Right now, coffee fans are more spoiled than they’ve ever been. Lovers of high-quality coffee are thriving as we live through the fourth wave coffee shop scene, and affordable home espresso machines, pour-over devices, and pods have made brewing a great cup at home easier than ever. If that wasn’t enough, just about every fast food with a drive-thru has serviceable-to-good coffee. If you love coffee and rely on it to kickstart your morning, get you through the afternoon, and power through your work and creative projects, you’re more than well supplied.
But for those of us who are constantly on the road and are still in need of their daily fix, but can’t lug around all the gear that makes great home coffee possible, instant coffee has your back. The bad news? It’s still instant and that limits how good it can be. The good news? Instant coffee currently tastes better than ever.
Gone are the days of sour-tasting, carelessly roasted mega-corporate coffee brands. Well, actually, we take that back. Those days aren’t gone per se, but there are so many new instant coffee brands out there that boast delicious flavors, ethical sourcing, and sustainable practices, and they are so readily available in both supermarkets and online marketplaces that there are few reasons to settle for the bad stuff.
Here are our 10 current favorites, ranked from good to great.
10. AGF — Maxim Japan Luxury Instant Coffee Special Blend
Average Price: $9.98
The Coffee:
Imported from Japan (home to one of the biggest coffee consuming populations), this instant coffee brags about being made using a proprietary roasting technique called T2ACMI, which delivers maximum aroma and flavor while suppressing bitterness and sourness.
Um… Sure. Whatever guys.
Marketing babble aside (Lucky Strike, they’re Toasted!), this coffee is not particularly aromatic, it has a sort of bland smell to it. It does however deliver on the promise of not tasting bitter or sour, so that’s something!
Tasting Notes:
Very smooth with a soft and pleasing mouthfeel. Mellow notes of tobacco and brown sugar dominate the flavor. This coffee leans on the bolder end of the spectrum, if you like light roasts, you’re not going to like this distinct blend.
The Bottom Line:
A cut above brands like Maxwell House and Folgers. Very bold without being bitter.
9. Simple Truth — Organic Instant Coffee
Average Price: $5.99
The Coffee:
Don’t let this health-food-store-looking label fool you, Simple Truth Organic isn’t hard to find, or expensive, it’s straight-up Kroger brand! Despite the big corporate overlord, Simple Truth’s coffee is organically grown, fair trade and kosher certified, and brewed from coffee that is free of preservatives and GMOs.
Tasting Notes:
Light cocoa notes on the nose with subtle hints of almond. It has a soft mouthfeel, goes down smooth, but is in desperate need of cream or sugar. Don’t pick this one up if you drink your coffee black, the flavor isn’t quite there yet.
The Bottom Line:
It’s a good way to scratch your ethical coffee itch without breaking the bank.
8. Starbucks — Via Instant Pike Place Roast
Average Price: $5.38 (8-pack)
The Coffee:
Starbucks has a reputation for not brewing very good coffee at their retail locations, and it’s well-earned, but the brand’s instant coffee line, Via Instant, is generally pretty solid and coming in at the number 10 spot is the Pike Place Roast.
The roast was named after Starbucks’ first store, which opened its doors in Seattle’s Pike Place market.
Tasting Notes:
Equal parts chocolate-y and nutty. There is a slight floral quality to it before it settles into its toasted bitterness on the aftertaste.
The Bottom Line:
Starbucks Via Instant line is great, if you’re all about medium roast style brews you won’t be disappointed with this toasty, buttery, cocoa-forward treat.
7. Mount Hagen — Organic Fair Trade Instant Coffee
Average Price: $13.09
The Coffee:
Mouth Hagen suffers from a dangerous combination — it’s expensive and popular. But it’s so damn good, and if you love coffee but can’t bring yourself to enjoy instant, definitely pick this one up at least once. It just might make you a believer.
The coffee from Mount Hagen is organic, fair trade, planted, cultivated, harvested, processed, and packed by farmers who are ethically paid. It’s guilt-free coffee, and that’s what you’re paying for.
Tasting Notes:
Toasted notes dominate over sweet vanilla. The real draw here is just how smooth the brew is, it’s soft on the palate and leaves with a gentle bitter aftertaste that tastes like proper coffee.
The Bottom Line:
You can definitely trick a few coffee snobs into thinking this is freshly brewed. An instant coffee to share with skeptics.
6. Whole Foods 365 — Instant Coffee Vienna Roast
Average Price: $6.69
The Coffee:
Whole Foods 365 brand of instant coffee is the flip side to Mount Hagen. It’s cheap, makes no claims of being organic, doesn’t even mention a single farmer, and it’s heavily slept on because it’s Whole Foods branded and if you’re shopping at Whole Foods regularly, you probably think you’re too good for instant coffee.
No one is too good for instant coffee. It’s like being too good for Dasani. You can have water preferences, but are you really going to pretend you’re too good… for water? It’s coffee, you drink it to get the job done and from a flavor perspective, Whole Foods Vienna Roast is a winner.
Tasting Notes:
A smooth roasted bitter flavor with a vanilla lift on the backend. It leans on the sweeter side, so add cream and sugar to taste — don’t just add sweetness blindly.
The Bottom Line:
Great flavor but be warned, the Whole Foods Vienna Roast lists itself as leaning toward the dark roast end of the spectrum but it doesn’t really deliver on that front. It’s sweet and mostly vanilla-dominated like a light-leaning medium roast.
