A Limited Time Mediocre Drink: Starbucks Peppermint Mocha Espresso

The Good: Generally good flavor, Decent ingredients
The Bad: Weaker peppermint flavor than I'd like, Comparatively expensive
The Basics: Starbucks Peppermint Mocha Espresso is a limited edition espresso beverage that does not quite thrill fans of the promised flavor as much as one might hope.


When it comes to prepared beverages, I only occasionally make an effort to hunt down coffee drinks. I love my fresh-brewed coffees at home and bottled coffee beverages seldom satisfy me the way my home brew does. But, quite a while ago, I saw some bottles of Starbucks Cookies & Cream espresso and I did not pick them up. It was, apparently, a limited edition flavor and it was gone before I could ever get it (having passed up buying it the one time). So, when I was out yesterday and I saw a single bottle of Starbucks Peppermint Mocha Espresso at my local grocery store, I bought it right away.

I suppose in my rush to make sure I didn't make the same mistake twice, I overcompensated. The limited edition Starbucks Peppermint Mocha Espresso Beverage is all right, but hardly as extraordinary as its price and limited edition nature might make one think.

Basics

Starbucks Peppermint Mocha Espresso is an Espresso Beverage Coffee Drink, though it is more milk than coffee. Unlike a sports drink which is targeted to replace specific nutrients the body loses while working out, Espresso Beverages like this are intended to provide an alternative to hot coffee products. The Starbucks Peppermint Mocha Espresso comes in a 14 fl. oz. plastic bottle.

The 14 oz. bottle is a single serving of Starbucks Peppermint Mocha Espresso and it is very easy to drink it down in a single sitting.

Ease Of Preparation

Starbucks Peppermint Mocha Espresso is a liquid in the 14 oz. bottle which is best served chilled, though that is not essential. The Starbucks Peppermint Mocha Espresso is mixed easily by shaking the bottle firmly and that insures that if the contents have settled one gets a homogeneous fluid.

Taste

Starbucks Peppermint Mocha Espresso, oddly, has virtually no aroma to it. There is a very faint scent of coffee when the espresso beverage is closer to room temperature, but almost none when it is cold.

In the mouth, Starbucks Peppermint Mocha Espresso is instantly flavored with chocolate and coffee. The chocolate mocha flavor blends nicely with the coffee in the Starbucks Peppermint Mocha Espresso, but the chocolate flavor is definitely more powerful than the coffee portion. The espresso beverage finishes with a light, cool mint flavor. The mocha is definitely the dominant flavor, with the peppermint flavor being more of an afterthought as opposed to an up-front aspect of the flavor palate.

Even in the aftertaste, the Starbucks Peppermint Mocha Espresso is dominated by the mocha aspect of the drink. The peppermint flavor hits on the aftertaste, then transitions to a more dry chocolate flavor of the mocha. The dry chocolate aftertaste endures in the mouth for about four minutes after the last of the beverage is consumed.

Nutrition

As an Espresso beverage, Starbucks Peppermint Mocha Espresso is made primarily of Reduced fat milk, brewed Starbucks coffee and sugar. There are natural flavors, but no noticeable preservatives. For a change, for a bottled drink, it seems like there is not much that is actually bad in the Starbucks Peppermint Mocha Espresso.

Nutritionally, Starbucks Peppermint Mocha Espresso is nothing one wants to try to live off of. Starbucks Peppermint Mocha Espresso has 240 calories, 40 of which are from fat. The Starbucks Peppermint Mocha Espresso has 41 grams of carbohydrates, 35 of which are just sugar. As well, there are 120 milligrams (5% RDA) of sodium in each serving and nine grams of protein. The only significant nutrient in this beverage is the 25% RDA of Calcium.

Storage/Clean-up

Starbucks Peppermint Mocha Espresso comes in a plastic bottle and it does not need to be refrigerated to stay good, at least not until it is opened. The limited edition Starbucks Peppermint Mocha Espresso has a decent shelf life; the bottle I found yesterday would not have expired until April 15, 2018, had I not drunk it up first.

This drink is an opaque brown color, but if it gets on light fabrics it will certainly stain them. Consult a care guide for your clothes, though I suspect light clothes would need bleach to get this out. Still, the drink wipes off surfaces easily with a cloth, assuming they are impermeable.

Overall

Starbucks Peppermint Mocha Espresso is good, but not as minty as I'd like, making it not much of a loss when the limited edition flavor disappears.

For other coffee drinks, please check out my reviews of:
Starbucks Via Colombia coffee
Illy Issimo Mochaccino
Folgers Gourmet Selections Sugar Cookie Coffee

5.5/10

For other food and drink reviews, please visit my Food Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Good, Not Great, Coffee Makes Starbucks French Roast A Little Pricier Than Its Quality Warrants!

The Good: Well-caffeinated, Tastes good initially
The Bad: Expensive, Watery aftertaste
The Basics: Starbucks French Roast Coffee is good, but not one of their best blends for home use, largely because some creamers can overwhelm the flavor of this coffee!


Having found a few Starbucks coffee brews from their whole bean collection that I like, I recently found myself in the market for more Starbucks coffee. As one who loves dark roasts, I decided to try the Starbucks French Roast. While this blend is good, it is not as robust as several lower-priced French Roasts and dark blends I have tried and reviewed and that made it far less of a value than it ought to have been. As a result, the French Roast became a much tougher coffee to recommend than it ought to have been.

The French Roast blend seemed to have a one-two punch on the flavor front, but the follow up to the initial full flavor was anything but satisfying. The result is a blend that feels like it is trading more on the Starbucks name than living up to a higher quality standard.

Basics

Based on the success of Starbucks, a chain of coffee shops, Starbucks began selling its coffee in supermarkets and other stores. We found the French Roast in a 40 oz. bag and that lasted a full month in my coffee-drinking household.

The French Roast Blend is a less aromatic blend that woke us up with its flavor more than its scent, as it is a caffeinated blend. This is intended to be a bold coffee and it hits that about half the time.

Ease Of Preparation

French Roast Coffee is remarkably easy to prepare, no advanced culinary degrees necessary! First, open the bag. Starbucks French Roast Coffee is vacuum sealed when first purchased, so when it is opened, the bag will likely plump up a little. As a whole bean coffee, it needs to be ground and I used my Cuisinart Supreme Grind (reviewed here!) on its finest setting to grind the beans. Once that is done, measure out one heaping tablespoon for every two cups of water in your coffee maker. French Roast Coffee is intended for automatic (drip or percolating) coffee makers. This is NOT an instant coffee. As a result, it needs to be brewed and I use a Hamilton Beach machine (reviewed here!) with a Crucial coffee permanent filter (reviewed here!).

