Review of Starbuck's Via Instant Coffee

Availability: Starbuck's locations and some grocery stores.

Size: Single serving packets available in multi-packet boxes.

Website: http://www.starbucks.com/coffee/starbucks-via-instant-coffee

It came as a surprise that Starbuck's, one of the largest "gourmet" coffee shops in the world, would introduce their own line of instant coffee. Instant coffee has long been seen as the cheapest of the cheap coffee and a taste to match. Starbuck's waited a long time to enter this particular product segment and the outcome is quite surprising.

Starbuck's Via instant coffee comes in a few flavors such as Columbia, Italian Roast, and Decaf Italian Roast according to their website. The first thing one notices is that the packaging is designed so that a single serving of coffee is in each packet. This can help keep the coffee "fresher" and give a better taste.

According to Starbucks instead of just soluble coffee like the kind found in other instant coffees they actually created a blend of both soluble coffee and micro ground coffee beans. Starbuck's markets this new blend as "We Found a Way" as if to say they found a way to make instant coffee actually worth while.

The Via coffee is prepared like traditional instant coffee. You heat up some water and pour the packet into the water. Stir the solution and add cream and sugar if you want.

But all the blending technology and packaging in the world won't help if the coffee tastes bad. So how does Starbuck's Via actually taste?

The flavors are bold and this writer believes using a bolder blend helps preserve the flavor and insure a stronger flavor comes out of the brew. A lighter coffee blend might taste watery and weak especially as an instant blend.

The Via coffee actually smells like coffee. In fact I'd go as far as to say it actually smells like Starbuck's coffee. It also tastes shockingly good for being instant. You can taste the distinct Starbuck's flavor and it tastes a lot fresher than other instant coffee brands.

While it doesn't taste as fresh as a cup of coffee directly from a Starbuck's coffee shop it is amazing how well Starbuck's did in creating a decent instant coffee. Will it replace fresh made coffee? It won't but it lives up to the quality behind the Starbuck's name and is worth a try if you like Starbuck's coffee.

At about just under a dollar per serving it certainly costs more than other instant coffee brands but it makes a comparable cup of Starbuck's coffee for less than the cost of an in store cup of coffee.