New Instant Coffee Product

I found this today on a tech news sharing site called "Hacker News". That site is published by a start-up funding outfit and this is one of those they funded in their latest round:

"Sudden Coffee": they say it's "Better than Starbucks".

I'd like to taste it, though I'm not really a fan of Starbucks anymore. I like McD's expresso better and still use Nestle singles instant for trips.

I don't drink coffee, but my wife has settled on Starbuck's Via for our backpacking trips...

Wow, that stuff is really expensive for freeze dried coffee. I thought the Mount Hagen packets were expensive, but they're half of what this costs.

I'm sure it's good, but, for me (not a coffee snob/connoisseur at all), not worth their price.

I guess I am cheap. Starbuck's Via is not even worth it to me. I am a coffee drinker and do drink Starbucks at home, but when I backpack, cheap instant stuff works just fine. Coffee I would not touch at home seems to be OK out there. Not sure why.

My favorite (what I drink at home) is Medaglia d'Oro Espresso Instant Coffee. If I were going to take coffee, that's what I'd bring. Actually, when backpacking, I either drink tea or go without. Your Mileage, of course, May Vary. But I prefer the above brand to Starbucks or any other.

I drink that Medaglia d'Oro Espresso Instant Coffee at home as well, but only as a latte. It just seems to need the milk for some reason. For black coffee, I'm okay with Nescafe Taster's Choice, but on my next trip, I'll be trying Café Bustelo instant espresso. Probably not black though.

I won't be spending the money for Sudden Coffee, but I wonder if those little containers it comes in would be good for repackaging stuff.

I've got Medaglia D'Oro (Gold Medal) instant espresso, but I would be more likely to take the Taster's Choice (Nestle) Packets. They are relatively inexpensive and hold more coffee than most packets. When I drink instant coffee, I usually add hot chocolate mix to bulk it up and soften the taste of the instant. I can tolerate the instant coffee, but don't enjoy it like I do fresh brewed. I have some washable coffee filters that I made from muslin and I might just take some fresh coffee for a little enjoyment. Another possibility is Coffee Nut M&Ms. When I take them,I bag them up in small servings so I don't eat the whole bag at once.

I looked at the site but not the price before I posted it, but $2.75 a cup is more than I'll pay for good fresh coffee.

And it looks to me like they try to hook you into a "subscription" when you do buy it and there's no way I'm doing that without tasting it first and wouldn't be likely to do that even if I really liked it a lot.

The comparison to "Starbucks" isn't really something that impresses me. It's been at least 10 years since I bought a Starbucks coffee because it was a bit before that they changed it and it just wasn't anywhere near as good as it had been. I never bought it much before that but I did like it back then.

I only tried the Starbuck's instant a couple times and didn't like it at all. I bring the Taster's Choice "Columbian" instant singles when backpacking and have used those a few times when we've run out at home. That's better than any other instant coffee I've had and way better than Starbucks in my opinion.

Hi, Bill. I brought a Starbucks line to a complete halt the last time I went there (many years ago.) When they asked what I wanted, I said, “medium black coffee, please.” No one knew what that was.

Dont’ have that problem at the local donut shop.

Ha... that is hilarious!

I really never could decipher what people were ordering when I've been in a Starbucks but I used to get a kick out of listening to them. I'm still not sure I even know the difference between a latte and a cappuccino but I know what I want coffee to taste like and burnt ain't it, and that's what Starbucks taste like to me now, and so does their instant coffee.

I like McDonald's lattes better than most any of them. That taste like the old Eight `O Clock French Roast I used to buy. I'm almost positive McD's cut a deal with them to buy it all because Eight `O Clock stopped selling in stores about the same time McD's started selling theirs.

I'm still peeved about that.

I learned to drink coffee in the Air Force. “Duty coffee”: Folger’s or Maxwell House, brewed in 50-cup percolators by senior sergeants; they’d start on Monday, add water and fresh grounds each day, dump it and rinse out the percolator on Friday. Maybe I remember it so fondly because those sergeants taught a brand new second lieutenant how to be an officer - and a man.

Colombian?