Consult your coffee maker's instructions for how to brew the coffee. However, as far as the basics go, you'll need a coffee filter, which you put the French Roast Coffee in and then brew through your coffee maker. As long as the bag is kept closed in an airtight container, it seems to remain fresh.

Taste

The Starbucks French Roast smells, predictably, like coffee. The coffee scent is not particularly potent and not at all unpleasant. It does, however, smell invitingly like coffee.

In the mouth, the French Roast is appropriately bitter and starts with a very strong coffee flavor. This blend is a darker roast and for the first time in a long time, when I tried it, I was hit by the burst of flavor – like five concentrated cups of a weaker coffee blend – but then it finished watery. This French Roast was like a coffee suffering from multiple personality disorder; one sip was strong and forceful and by the swallow it was weak and watery.

With creamer, the coffee flavor is almost entirely sublimated to the sweetener. Despite the forcefulness of the coffee on its own, even simple creamers seem to overwhelm the coffee flavor of the Starbucks French Roast. On the plus side, creamers do seem to eliminate the watery secondary flavor of this coffee.

On its own, the Starbucks French Roast has almost no aftertaste, which is uncommon for a dark roast coffee blend. With creamer, the coffee retains a sweet aftertaste for about a minute after one is done consuming it.

Nutrition

This is coffee, not something that appears on the nutrition pyramid! Starbucks French Roast Coffee does not contribute anything to one's daily recommended allowance of anything. In fact, the bag does not have any ingredients, so I am forced to assume all that is in this blend is coffee beans, which would fit what it tastes like.

This is a caffeinated blend and it feels like it! This has enough caffeine to help wake one up in the morning or give them a decent mid-afternoon boost. Because it is a caffeinated coffee, it appears to not have undergone any of the chemical processes that sometimes cause complications in decaffeinated coffees.

Storage/Clean-up

French Roast Coffee ought to be stored sealed in its bag with the top firmly closed. Coffee is known to absorb flavors of food nearby it, so keeping the top tightly closed is highly recommended. There are different schools of thought on refrigerating open coffee and I have a very clean refrigerator with a lot of ways to segregate coffee, so I tend to come down on the side of refrigerate it. The container makes no recommendations in that regard.

After brewing, coffee grounds ought to be disposed of. These grounds may be thrown in the trash when used or put in a compost pile, if available. Coffee grounds make great compost and these grounds are no exception.

Overall

Starbucks French Roast Coffee seems like it would be a slam dunk, but the flavor does not hold. There are other blends from Starbucks that are more consistent and robust; there are other brands that produce French Roast blends with the same weakness as Starbucks and they charge less for them. That makes the French Roast an easier to pass up coffee for fans of strong coffee than it could have been.

For other Starbucks coffee reviews, please visit my reviews of:
Starbucks Espresso Roast Coffee
Starbucks Discoveries Vanilla Latte
Starbucks Via Colombia coffee

5/10

For other drink reviews, please check out my Beverage Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Best Of The Home Blends? Starbucks Espresso Roast Dark Blend Might Be It For Starbucks!

The Good: Appropriately caffeinated, Good aroma, Tastes very good
The Bad: Expensive
The Basics: Starbucks Espresso Roast Coffee is the blend most likely to prevent home brewers from bothering to ever go out and buy Starbucks at a café again!


Coffee! There are few brands of coffee more recognizable and influential than Starbucks. In fact, it is somewhat surprising that with all of my coffee and restaurant reviews, I have not yet reviewed Starbucks cafes! I suppose that part of that is that I no longer live close to any Starbucks cafes – local penetration of Bigby Coffee (reviewed here!) has made Starbucks a non-competitor throughout much of Northern Michigan. The other reason is that I love brewing coffee at home and not having to interact with people or leave my apartment. To that end, Starbucks managed to give me a good daily dose of happiness with its Espresso Roast.

Espresso Roast might be comparatively expensive, but this is the blend from Starbucks that is worth getting for home brewing!

Basics

Based on the success of Starbucks, a chain of coffee shops, Starbucks began selling its coffee in supermarkets and other stores. The standard size for Espresso Roast is a 12 oz. bag and that seems to last a couple of weeks around my heavy coffee-drinking house.

The Espresso Roast Blend is an aromatic blend that smells potently of coffee beans and it is a caffeinated blend. This is intended to be a bold coffee and it does come across as that, from the aroma to the first sip!

Ease Of Preparation

Espresso Roast Coffee is remarkably easy to prepare, no advanced culinary degrees necessary! First, open the bag. Starbucks Espresso Roast Coffee is vacuum sealed when first purchased, so when it is opened, the bag will likely plump up a little. Then, measure out one heaping tablespoon for every two cups of water in your coffee maker. Espresso Roast Coffee is intended for automatic (drip or percolating) coffee makers. This is NOT an instant coffee. As a result, it needs to be brewed and I use a Hamilton Beach machine (reviewed here!) with a Crucial coffee permanent filter (reviewed here!).

Consult your coffee maker's instructions for how to brew the coffee. However, as far as the basics go, you'll need a coffee filter, which you put the Espresso Roast Coffee in and then brew through your coffee maker. The directions recommend making a pot at a time and use this coffee within a week of opening the bag. As long as the bag is kept closed in an airtight container, it seems to remain fresh beyond the recommended week.

Taste

The Starbucks Espresso Roast blend smells strongly of coffee. This is an aromatic blend that hints at exactly what it is; a strong, dark, coffee.

The aroma foreshadows the Espresso Roast’s flavor perfectly. The Espresso Roast has a very dry, full flavor that lives up to the promise of being a bold dark roast. Instead of finishing with a bitter flavor, though, the Espresso Roast is intriguingly dry as it moves from its primary to secondary flavor. This blend tastes exclusively like very concentrated coffee. This blend is not watery and its flavor does not diminish at all with additives. Sugar and creamer might eliminate the dryness, but the Espresso Roast continues to taste like super-coffee!

On its own, the Espresso Roast leaves the mouth with a fairly dry aftertaste. After a minute, that transitions to a slightly bitter flavor, though only after the final cup. This is not really unpleasant and it does not diminish the overall experience of drinking the Espresso Roast.

Nutrition

This is coffee, not something that appears on the nutrition pyramid! Starbucks Espresso Roast Coffee does not contribute anything to one's daily recommended allowance of anything. In fact, the bag does not have any ingredients, so I am forced to assume all that is in this blend is coffee beans, which would fit what it tastes like.

