I grew up drinking instant coffee every day. From around the age of 8 and following the example of my parents, I would sink at least one cup full of coffee per day brewed from soluble coffee powder.
I developed a mental league table of the instant coffees available at the local shops. At the top of the table sat Nescafe Gold Blend, which hit the sweet spot of affordability and taste and was generally plumped for provided the many reasons to not buy Nestle products could be put aside. Gold Blend was followed by the various supermarket own-brands versions of Gold Blend and then at the lower end of the table were instant coffee no-gos for us: the expensive offerings from brands like Douwe Egberts and Carte Noire, plus ropey dark roast options from Kenco.
But my tastes and the tastes of many others in the U.K. have changed. Speciality coffee has boomed in the past decade which seems to have had a knock-on effect on instant coffee. While most instant coffee drinkers prefer convenience over taste, a middle-ground between them has emerged. Premium instant coffee.
Coffee's middle-ground
The emerging middle ground in coffee sits between everyday instant coffees drunk by the vast majority of coffee drinkers in the U.K. and the speciality coffees brewed in cafetieres, Aeropresses (Aeroprai?) and V60s, plus the ever-growing number of speciality coffee shops up and down the land.
Little's are one brand specifically marketing their instant coffees as premium. But what makes their coffee premium, and how does it compare to other 'premium' brands? I bought a couple of jars of Little's from Waitrose this week and gave them a test run.
I want to start with cost. While premium may refer to the quality of the product, it certainly applies to the price too. For a 100g jar of Little's Ethiopian instant coffee, I was set back £5 ($6.93). By comparison, Carte Noire's Classique instant costs £4($5.54) for a 100g jar pretty much everywhere I looked. Handily, Douwe Egberts don't sell 100g jars of their coffee, but their 190g 'Pure Gold' jar worked out at £3.74 ($5.18) per 100g. All three strike me as expensive, especially for such a small amount of coffee. Nescafe Gold Blend was available for £2.25 ($3.11). But while Little's relies on its striking branding to stand out on shelves, Douwe Egberts and Carte Noire benefit from their economies of scale, owned by multinational giants JAB and Lavazza respectively. So I'll let Little's off on the price front.
I got in touch with Little's to learn more about them. They responded by sending over a press release, which came loaded with facts that may just show why their instant coffee is 'premium'.
Here's a rundown:
The OG James Hoffmann likes it.
Proper coffee beans go into it: the Ethiopian instant that I tried is made from Arabica beans.
100% recyclable packaging: this goes for all of their packaging, including machine capsules.
While Little's aren't Fairtrade certified, they are governed by an ethical trading policy which you can view on their website.
Actual origins: Little's are clear about where their coffee comes from. The beans for their Ethiopian instant are sourced from Jimma in western Ethiopia, one of coffee's homelands. Jimma is also home to this delightful coffee pot monument below:
Without wanting this all to seem too much like an ad for Little's (they're not paying me for this article or anything), this whole episode has led me to conclude that instant coffee can be genuinely premium. Little's are up against some big players in the instant coffee market, but when I tried to find similar resources about Douwe Egberts and Carte Noire, I could only find vague references and phrases like "beans of the highest quality" with no further information. Shady.
While I found £5 per 100g of Little's Ethiopian instant to be quite expensive at purchase, I'm quite happy to pay it knowing much more about its origin and also, something I haven't mentioned: taste. I quite liked it. The fruitiness you would expect from an Ethiopian coffee came through and it tasted fresh with and without milk. I can't say as much for Little's vanilla instant which I found genuinely quite gross, but I'm sure suits some palettes.
Ultimately, Little's promise "convenience without compromise" and they largely live up to that. You can have a good cup of coffee in your hand as soon as the kettle has boiled. While I won't be ditching my Aeropress any time soon, I would recommend Little's, who have set the benchmark for premium instant coffee and do so at a similar price to much larger and shadier coffee corporates.
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