I've never been a huge coffee drinker. About a cup and a half in the morning is all I drink, and I really do want and like that, but after that I'm done for the day.

I've never been a "Pop" drinker either. We didn't have it in the house when I was growing up and when I got older I just didn't like it.

Even now I drink more water than anything. After getting a water bottle with a charcoal filter for backpacking here I started using it at home and now I bring it with me anytime I'll be gone for even a few hours.

But I am a fan now of those single serving instant coffee packs for backpacking. My tiny expresso maker has been sitting on the shelf for a long time since I switched to those.

My method is cheap, easy, and tastes just like home. I heat water, turn off heat, dump a normal amount of grounds in the pot, wait a few minutes, and strain it through a 2-inch diameter half tea ball that I found broken in a drawer a long time ago. There are a few grounds left in the bottom of the cup but not much and using the coarse screen is much faster and easier than messing with a paper filter. I do the same thing with loose tea sometimes.

I recently found some Nido dried milk at Walmart and it's much better than Carnation or the no-dairy stuff in coffee. Cocoa powder, Nido. and sugar is also much better than hot chocolate packets and hits the spot after dinner when it's cold out.

That Nido is in the hispanic/international foods aisle at my local WM. I haven't tried it yet, though others have said it's good. It's just that I'm the only one in my household that would use it, very rarely at that, so it's not worth buying an entire container.

You can get 1-quart packets of Milkman (which I think is better than Nido) on Amazon.

All I could find was low fat. Is that all they offer?

I believe so.

Nido tastes fine but it absorbs moisture once the can is open and it clumps up. I have used it for freezer bag cooking items but it has to be well mixed or you have clumps.

Nido does make little lipoma dumplings in coffee, sort of like the globules in bubble tea but creamy. Maybe it's acquired taste.

My parents used "Klim," the 1940s-1950s equivalent of Nido, and I hated it! It was impossible to get the lumps out. They insisted I drink several cups per day. Much of it got surreptitiously dumped behind bushes at the periphery of camp! I finally put my foot down (at age 13) and insisted on no more Klim, even in cocoa. Gross stuff!

To this day, I use dried nonfat milk. For that matter, I use nonfat fresh milk, too. I loathe the taste of milk fat!

Even with dried nonfat milk, it will curdle/lump if mixed in too-hot water.

Have you tried mixing it with instant coffee before adding water? I'm just brainstorming what might get rid of the lumps.

I've found that the trick is mixing it well with a bit of cool water to make a paste, then add the hot water.

I use it mostly in oatmeal and instant pudding. I just make sure that it is mixed in really good in the freezer bag. No lumps. I have only used it when I could not find the non fat powdered milk. For some reason the grocery stores do not carry the non fat but do carry the Nido.

Klim is still available. I find it in Asian groceries.

Our supermarkets in the PNW (Safeway, Albertsons, Fred Meyer [Kroger])carry the non-fat dry milk with baking supplies--same aisle as flour, baking powder, chocolate chips, etc), Nido is usually with the Spanish/Asian foods.

For years Carnation was readily available but suddenly it was hard to find. Now I can find it occasionally but not consistently.

I haven't seen Carnation in years--it's all the supermarket brands! As far as I can tell, no difference.

They are also, in the past couple of years, selling the stuff in resealable plastic bags instead of boxes. So if you're looking for the familiar boxes, they seem to be extinct.

I like Nido better than Carnation too. I don't mind a few clumps. I use it in my morning coffee and oatmeal and in hot chocolate in the evenings.

A few days ago I saw some packets of a liquid "concentrated coffee" at a "Dollar General" store. They have those all over here now. I didn't read the instructions and wasn't quite clear if it was something you diluted but I think that's what it was for. The packets were pretty small and looked like they'd pack ok. It wasn't very expensive. I might get some and taste test and get back here on it.

Seems a bit expensive and I've yet to find something that beats starbucks via in taste. I'll probably try buying them though. Thanks

Little late to this, but in researching decent coffee for our trips this year, Viola rose to the surface. We're big coffee drinkers, but all of starbucks (including freeze dried) taste burned and bitter. Voila is expensive but coffee is a luxury we have to take with us and it's fantastic.

starbucks is not worth.