a 6 oz. cup of coffee.
Ease Of Preparation
Taster's Choice Gourmet Roast 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, though with the canisters one needs to measure out the Tablespoon of instant coffee. 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 is one of the least translucent blends from this coffee line.
Taste
The Gourmet Roast smells strong and woody. Actually, the scent reminded me of a campfire with hard woods and the scent memory made me feel instantly safe and warm. That’s a surprisingly lot coming from a cup of instant coffee!
Fortunately, Taster’s Choice Gourmet Roast Instant Coffee lives up to the potential embodied by the scent of the coffee. This is a strong, flavorful coffee with a very smoky taste to it. Had I not known better, I would have guessed this was a dark blend, like a Colombian coffee, it is so rich and strong. That powerful taste lasts the whole cup and I found myself guzzling it down, it was so good.
The use of sugar or cream with the Gourmet Roast instant coffee has little effect. While sugar makes it sweeter, the burned coffee taste still dominates. Milk or cream only has the effect of cooling this robust beverage!
Nutrition
Taster's Choice Gourmet Roast 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 a drink one might survive on. The caffeine in it is sufficient enough that I am a little jittery after drinking three cups!
Storage/Cleanup
So long as one gets Taster's Choice Gourmet Roast 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 three 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
Taster's Choice makes a surprisingly wonderful Gourmet Roast instant coffee that is almost enough to turn a serious coffee drinker around on instant coffees!
For other Nescafe Instant Coffee drinks, please visit my reviews of:
Taster's Choice Hazelnut Instant Coffee
Taster's Choice Vanilla Gourmet Instant Coffee
Nescafe Peppermint Mocha Instant Coffee Drink
7.5/10
For other food or drink reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!
© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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