Coffee Beans

by Nigel Ong

Not all of us want the fanciest coffee out there. Many just want something fast and cheap to sip on. Instant coffee is created for people like these. 

However, within the world of instant coffee, you have the premium and also the bottom-of-the-barrel type. Amazon’s Happy Belly Instant Coffee is usually seen as the latter, cheap and fast, but it does not taste good. How true is this? I want to discover this myself. 

In this post, I picked up a jar of Amazon’s Happy Belly Instant Coffee and tried it. I made the coffee many ways and also compared its taste against other regular instant and brewed coffee.

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by Nigel Ong

Lavazza is a popular coffee product maker and one of the most recognizable Euro-style coffee brands, together with Illy and Nescafe. Aside from roasts, Lavazza also offers instant coffee. 

However, some instant coffee can, unfortunately, taste like dirt. Will premium instant coffees from Lavazza buck the trend? Let’s find out.

In this post, I will try Lavazza’s premium instant coffee, the Prontissimo Classico. I also try to add many popular flavorings into the coffee to see how it tastes.

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by Nigel Ong

You may think of IKEA as a furniture store, but it offers much more than affordable furniture. IKEA also offers a wide range of food and beverage products, including coffee gear and roasts. 

Many coffee drinkers usually shun roasts from large brands and may not even want to touch IKEA’s roasts with a stick. But are IKEA Patar’s roasts that bad? Or do they deserve much better?

I picked up a bag of IKEA Patar Espresso roast in this post and reviewed it. I will brew the roast several ways and see how it tastes. I’ll also compare it against popular espresso roasts like Starbucks Espresso Roast.

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by Nigel Ong

Indonesia is known to be producing some of the world’s best coffee. Sumatran coffee is known for its herbal flavor, while coffee from Java and Sulawesi (Celebes) is well sought after. 

There is, of course, the famous, but rather questionable Kopi Luwak (Civet Coffee), but let’s not go there.

However, despite having so much beautiful coffee, Indonesians still love instant coffee. Their choice? Indocafe. This has been the Indonesian staple for years and is probably the best selling instant coffee in the country.

In this post, I’ll pick up a pack of Indocafe instant coffee and review its taste. Aside from trying it with several flavorings, I will also compare it with other instant coffee in my stash.  

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by Nigel Ong

For most of us, getting a Starbucks coffee means going to the coffee shop or having one delivered. However, you can actually make your own cup of Starbucks coffee at home. 

One way is to use the Starbucks Premium instant coffee. The idea is to only mix the instant coffee with hot water, and you will get the same great taste from your local Starbucks. However, how good does it taste? Let’s find out in this review. 

I’ll taste the drink for you in this post, including a wide range of flavorings. I will then conclude with how you can best enjoy the drink and who is this instant coffee for.

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by Nigel Ong

I was recently in South Korea and thought I’d check out the local coffees. As I searched, I noticed that some Korean coffees are so popular people are buying them on Amazon. These coffees are also searched online by many coffeeheads in the US.

One of them is the Maxim Original Instant Coffee. Curious to see how good they are, I picked up a Maxim Original Instant Coffee bottle and decided to experiment with it myself. 

I will make coffee using Maxim Original Instant Coffee and then taste it. I then added flavorings, too. Finally, I compare the coffee with regular and premium instant coffee and see which group it belongs to.

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by Nigel Ong

In the US, we have Folgers. For many other parts of the world, the default instant coffee is Nescafe Classic. Affordable and has good taste, Nescafe has been the instant coffee sipped by billions worldwide. 

But how good is it? Was it well received worldwide because of the price, or was it a genuinely excellent instant coffee? How does it compare against other popular instant coffee?

In this post, I picked up a bottle of Nescafe Classic and tested it. I also tried it with many common coffee flavorings to see how it tasted. Finally, I compared it against other popular instant coffee.

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by Nigel Ong

Since 2008, Starbucks Pike Place Roast has been a staple coffee for many people. However, brewing coffee takes at least several minutes, and not all have the luxury. 

As a result, Starbucks introduced the Pike Place Roast as an instant coffee through its Starbucks Via range. However, is the instant coffee version of the Starbucks Pike Place Roast good enough to replace the original whole-bean version?

In this post, I set about to test this question. I brew a regular cup of Pike Place Roast from the whole bean bag and also a cup from a Starbucks Via instant coffee stick. I taste them side by side and see if they are different. 

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