This is a caffeinated blend and it feels like it! This has enough caffeine to pop one's eyes open between the taste, aroma and caffeine. Because it is a caffeinated coffee, it appears to not have undergone any of the chemical processes that sometimes cause complications in decaffeinated coffees.

Storage/Clean-up

Espresso Roast Coffee ought to be stored sealed in its container with the top firmly closed. Coffee is known to absorb flavors of food nearby it, so keeping the top tightly closed is highly recommended. There are different schools of thought on refrigerating open coffee and I have a very clean refrigerator with a lot of ways to segregate coffee, so I tend to come down on the side of refrigerate it. The container makes no recommendations in that regard, though the bag of Espresso Roast Coffee I bought at the discount store earlier this week had an expiration date of August 30 2014 (though I assume when it is bought on the shelves it has a longer shelf life).

After brewing, coffee grounds ought to be disposed of. These grounds may be thrown in the trash when used or put in a compost pile, if available. Coffee grounds make great compost and these grounds are no exception.

Overall

Starbucks Espresso Roast Coffee is an exceptional dark coffee and it is the best the brand has to offer to home coffee consumers!

For other Starbucks coffee reviews, please visit my reviews of:
Starbucks Discoveries Vanilla Latte
Starbucks Via Colombia coffee
Starbucks Coffee Signature Hot Chocolate Ice Cream

8.5/10

For other food or drink reviews, please check out my Food And Drink Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Not Quite Coffee Enough: Starbucks Discoveries Vanilla Latte Is All Right, Not Superlative.

The Good: Tastes very flavorful, Nothing bad in it
The Bad: Expensive! Low nutritional benefit.
The Basics: Starbucks Discoveries Vanilla Latte is tasty, but vastly overpriced for what it is.


When my wife and I picked up the Caramel Macchiato Starbucks Discoveries (reviewed here!), I was pretty excited. At the same time we got that, she also found the Starbucks Discoveries Vanilla Latte. Vanilla Lattes are a favorite of my wife, so we felt pretty strongly compelled to pick this up. And it was good, but not exceptional, especially for those looking for a coffee drink. In fact, even my wife had to agree that if it wasn’t on clearance, it would not be worth picking up.

The Starbucks Discoveries Vanilla Latte is good, but not as healthy as, for example, Bolthouse Farms coffee drinks. Still, it is not bad and has better ingredients than most prepared coffee drinks.

Basics

Starbucks is a company that makes coffee and in expanding out from the coffee shops, it has been selling its coffee as prepared beverages, beans, and ice creams. This is a dairy beverage that is milk and coffee-based, so it is one of the more perishable Starbucks products sold outside the cafes. Starbucks Discoveries Vanilla Latte comes in a 50.7 fl. oz. cardboard carton that is too large to be portable. The carton is filled with the opaque fairly light tan liquid, reminiscent of chocolate milk, that is the Discoveries Vanilla Latte. Starbucks is one of the leading manufacturers of prepared coffee beverages.

The 50.7 fl. oz. bottle is intended to give consumers six servings and our carton bore that out exactly when we measured our servings.

Ease Of Preparation

Starbucks Discoveries Vanilla Latte is a liquid in the 50.7 fl. oz. carton and is a ready-to-drink beverage. So, preparation is as easy as opening the plastic cap. Unscrewing that, one has to pull off the plastic tab beneath to get access to the spout and the fluid inside. Starbucks has a plastic cap that easily twists off and can be put back on in order to reseal it. It is important to note that this is supposed to be refrigerated, so quality of the beverage may degrade if it is left out at room temperature before or after the bottle is open. Otherwise, this is very easy to dispense and there is no real preparation required outside shaking the carton while the cap is on.

Taste

The Vanilla Latte smells appropriately light and sweet, exactly like what one would expect from a vanilla coffee drink. The scent is subtle, but previews the flavor of the drink nicely.

Getting by the foam, the consumer is treated to a light, milky flavor that has the distinctive dryness on the tongue that is instantly recognizable as vanilla. That flavor lasts for about a second before an equally clear coffee flavor washes over the tastebuds. The coffee flavor is surprisingly weak and it only lingers on the tongue a second or three before the milky vanilla flavor overwhelms it again and finishes the drink’s flavor off nicely. The sweetness of the vanilla completely cuts the hints of bitterness from the coffee.

The Vanilla Latte has a slightly dry aftertaste, but not one that is unpleasant or diminishes the drink in any way.

Nutrition

As a dairy and coffee beverage, Starbucks Discoveries Vanilla Latte is designed to meet the consumer’s need for coffee without having to brew coffee or buy one’s own Starbucks coffee. Nutritionally, Starbucks Discoveries Vanilla Latte is mediocre, but not bad. Discoveries Vanilla Latte is primarily composed of reduced-fat milk, brewed Starbucks espresso coffee and sugar. It contains nothing bad, which is probably why it expires so fast. The Starbucks Discoveries Vanilla Latte contains milk, so it is in no way Vegan compliant. On the plus side, though, there are no preservatives, artificial flavors or colors!

This drink is also good, but not overly healthy. One serving of Discoveries Vanilla Latte has 2 g fat and 120 calories, 20 of which come from the fat. While there are 20 grams of carbohydrates, the beverage has only 10 mg of cholesterol and only 3 grams of protein! Unsurprisingly, there are 40 mg (2% RDA) of sodium in each serving. A single serving is a not a sufficient source of any nutrients, though it has 10% of the RDA of Calcium.

Storage/Clean-up

Starbucks Discoveries Vanilla Latte comes in a cardboard carton and it keeps for only a few weeks. The bottle I bought the first week of November had an expiration date of November 11, 2013 (fear not, I consumed it and wrote the review well before it expired!). This beverage must be refrigerated!

This drink is a dairy product and fairly light, despite the coffee in it. If this gets on clothes, it will certainly stain them. Consult a care guide for your clothes, though I suspect light clothes would need bleach to get this out. Still, the drink wipes off surfaces easily with a cloth, assuming they are impermeable.

Overall

Starbucks Discoveries Vanilla Latte is good, but those who love coffee are likely to find it too watered-down and sweet to make it worth trying more than once.

For other Starbucks coffee reviews, please visit my reviews of:
Via Vanilla instant coffee
Starbucks Cafe Estima Coffee
Starbucks Via Iced Coffee

4/10

For other food reviews, please visit my Food And Drink Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Starbucks Discoveries Caramel Macchiato Is Tasty, But Overpriced!

The Good: Tastes very flavorful, Nothing bad in it
The Bad: Expensive! Low nutritional benefit.
The Basics: Starbucks Discoveries Caramel Macchiato is tasty, but vastly overpriced for what it is.


