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- Instant coffee is made in two different ways: by drying a concentrated spray of coffee with super heated air or by freeze-drying the liquid into crystals.
- Most instant coffee is shelf stable for years, making it great to have on hand for whenever you want a quick cup as well as for use in cooking, brewing, and for making sweet treats.
- Waka Coffee's instant coffee is our top pick because it dissolves rapidly with just a few stirs and genuinely tastes like a freshly brewed cup.
Based on a quick glance, I'd estimate that I have about 35 servings of instant coffee in my pantry right now. While my wife and I split a pot of coffee every morning, those packets aren't just reserves or kept on hand for when I go camping. I drink a cup of instant coffee at least three times a week. It helps out on those days when the baby kept us up late, an article is taking longer than I expected, or when sometimes I just want more than my usual two cups. I'll also have a cup of instant decaf many evenings when coffee sounds great palate-wise, but like a not entirely great idea sleep-wise.
Beyond the mere convenience factor, instant coffee creates more variety for your sipping pleasure. When making single serving coffees, you can enjoy a light breakfast blend with your eggs and toast then a robust roast as you get down to work. You can whip up a blended coffee beverage, no barista required, and you can also enjoy precise control over the potency of your joe.
I've sourced a number of instant coffees for which I can personally vouch. In fact, most of these brands are currently in the aforementioned pantry, and one of them in the burgundy colored mug sitting beside my computer. I chose the best instant coffee I could find in a number of classic coffee categories, from iced to decaf to blended.
While all of these instant coffees share certain qualities, they are markedly distinct in terms of flavor profile and will be suited to different coffee drinkers or at least to different coffee drinking occasions.
Here are the best instant coffees you can buy:
- Best instant coffee overall: Waka Coffee
- Best instant iced coffee: Starbucks VIA Instant Sweetened Iced Coffee
- Best organic instant coffee: Mount Hagen Organic Fairtrade Coffee
- Best decaf instant coffee: Nescafe Taster's Choice Decaf
- Best low-cost instant coffee: Folgers Classic Roast
- Best instant latte: Alpine Start Coconut Creamer Latte
Read on in the slides below to check out our top picks.
The best instant coffee overall
Why you'll love it: Waka Coffee Quality Instant Coffee will fool even discerning coffee drinkers into thinking it is fresh brewed.
My wife loves coffee, and she's a harsh critic of a bad cup. The first time she took a sip of Waka Coffee's Quality Instant Coffee, she did that thing where you look at the object you're holding as if just seeing it for the first time, pleasantly surprised to find it actually, well, pleasant.
I'm paraphrasing, but she said something like: "Whoa, this is actually really good." I made myself a cup and confirmed the "whoa." This instant coffee is actually really good.
Waka Coffee's medium roast instant has a smooth, low-acidity taste that's got a slight citrus hint and a genuine roasted flavor without any hint of burning. Its rich, fresh taste comes from the large freeze dried crystals contained in each of the eight 0.1-ounce packets in a box of Waka. Freeze drying preserves the flavor of coffee better than air drying, which can produce those burnt off notes.
Furthermore, Waka Coffee crystals dissolve remarkably quickly and completely, leaving no sludgy residue at the bottom of the cup and delivering full flavor. Long story short, if you want the taste of a fresh brewed cup of quality Arabica coffee, a packet of Waka and eight ounces of hot water is all you need. Oh, and a some sort of cup.
One Amazon customer describes this coffee as "bursting with flavor," while another said it "tastes just like slow drip coffee" and also appreciated the company's "very eco friendly" packaging. The experts from CoffeeReview called Waka's instant "crisply sweet ... with lingering notes of caramel and apricot" and an overall "appealing 100% Colombian coffee in [an] instant format."
Pros: Fresh brewed taste, crystals dissolve quickly and completely, eco friendly packaging
Cons: Pricier than other options
Buy a box of Waka Coffee Quality Instant Coffee on Amazon for $9.99
The best instant iced coffee
Why you'll love it: Starbucks VIA Instant Sweetened Iced Coffee tastes great even when stirred into cold water, so you really can enjoy coffee anywhere within a matter of seconds.
Even the best instant coffee isn't exactly delicious when stirred into a cup of cold water, except when it is. Starbucks VIA Sweetened Iced Coffee is great when prepared using cold water because that's precisely how it was intended to be prepared. It's lightly sweetened with natural sugar cane and enjoys a mild, refreshing flavor thanks to medium roast Arabica beans sourced from South and Central America.
I will say that this coffee has a bit of that bitter, burnt taste you know from many instant coffees and with which you may well already associate Starbucks in general. The instant coffees are made using both sprayed and air-dried particles as well as blended in super finely ground coffee beans. This arrangement delivers plenty of flavor, but some drinkers will find off notes.
That said, when served with plenty of ice, this stuff is so refreshing you'll probably slurp down a big glass so fast you'll hardly notice. And I do mean big: Each packet contains enough instant coffee for two technical servings, or 16 ounces of coffee in total.
A shopper named Roy called Starbucks VIA Instant Sweetened Iced Coffee"easy to make" and "the best [choice] for those of us who like instant iced coffee," while a coffee drinker named Marianne agreed that it was "so easy" and "tastes great!"
Another called it "convenient for on the go coffee drinkers" but just found it "too bitter" for her palate.
Pros: No hot water required, large 16-ounce serving per packet, natural sweetening
Cons: Slight bitter/burnt notes
Buy a box of Starbucks VIA Instant Sweetened Iced Coffee on Amazon for $5.62
The best organic instant coffee
Why you'll love it: Mount Hagen Organic Fairtrade Coffee tastes good, plus, it's certified Fairtrade and organic.
Before we talk about the flavor of Mount Hagen Organic Fairtrade Coffee's instant coffee, let's talk about its background. First of all, it's organic, so you know there are no pesticides, additives, or genetically modified ingredients in there.
Second, it's Fair trade certified, meaning that while the people producing the coffee are from developing nations, they are guaranteed to receive payment and to work in conditions comparable to those found in the developed countries.
And third, the stuff is pretty affordable even given those stipulations: A 3.53-ounce glass jar of Mount Hagen Organic Fairtrade Coffee will produce about 30 proper cups, meaning each serving costs only 42 cents (at current pricing).
Now, how does that affordable cup of organic, fair trade coffee tastes? While I've been a Mount Hagen fan for years, when someone says it better than you, you should let them say it.
A Mount Hagen fan named Michael left an Amazon review that says it perfectly. He writes: "I couldn’t care less if this coffee is organic, fair trade or created in a lab from old tires, road kill and toxic waste. All I want is a decent cup of coffee [and this is] really excellent coffee."
The flavor profile is rather mild and might even be too light for some coffee drinkers who want a robust cup, but the organic and fair trade certifications should help sway those on the fence here. The writers from DrippedCoffee agree, calling Mount Hagen Organic Fairtrade Coffee"a milder and smoother instant cup of joe" that's a "reasonably close alternative" to fresh brew.
Pros: Organic and fair trade, good price point, good hot or over ice
Cons: Too mild for some coffee drinkers
Buy a jar of Mount Hagen Organic Fairtrade Coffee on Amazon for $11.44
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