5. Verve Coffee Roasters — Bronson Blend
Average Price: $16 (6-pack)
The Coffee:
All of Verve’s coffee is small-batch roasted in Santa Cruz on vintage roasters from seasonally harvested coffee. The Santa Cruz roaster is pretty successful, they have coffee shops in Santa Cruz, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Japan, all cities that have a deep love of great craft coffee.
Verve’s beans are sourced directly from farmers that are paid a premium, and the brand’s direct trade relationship actually exceeds the standards set by Fair Trade minimums.
Tasting Notes:
Allspice and brown sugar on the nose with a roasted caramel body that ends with a bitter after taste. The bitter taste isn’t off-putting or extreme, but it reflects this blend’s bold roast.
The Bottom Line:
Distinct, earthy, and naturally sweet with brown-sugar notes at the forefront.
4. Deathwish Coffee Co — Instant Coffee
Average Price: $14.99 (8-pack)
The Coffee:
Deathwish Coffee Co’s branding is so corny to me. I know we all rely on coffee to give us a jolt, but calling an instant coffee “Death Wish” and putting a skull and crossbones on the packaging like this is some sort of alpha-male energy drink… weird move.
It gets much weirder when you learn that Death Wish’s instant blend was invented to aid astronauts aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 Rocket and provides. That’s dope, but call me superstitious, you couldn’t get me on a rocket drinking something called “Death Wish.”
Tasting Notes:
Very dark and distinct with strong earthy flavors of tobacco, clove, and molasses. The aftertaste is reassuringly bitter — you can tell when you’re drinking this stuff you’re getting high levels of caffeine so go slow if this is your first time.
The Bottom Line:
If you like dark coffees that pack the caffeine, this is your blend. If you’re prone to panic attacks or anxiety, absolutely don’t drink this stuff.
3. Joe Coffee — Speciality Daily House Blend
Average Price: $18 (pack of 6)
The Coffee:
The name “Joe Coffee” is also sorta funny. The name is super basic, it sounds like it should come with the tagline “coffee for men who like their coffee to taste like coffee.” But don’t let the name and simple blue label fool you, the people at Joe Coffee are absolute nerds for coffee.
They break sourcing and production down in detail on each of their blends, their website gives you details on the origin, producer, type of coffee bean, the process by which it was prepared, and what elevation it was grown at.
The Daily House Blend is made from a blend of Brazilian and Columbian coffee that is roasted in small batches and carefully brewed to an optimal flavor concentrate before immediately being dehydrated and freeze-dried.
Tasting Notes:
The smell is wonderfully inviting. Sweet notes of milk chocolate dominate the nose with a supple roasted cocoa flavor that soaks into the tongue. The experience is greatly elevated with a touch of whole milk. It’s like chocolate milk coffee.
The Bottom Line:
If you like to get hyper-specific about how and where your coffee is grown, while still experiencing a flavor that justifies your need to know all that information, Joe Coffee will scratch all of your itches.
This is coffee that cares deeply about sourcing and makes it taste like you’re the crazy one for not caring as much as they do.
2. Intelligentsia — Instant Coffee House Blend
Average Price: $14 (5-pack)
The Coffee:
Intelligentsia took the number one spot in our instant coffee blind taste test so we had to show it some love on this list as well. This is easily one of the best instant coffee brands you can buy right now, but it’s frustratingly expensive. The pricier brands tend to stick to limited runs of six or eight servings of instant coffee per box, but Intelligentsia gives you five. At this price, you’re pretty much paying more than a cup of black coffee from McDonald’s, 7-Eleven, or the corner donut shop will cost you.
That said, it’s worth every penny.
Tasting Notes:
The flavors of nutmeg, hazelnut, and caramelized brown sugar over a toasted body tumble into one another across your palate. Sweet and earthy notes of dark chocolate dominate the back-end flavor with a pleasing sweet aftertaste.
The Bottom Line:
Only elevated by sugar and cream, but not at all necessary. This isn’t just great instant coffee, it’s great coffee, period.
1. Canyon Coffee — Granjeras Colombia
Average Price: $15
The Coffee:
Canyon Coffee is an LA brand founded by a couple who fell in love over their shared love of coffee and turned their passion into a career. It’s a great story, and that deep love of coffee really comes through with the attention to bean sourcing.
Canyon keeps the farmers at the forefront, the packaging includes the name of the farmer who grew it, and in the Grangers Colombia’s case, that’s Virgelina Perdomo, who with the help of her daughters, grew this bean on a micro lot on her farm, ensuring high-quality control.
A Grangjera is a woman farmer, and this blend was named such to celebrate its 100% women-grown roots.
Tasting Notes:
Instant coffee, unlike brewed coffee, is two-note at best. The flavors are generally pretty simple and people-pleasing, you can expect vanilla, chocolate, and toasted notes, but you hardly get the floral, citrus, supple and sour, or fruity notes that can be present in a bean. Granjeras is different.
Jasmine and honey notes at the nose shift into a butty and bright flavor that is noticeably fruity. You heard that right, fruity. And we’re not just talking orange peel and cherry, I’m getting a bright splash of apricot with a pear finish.
The Bottom Line:
Truly a fantastic journey of flavors that can be enjoyed completely black, whether you take your coffee that way or not. Fruity, and full of character, unlike anything else you’ll find in the instant coffee space.