For the past several months, my wife and I have seen the Starbucks Discoveries prepared beverages at our local grocery story. These drinks come in a cardboard carton (like a giant juice box) and, locally, have been over five dollars for a 50.7 fluid ounce container. For the six servings the carton contains, it is very expensive. However, we were fortunate enough to find some on clearance at the grocery store a few weeks back and our first experience with them was with the Caramel Macchiato.

The Starbucks Discoveries Caramel Macchiato is good, but not quite worth the expense. It is not as healthy as, for example, Bolthouse Farms Mocha Cappuccino (reviewed here!), but it is not bad and has better ingredients than most prepared coffee drinks.

Basics

Starbucks is a company that makes coffee and in expanding out from the coffee shops, it has been robustly selling its coffee in prepared beverages, beans, and ice creams. This is a dairy beverage that is milk and coffee-based, so it is one of the more perishable Starbucks products sold outside the cafes. Starbucks Discoveries Caramel Macchiato comes in a 50.7 fl. oz. cardboard carton that is too large to be portable. The carton is filled with the opaque fairly dark tan liquid, reminiscent of chocolate milk, with a lot of chocolate, that is the Discoveries Caramel Macchiato. Starbucks is one of the leading manufacturers of prepared coffee beverages.

The 50.7 fl. oz. bottle is intended to give consumers six servings, which makes this a good drink to share.

Ease Of Preparation

Starbucks Discoveries Caramel Macchiato is a liquid in the 50.7 fl. oz. carton and is a ready-to-drink beverage. So, preparation is as easy as opening the plastic cap. Unscrewing that, one has to pull off the plastic tab beneath to get access to the spout and the fluid inside. Starbucks has a plastic cap that easily twists off and can be put back on in order to reseal it. It is important to note that this is supposed to be refrigerated, so quality of the beverage may degrade if it is left out at room temperature before or after the bottle is open. Otherwise, this is very easy to dispense and there is no real preparation required outside shaking the carton while the cap is on.

Taste

From the aroma, the Caramel Macchiato actually smells like caramel. There is a warm, somewhat buttery to the cold beverage and it is finished with a more forthright, less sweet finishing scent. The finishing scent is beany, but not distinctly aromatic of coffee.

On the tongue, there is an instant sweetness that overcomes the tongues in the very first wave. It is a burnt caramel flavor and it does not linger on the palate. Instead, it is washed off with a potent coffee flavor indicative of a medium dark coffee blend. This is a milky coffee beverage that does not have any of the bitterness of regular coffee.

The Caramel Macchiato finishes sweet and dry and leaves the mouth with a very dry aftertaste. The aftertaste remains on the tongue for about five minutes.

Nutrition

As a dairy and coffee beverage, Starbucks Discoveries Caramel Macchiato is designed to wake up a consumer with a more flavorful option than straight-out coffee. Nutritionally, Starbucks Discoveries Caramel Macchiato is mediocre, but not bad. Discoveries Caramel Macchiato is primarily composed of reduced-fat milk, brewed Starbucks espresso coffee and sugar. It contains nothing bad, which is probably why it expires so fast. The Starbucks Discoveries Caramel Macchiato contains milk, so it is in no way Vegan compliant. On the plus side, though, there are no preservatives, artificial flavors or colors!

This drink is also good, but not overly healthy. One serving of Discoveries Caramel Macchiato has 2 g fat and 120 calories, 20 of which come from the fat. While there are 20 grams of carbohydrates, the beverage has only 10 mg of cholesterol and only 3 grams of protein! Unsurprisingly, there are 40 mg (2% RDA) of sodium in each serving. A single serving is a not a sufficient source of any nutrients, though it has 10% of the RDA of Calcium.

Storage/Clean-up

Starbucks Discoveries Caramel Macchiato comes in a cardboard carton and it keeps for only a few weeks. The bottle I bought the first week of November had an expiration date of November 12, 2013 (fear not, I consumed it and wrote the review well before it expired!). This beverage must be refrigerated!

This drink is a dairy product and fairly dark, because of the coffee in it. If this gets on clothes, it will certainly stain them. Consult a care guide for your clothes, though I suspect light clothes would need bleach to get this out. Still, the drink wipes off surfaces easily with a cloth, assuming they are impermeable.

Overall

Starbucks Discoveries Caramel Macchiato is flavorful, but not the best rendition of caramel one might absolutely want. It lacks any impressive health benefits, but it is still delightful.

For other coffee drinks, please visit my reviews of:
Starbucks Via Colombia coffee
Seattle's Best Level 5 Coffee
Nescafe Caramel Latte Memento

6/10

For other food reviews, please visit my Food And Drink Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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More Chocolate Than Caramel, Starbucks Salted Caramel Is More Pricy Than Flavorful.

The Good: Tastes good
The Bad: Very expensive, Environmental impact of the packaging, A lot of work, More salty than caramel.
The Basics: Starbucks Salted Caramel hot cocoa is wonderfully, richly chocolate flavored but has very little of the promised caramel taste.


Around my household, a good gift for me is always new treats for me to enjoy and review. My wife has a tendency to pick me up things I am not likely to spend good money for on myself. Lately, that has taken the form of picking me up expensive coffees and cocoas. So, for example, she picked e up Starbucks Mint Chocolate Cocoa (reviewed here!) and Salted Caramel Cocoa, which I have been enjoying the last few nights. Unfortunately, I have not been enjoying the cocoa as much as I wanted to, mostly because it does not taste quite like I would have hoped.

The Starbucks Salted Caramel Hot Cocoa is good, but great and barely caramel.

Basics

The Salted Caramel hot cocoa mix is part of the Starbucks premium hot cocoa line. The mix comes in a box of eight 1 oz. packets. Each box has eight servings and these bear an exceptionally high price of seven to nine dollars. For a single mug of cocoa, this is expensive when compared to other make-at-home products, especially when one factors in the additional cost of the milk.

Ease Of Preparation

The Starbucks Salted Caramel hot cocoa mix is a pain in the butt to make. Each serving comes in a 1 oz. package and requires a cup of milk to make it into a hot beverage. There is no fuss on the measuring front with this hot beverage; each packet is a single serving. Simply open the envelope and dump the powder in a cup. Unfortunately, one needs to bring a cup of milk to a near-boil for each serving. Making sure the milk is not boiling so it does not curdle is important and requires the consumer to pay attention to cooking the cocoa. It is important to note that this cannot be mixed with milk and then heated, even when one is making the cocoa in bulk.

Taste

The Starbucks's Salted Caramel hot cocoa smells strongly of chocolate. There is a slight hint of salt in the latter part of the aroma, but this is not a sweet-smelling beverage.

In the mouth, the Salted Caramel hot cocoa is very dry and it has a dark, rich flavor to it. After the thick, dark chocolate flavor passes, there is a very faint sweetness to it that is smothered by the dry, slightly salty taste of the drink. There is almost none of the buttery flavor I associate with caramel and this flavor is strongly and delightfully chocolate flavor with very little in a secondary flavor to sell it as caramel.

While this leaves a dry taste in the mouth, it has no recognizable aftertaste.

Nutrition

Starbucks Salted Caramel premium hot cocoa mix is hot cocoa mix and therefore not the most nutritious thing in the world, though there is nothing truly awful in this beverage. The primary ingredients are sugar, cocoa and natural flavors. There is a milk derivative in this hot cocoa powder, so it is not Vegan compliant.

What is not a mystery is how high this product is in sugars. In each cup of Salted Caramel, there are 120 calories, thirty of which are from fat. There are two and a half grams of saturated fat, but no trans fats! There is no cholesterol, but there is 130 mg of sodium in the Salted Caramel Cocoa, which is not as bad as it could be. There is a little protein, but not enough to live off this. In other words, this product is not a nutritious food product.

This product contains soy and wheat, so it is not gluten-free. There are also allergy warnings against peanuts, tree nuts, milk, and eggs for the mix. It is, however, marked as Kosher.

Storage/Cleanup

So long as one leaves the Starbucks Salted Caramel Premium Hot Cocoa powder in its envelope, it ought to stay usable. The box my wife gave me for Easter expires on December 6, 2013, but I imagine it will be gone well before then (given that I have already gone through half the packets).

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 milk into hot cocoa, 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

Starbucks Salted Caramel hot cocoa is not at all bad, but it is not richly caramel flavored and as a result, it doesn’t quite live up to my standards . . . or the standards of anyone who wants their drinks to taste like they claim.

For other Starbucks products, please visit my reviews of:
Via Colombia coffee
Via Vanilla instant coffee
Via Iced Coffee
Cafe Estima Coffee

4/10

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.
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A Lot Of Work For Little Payoff: Starbucks Peppermint Hot Cocoa Disappoints.

The Good: Tastes wonderful
The Bad: Very expensive, Environmental impact of the packaging, A lot of work, Not at all minty
The Basics: Starbucks Peppermint hot cocoa takes a bit of work to make and does not taste very much like peppermint, though it is a rich, chocolatey cocoa that tastes good!


For Valentine’s Day, my wife treated me to what was supposed to be a delightful surprise. She picked me up a box of Starbucks Peppermint Hot Cocoa and it seemed like it would be everything I truly love in a drink. It promised to be minty, richly chocolatey, and as delightful as other Starbucks products. Unfortunately, the pricey Starbucks Cocoa – which (at the least expensive place we could find it) was almost seven dollars for a box of eight – which was flavorful was not very minty at all.

In other words, the Starbucks Peppermint Hot Cocoa is good, but not at all great and as one who truly loves mint, it is impossible for me to recommend this beverage.

Basics

The Peppermint hot cocoa mix is part of the Starbucks premium hot cocoa line. The mix comes in a box of eight 1 oz. packets. Each box has eight servings and these bear an exceptionally high price of seven to nine dollars. For a single mug of cocoa, this is expensive when compared to other make-at-home products, especially when one factors in the additional cost of the milk.

Ease Of Preparation

The Starbucks Peppermint hot cocoa mix is a pain in the butt to make. Each serving comes in a 1 oz. package and requires a cup of milk to make it into a hot beverage. There is no fuss on the measuring front with this hot beverage; each packet is a single serving. Simply open the envelope and dump the powder in a cup. Unfortunately, one needs to bring a cup of milk to a near-boil for each serving. Making sure the milk is not boiling so it does not curdle is important and requires the consumer to pay attention to cooking the cocoa. It is important to note that this cannot be mixed with milk and then heated, even when one is making the cocoa in bulk.

Taste

The aroma of Starbucks's Peppermint hot cocoa is strongly of chocolate. There is no mint in the bouquet and that did not bode well for a cocoa that I was looking forward to.

On the tongue, the Peppermint hot cocoa is richly chocolate flavored. It is a deep, rich hot chocolate that is only slightly sweet . . . and that is a sweetness born in the aftertaste. There is no coolness in the flavor, no hint of mint. There is, in fact, nothing that even insinuates mint in the flavor of this cocoa.

Nutrition

Starbucks Peppermint premium hot cocoa mix is hot cocoa mix and therefore not the most nutritious thing in the world, though there is nothing truly awful in this beverage. The primary ingredients are sugar, cocoa and peppermint candy. There is a milk derivative in this hot cocoa powder, so it is not Vegan compliant.

What is not a mystery is how high this product is in sugars. In each cup of Peppermint, there are 120 calories, fifteen of which are from fat. There are one and a half grams of saturated fat, but no trans fats! There is no cholesterol, nor sodium in the Peppermint Cocoa, which is nice! There is a little protein, but not enough to live off this. In other words, this product is not a nutritious food product.

This product contains soy and wheat, so one must assume it is not gluten-free. There are also allergy warnings against peanuts, tree nuts, milk, and eggs for the mix. It is, however, marked as Kosher.

Storage/Cleanup

So long as one leaves the Starbucks Peppermint Premium Hot Cocoa powder in its envelope, it ought to stay usable. The box my wife gave me for Valentine’s Day expires on December 28, 2013, but I imagine it will be gone well before then (given that I have already gone through half the packets.

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 milk into hot cocoa, 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

Starbucks Peppermint hot cocoa falls into my failing grades because it does not deliver upon its promised flavor. There are a ton of peppermint cocoas on the market that actually taste like mint and chocolate . . . and are vastly less expensive than the Starbucks cocoa which does not taste at all minty.

For other hot chocolate drinks, please visit my reviews of:
Land O' Lakes Raspberry And Chocolate Cocoa
Butterfinger Hot Cocoa
Forrelli Rich Chocolate Hot Cocoa

2.5/10

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.
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BRAND SPANKIN’ NEW SERIES OF REVIEWS! I Start Reviewing Ice Cream With Starbuck’s Signature Hot Chocolate Ice Cream!

The Good: Delicious, Not entirely un-nutritious
The Bad: A little fattier and more expensive than ideal.
The Basics: I open my reviews of ice cream with the Starbucks Coffee Signature Hot Chocolate Ice Cream, which very truly creates a hot cocoa flavor in ice cream form!


Back when I used to write reviews for a website, I tended to write reviews of items no one else would. The attitude many reviewers had in discussions on the message boards on that site had was that those reviews would never make money and therefore no one should bother writing reviews of little things or obscure items. Now that I write the reviews on my own and for my own enjoyment (though I do rely upon ad revenue to actually continue writing reviews, so please do click through the ads and buy things occasionally if you actually enjoy the quality of the reviews!), I occasionally find myself wanting to review something for which there is little direct economic benefit to writing a review for.

With that, I open my reviews of ice cream. Yes, I am now going to review ice cream because I absolutely love ice cream. Do I think a lot of people buy ice cream online? No. But, do I think that readers might enjoy thoughts on ice cream and potentially enjoy getting tips on which ice creams are worth picking up vs. passing by? Absolutely. So, while there might not be a lot of money in writing reviews of ice cream, I am eager to share thoughts on ice creams I am trying this summer (and from now on). I hope you enjoy them.

Thus, I begin with Starbucks Coffee’s Signature Hot Chocolate Ice Cream!

Basics

Trading on the name of Starbucks Coffee, Starbucks now makes ice cream. Like Ben & Jerry’s and Hagen Das, Starbucks Coffee ice cream comes in smaller batches, one pint containers. The Signature Hot Chocolate Ice Cream is a smooth ice cream with chocolate and vanilla ice cream swirled together with a fudge ripple. The flavors in the ice cream blend together nicely on the tongue to perfectly embody the flavor of a proper, simple milk chocolate hot cocoa.

At (locally) $4.19 a pint, the Starbuck’s Coffee ice cream is pricier than the common ice creams, but on par with Ben & Jerry’s and still less expensive than the average Hagen Das. I was thrilled to find my pint on clearance for half price and I am baffled as to why it was there!

Ease Of Preparation

The Signature Hot Chocolate Ice Cream is a very simple ice cream. As an ice cream, preparation is ridiculously simple: one need only open the top of the container, scoop out a half cup and consume! There is no trick to preparing or eating the Signature Hot Chocolate Ice Cream.

Taste

The Signature Hot Chocolate Ice Cream smells distinctly like dark chocolate, which makes this ice cream very inviting. As expected, ice cream does not have a particularly powerful aroma to it.

Initially on the tongue, the Hot Chocolate ice cream presents a delightfully dark flavor to it. The vanilla swirls mix in the mouth to create a flavor that comes to embody the actual flavor of milk chocolate hot cocoa. The flavor of most cocoas is slightly muted and the Hot Chocolate ice cream has that muted flavor to it, but it is saved from being unremarkably by the fudge swirl that is present throughout the blend. The fudge swirl also robs the vanilla flavor from ever truly asserting itself (I picked into the vanilla and on its own, it is present as a milky and muted flavor). The Hot Chocolate ice cream is very much a chocolate ice cream and the fudge ripple in it keeps in more lively than the standard chocolate ice cream. Even with the bites that have the highest proportion of vanilla in the blend, this remains a very chocolately ice cream.

Given how strong the chocolate flavor to this ice cream is, there is a slightly dry aftertaste that lingers after the ice cream is consumed.

Nutrition

The Starbucks Signature Hot Chocolate Ice Cream is a very rich ice cream and the pint represents four half-cup servings. In the half-cup serving, there are 230 calories, 120 of which are from fat. The thirteen grams of fat represent 20% of the RDA of fat, with 40% of one’s RDA of saturated fat coming in the 8 grams of saturated fat in this ice cream. One serving has 50 mg of cholesterol (that’s 17% of the RDA!), but only 60 mg of Sodium (2% RDA). As one looking out for my heart health, I was thrilled by the fact that there was a gram of dietary fiber and three grams of protein. There is also 10% of the RDA of Calcium and Vitamin A in the Hot Chocolate Ice Cream.

Starbucks seems to justify the expense of its ice cream by having good ingredients and the fact that Cream, Skim Milk, and Water are the primary ingredients is nice. There is nothing unpronounceable in the ingredients list and while there is no coffee in the ice cream, this ice cream does have caffeine.

Storage/Clean-Up

Starbucks Coffee ice cream is both a frozen and a dairy product, so it is pretty obvious that it must be kept frozen in order to remain viable. Kept frozen it remains fresh for months (my pint had an expiration date of December 19, 2012, which made it even more baffling why it would be clearanced now).

The Hot Chocolate ice cream is appropriately dark and when it melts and gets onto fabrics, it will require one to wash it right out. On nonporous surfaces, the ice cream wipes off exceptionally easily.

Overall

The Starbucks Coffee Signature Hot Chocolate ice cream may be coffee free, but it is not flavor free. In fact, Starbucks manages to perfectly recreate the flavor of hot cocoa in ice cream form and despite the nutrition and expense detractions, this makes for a delightful treat!

For other chocolate or hot cocoa reviews, be sure to visit my reviews of:
Ghirardelli 60% Cacao Chocolate Squares
Swiss Miss No Sugar Added Hot Cocoa
Russell Stover Triple Chocolate Mousse Private Reserve Bars

7/10

For other food reviews, please visit my Food Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

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A Superior (And Expensive) Cup Of Instant Coffee: Starbucks Colombia Via.

The Good: Easy to prepare, Does not taste bad, Good, basic coffee taste
The Bad: Exceptionally expensive, Environmental impact of packaging, Nothing overly distinctive on the taste front.
The Basics: A surprisingly good, but very basic, instant coffee, Starbucks Via Ready Brew Colombia coffee is expensive, but worth it for instant coffee enthusiasts on-the-go!


I am not a huge fan of “adjectives” foods, foods where the flavor is defined by a location or some abstract term like “Summer Fun” or “Hearth’s Brew.” With coffee, having the flavor of the coffee defined by where the beans came from is not at all uncommon. So, Starbucks having an instant coffee in its Via line called “Colombia” is not exactly atypical for a coffee company. I shall admit up front that I am not a sophisticated coffee connoisseur to be able to taste the difference between Colombian, Peruvian or Mexican coffee beans. I’m not sure how a “Colombia” coffee is “supposed” to taste.

As it is, the resulting flavor from the Colombia coffee is very simply coffee-flavored. While it tastes good, these Via packets are still a bit pricy and it is very hard to justify the expense of this instant coffee when one could get quite a bit more regular-brew coffee for the same price as the 8-serving pack.

Basics

Starbucks Via Ready Brew Colombia instant coffee is part of Starbucks's new premium instant coffee line and one suspects that the company is trying to compete with the established home-brewing coffee companies, like Taster’s Choice. This mix now comes in plastic tubes in cardboard containers easily found in the grocery store. The box has eight packets and at a standard price of about $7.99 per box, they are wickedly expensive by my count.

Ease Of Preparation

Starbucks Via Ready Brew Colombia instant coffee mix is exceptionally simple to make. The single serving is the packet and six fl. oz. of water. There is no measuring of the product involved, so 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 near-boiling water over the powder and stir. Stir the powder until there are no blobs of coffee granules visible in the water. The beverage will have an exceptionally dark color to it, almost black.

Taste

The Starbucks Via Colombia smells like a dark, rich coffee. There was nothing distinctive in the aroma; this is very much a basic coffee scent.

Rather predictably, then, the Colombia is a very strong coffee taste. While this is labeled as a “Medium” coffee, it has a lot of the properties of a bolder, darker coffee. Full-flavored, with a hint of a slight nutty aftertaste, this coffee is rich without being oppressive or overly bitter. In fact, this might be the best instant coffee to hold its own with additives like sugar or creamer.

On its own, though, the coffee is more bland than incredible.

Nutrition

Starbucks Via Ready Brew Colombia instant coffee is simply instant ground coffee and therefore is entirely lacking in nutritional value. There are only five calories per packet and that’s it, as far as the nutritional value goes. There is also caffeine, but how much is a mystery. The caffeine in it is sufficient enough that I am a little jittery after drinking the full six to eight ounces!

This is made exclusively of Colombian instant coffee.

Storage/Cleanup

So long as one gets Starbucks Via Ready Brew Colombia 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 a year away, though the ones I bought on clearance expire in July of this year. 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

Starbucks Via Colombia might be expensive, but for an instant coffee, it is remarkably rich and serves as a great base for coffee drinkers who have the taste, but not the time, for great coffee.

For other Starbucks reviews, please visit my reviews of:
Starbucks Via Vanilla Coffee
Starbucks Cafe Estima Coffee
Starbucks Via Iced Coffee

6/10

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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Starbucks Instant Coffee, At Least The Via Vanilla Flavor, Leaves Me Unimpressed.

The Good: Easy to prepare, Does not taste bad.
The Bad: Exceptionally expensive, Environmental impact of packaging, Does not taste at all like Vanilla
The Basics: A good instant Vanilla coffee beverage, Starbucks Via Ready Brew Vanilla coffee is more expensive and bland than impressive.


Starbucks now has a pretty extensive line of at-home coffee products and I’m not sure what the point is yet. None of the at-home Starbucks products have truly wowed me in a way that I feel like I want to buy them or stock up on them. My wife is a fan of the Via line of Starbucks instant coffees and I figured that meant I ought to give them a fair shake to review them. Today’s flavor, Starbucks Via Vanilla, left me thoroughly underwhelmed. It is pretty average coffee, but exceptionally sweetened and that seems very expensive for what it is.

Perhaps that is the whole point of the at-home Starbucks line: provide mediocre instant coffee products so people will go out and spend more money at the Starbucks cafes. If that were true, that would be delightfully diabolical.

Basics

Starbucks Via Ready Brew Vanilla instant coffee is part of Starbucks's new premium instant coffee line and one suspects that the company is trying to compete with the established home-brewing coffee companies, like Taster’s Choice. This mix now comes in plastic tubes in cardboard containers easily found in the grocery store. The box has six packets and at a standard price of about $7.99 per box, that is wickedly expensive by my count.

Ease Of Preparation

Starbucks Via Ready Brew Vanilla instant coffee mix is exceptionally simple to make. The single serving is the packet and six fl. oz. of water. There is no measuring of the product involved, so 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 near-boiling water 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.

Taste

The Starbucks Via Vanilla smells more like coffee than vanilla. The aroma is distinctive and it instantly made me wonder how the beverage would pull off vanilla. After all, most vanilla flavored coffees that I have encountered have smelled like vanilla, but not tasted like it. Not even smelling like vanilla immediately made me wary of taking the first sip.

Oddly, the taste is a real mixed bag. The flavor of the Starbucks Via Vanilla is not at all any sort of realistic vanilla flavor. This is a fairly mild cup of coffee that comes pre-sweetened. The coffee flavor is fairly indistinct; it tastes like coffee that is not particularly dark. Instead, this brought to mind a small diner where the coffee gets changed frequently, but is not terribly good. This is a very average cup of hot coffee and the sweetener makes it palatable, but not good. This coffee has a very dry aftertaste and it leaves the mouth slightly sour.

Nutrition

Starbucks Via Ready Brew Vanilla instant coffee is a coffee mix and therefore is entirely lacking in nutritional value. There are sixty calories per packet and 15 grams of carbs. There is also caffeine, but how much is a mystery. Despite the fact that this possesses a gram of protein, 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 the full six to eight ounces!

This is made exclusively of Arabica instant coffee with natural flavors and cane sugar.

Storage/Cleanup

So long as one gets Starbucks Via Ready Brew Vanilla 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 a year away, though the ones I bought on clearance expire in June of this year. 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

Starbucks Via Vanilla is an expensive instant coffee that is good, but a disappointment for those looking for something that is truly vanilla flavored.

For other Starbucks and coffee reviews, please visit my reviews of:
Starbucks Cafe Estima Coffee
Starbucks Via Iced Coffee
Kahlua Mocha Coffee

4/10

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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Vastly Overpriced, Starbucks Via Ready Brew Iced Is Still Worth Picking Up.

The Good: Easy to prepare, Good taste when chilled.
The Bad: Exceptionally expensive, Environmental impact of packaging
The Basics: A good, but not superlative, instant iced coffee beverage, Starbucks Via Ready Brew Iced coffee is more average than exceptional.


Sometimes, my wife and I have pretty significant differences of opinions on some things. So, for example, she has been drinking Starbucks Via Ready Brew Iced like it’s water for the past few weeks and I have discovered I am not wild about it (especially the expense of it). I’ve also noticed that she uses a lot of coffee creamer in hers, whereas, for the purpose of reviews, I try to see just how a product stands on its own. Starbucks Via Ready Brew Iced is good on its own, but only when it is actually chilled.

Basics

Starbucks Via Ready Brew Iced instant coffee is part of Starbucks's new premium instant coffee line and one suspects that the company is trying to compete with the established home-brewing coffee companies, like Taster’s Choice. This mix now comes in plastic tubes in cardboard containers easily found in the grocery store. The box has six packets and at a standard price of about $7.99 per box, that is wickedly expensive by my count.

Ease Of Preparation

Starbucks Via Ready Brew Iced instant coffee mix is exceptionally simple to make. The single serving is the packet and sixteen fl. oz. of water. There is no measuring of the product involved, so 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 cold water over the powder and stir or shake. Stir the powder until there are no blobs of coffee granules visible in the water. The beverage will have a light brown color to it. After mixing it up, I highly recommend freezing the beverage in order to get it to taste as good as it can!

Taste

The Starbucks Via Iced has a surprisingly faint coffee scent to it. This led me to anticipate that the drink would be fairly mild, weak even.

Fortunately, Starbucks manages to surprise still! While not the darkest coffee flavor, the Via Iced has a strong enough flavor to clearly be coffee. This iced coffee is a little drier than some, arguably from the sugar that is in it. This does not have a very bitter flavor because it comes presweetened.

Chilled, as it is intended to be, the flavors of both the coffee and the sweetener are heightened. Iced, as it is intended to be, Via Iced is actually a fairly smoky-flavored coffee drink that is sweet enough to cut the usual bitter aftertaste that coffee has! This is actually delicious when properly cooled.

Nutrition

Starbucks Via Ready Brew Iced instant coffee is a coffee mix and therefore is entirely lacking in nutritional value. There are two hundred calories per packet and 24 grams of carbs (22 grams of sugar). There is also caffeine, but how much is a mystery. 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 the full sixteen ounces!

Storage/Cleanup

So long as one gets Starbucks Via Ready Brew Iced 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 a year away, though the ones I bought on clearance expire in May of this year. 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

Starbucks is selling its name and its very pricy coffee directly to consumers and I, for one, am not overly impressed with the Via Iced.

For other coffee reviews, please visit my reviews of:
Tim Horton’s Fine Grind Coffee
Taster’s Choice Gourmet Roast Instant Coffee
Starbucks Cafe Estima Coffee

5.5/10

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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Starbucks Café Estima Coffee Is Just Worth The Buy For Fans Of Rich, Dark Coffees!

The Good: Appropriately caffeinated, Good aroma, Tastes very good
The Bad: Expensive (paying for name)
The Basics: With a weaker recommendation than one might expect for a Starbucks coffee blend, Starbucks Cafe Estima Coffee is very good, but still very expensive.


As the holiday season passes, I am certainly reaping the benefits of after-holiday shopping, even if my new diet plan is not! My wife went out several days ago and was excited when she found one last Starbucks gift set hidden at Walmart, no doubt by a customer who loves coffee, but just cannot justify paying so much for Starbucks. Well, my wife decided to teach that hoarder a lesson and she bought the hidden gift set and now, I am enjoying a big, steaming cup of Starbucks Café Estima coffee.

Café Estima may be a seasonal coffee from Starbucks, but the expense of the bag comes mostly from the name. You’re paying for the corporate branding, though the coffee inside is very good.

Basics

Based on the success of Starbucks, a chain of coffee shops, Starbucks began selling its coffee in supermarkets and other stores. The standard size for Café Estima is a 13 oz. bag, though the bag my wife picked up was only 2.5 oz. as it was part of a gift set.

The Café Estima Blend is an aromatic blend that smells potently of coffee beans and it is a caffeinated blend. This is intended to be a bold coffee and it does come across as that, from the aroma to the first sip!

Ease Of Preparation

Cafe Estima Coffee is remarkably easy to prepare, no advanced culinary degrees necessary! First, open the bag. Starbucks Cafe Estima Coffee is vacuum sealed when first purchased, so when it is opened, the bag will likely plump up a little. Then, measure out one heaping tablespoon for every two cups of water in your coffee maker. Café Estima Coffee is intended for automatic (drip or percolating) coffee makers. This is NOT an instant coffee. As a result, it needs to be brewed and I use a Hamilton Beach machine (reviewed here!) with Melitta coffee filters (reviewed here!).

Consult your coffee maker's instructions for how to brew the coffee. However, as far as the basics go, you'll need a coffee filter, which you put the Café Estima Coffee in and then brew through your coffee maker. The directions recommend making a pot at a time and serving it within twenty minutes and brewing complete pots does seem to net a more unified taste to the coffee (nothing too weak or too strong - as if the latter is possible!).


Taste

The Café Estima blend smells exactly like what one might expect of a powerful black coffee. This is one of the few coffees I have ever tasted that has a legitimately bitter scent to it. Smelling Café Estima, the scent is not warm and inviting, it is hot, heady and bitter.

This prepares the consumer perfectly for the experience of drinking Café Estima, except that the experience is not at all unpalatable. This is a coffee that is very bitter, but dark and flavorful. This tastes richly of dark coffee beans and so in the best tradition of coffee, this tastes like water that has been burned. There are no additional flavors to this coffee.

With creamer, Café Estima gets a touch sweeter, but be it creamer or syrups, this is a coffee that never relents on its strong coffee flavor. This is a coffee drinker’s coffee!


Nutrition

This is coffee, not something that appears on the nutrition pyramid! Starbucks Cafe Estima Coffee does not contribute anything to one's daily recommended allowance of anything. In fact, the bag does not have any ingredients, so I am forced to assume all that is in this blend is coffee beans, which would fit what it tastes like.

This is a caffeinated blend and it feels like it! This has enough caffeine to pop one's eyes open between the taste, aroma and caffeine. Because it is a caffeinated coffee, it appears to not have undergone any of the chemical processes that sometimes cause complications in decaffeinated coffees.

Storage/Clean-up

Cafe Estima Coffee ought to be stored sealed in its container with the top firmly closed. Coffee is known to absorb flavors of food nearby it, so keeping the top tightly closed is highly recommended. There are different schools of thought on refrigerating open coffee and I have a very clean refrigerator with a lot of ways to segregate coffee, so I tend to come down on the side of refrigerate it. The container makes no recommendations on that count , though the bag of Cafe Estima Coffee my wife bought earlier this week had an expiration date of mid-April 2012, so this is not a great coffee for stocking up on.

After brewing, coffee grounds ought to be disposed of. These grounds may be thrown in the trash when used or put in a compost pile, if available. Coffee grounds make great compost and I swear the pine tree I've been putting these grounds around has shot up since I started caffeinating the ground around it!

Overall

Starbucks Cafe Estima Coffee is a very good dark roast coffee, but it still feels overpriced for the quality. I have had equally good, equally dark and robust coffees without having to deprive someone of their hidden Starbucks gift set!

For other coffee reviews, please visit my reviews of:
Taster’s Choice Vanilla Instant Coffee
Tim Horton’s Fine Ground Coffee
Kahlua Coffee

7/10

For other food or drink reviews, please check out my index page by clicking here!

© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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