by Nigel Ong
I have recently reviewed two of Davidoff’s most popular premium instant coffee blends – the Fine Aroma Blend and the Rich Aroma Blend. Since I have reviewed two, I thought I would try the other instant coffee within the lineup and everything else.
Enter the Davidoff Espresso 57 Instant Coffee.
In this post, I will review the Davidoff Espresso 57 Instant Coffee and discover if the rave reviews given by its customers are justified. I will try the black coffee with other flavorings before comparing it with other relevant instant coffees.
About Davidoff Espresso 57 Instant Coffee
Davidoff makes luxury lifestyle products. You may know its shoes, belts, tobacco products, and fragrances. It also makes coffee, from coffee roasts and instant coffee.
Its range of instant coffee reflects its range of coffee roasts. For example, where there is an Espresso 57 coffee roast, there is also the Espresso 57 instant coffee. This means similar to its roasts, there are four Davidoff instant coffee blends:
- Davidoff Fine Aroma
- Davidoff Rich Aroma
- Davidoff Espresso 57
- Davidoff Crema Intense
These varieties may feature different intensity levels, roasting profiles, and flavor notes, ranging from mild and balanced to robust.
These blends are made from 100% Arabica beans, which helps to give this instant coffee a smooth taste. It is also less earthy and acidic than common instant coffee, which usually uses Robusta beans.
Davidoff instant coffees are quite popular, with thousands of raving reviews on online marketplaces such as Amazon. It will be interesting to see how it tastes to my palate – I hope I will enjoy the coffee just like these drinkers.
First Impressions
You can immediately tell apart the Davidoff Espresso 57 Instant Coffee from other Davidoff instant coffee by its label color. While the Fine Aroma has a gold label and the Rich Aroma has a red one, the Espresso 57 has a brown one.
The coffee is kept inside an air-tight glass bottle. The glass looks thick, durable, and shaped uniquely to make it easy to hold in your hands.
The jar is designed to feel luxurious and premium, with a dark blue plastic cap. Each jar holds around 3.52 ounces of coffee, about 100mg if you do metric measurements.
Davidoff grades the intensity of their coffee from 1-12, with 1 being the lightest and 12 being the most intense. The Davidoff Espresso 57 instant coffee tops the range with a sky-high 11. This will be some dark, bold, and strong instant coffee.
I am, however, looking forward to trying this coffee, as the description says, ‘Dark and Chocolatey.’ I like chocolate tastes with my coffee; the sweet chocolate notes usually go well with bold, dark coffee.
Once I removed the plastic cap, there was an aluminum seal inside. The seals remind me of Nescafe’s – they do not come off in a single piece. This may make removals a slight hassle.
My advice is to be gentle and remove the foil slowly. This prevents the foil bits from falling into the instant coffee granules.
The coffee granules are large and flat, similar to other premium instant coffees such as Nescafe Gold, Lavazza Prontissimo Intenso, or Maxim. The color is quite dark, indicating its dark roast origin.
How Does Davidoff Espresso 57 Instant Coffee Taste?
It is easy to make this instant coffee. Simply add 180ml of hot water to two teaspoons of the instant coffee. Davidoff recommends a water temperature of around 90°C (or around 194°F.) Stir, and you are done. Feel free to add flavorings such as milk, creamer, or sugar.
As I make the coffee, the aroma is intense. I can smell the deep, dark aroma of the coffee, with hints of chocolate. This may be a nice cup of coffee, but let’s see.
Black
I have to admit, as I started sipping the coffee, I was preparing to be hit hard on the palate, like a regular espresso. However, the Davidoff Espresso 57 Instant Coffee surprised me here.
There’s no doubt about it. This is a bold, intense cup of coffee. However, it delivers it smoothly without being rough on the edges. It does not taste like cheap instant coffee, with its rough, overly earthy taste that may remind you of dirt.
Instead, the intense dark coffee has hints of chocolate sweetness. It is smooth enough to be sipped instead of you needing to gulp or chug it down.
This could be because the Davidoff Espresso 57 is a blend of 100% Arabica coffee. This means it is spared from the rough tastes of Robusta beans, common in regular instant coffee.
As much as the coffee tastes great black, I wonder how it tastes black. The milk and chocolate notes will make this a beautiful cup of coffee. Let’s see.
With Sugar
I then brewed another fresh cup of Davidoff Espresso 57 Instant Coffee. I slapped in a single stick of brown granulated sugar.
The sweetness helps to reduce the bitterness of the coffee further. The coffee also looks silkier and shinier, perhaps from the sugar.
Taste-wise, the sugar helps to elevate the chocolatey notes in the coffee. However, I find the intense, bold taste of the coffee does not work too well with sugar. I honestly do not recommend this coffee with sugar.
With Sweetener
I made another cup of hot Davidoff Espresso 57 Instant Coffee. I dropped two drops of Equal artificial sweetener (Aspartame) this time and started sipping.
Here, the same issue is plaguing the coffee. The sweetener may not elevate the chocolate by a bit; however, the coffee’s deep, bold, earthy flavors do not seem to jive well with the sweetener.
Plus, the sweetener seems to stay a little too long in the mouth, leaving me feeling unnatural.
With Milk
Before I continue, here’s another confession – I like my coffee with milk, especially those dark, smoky ones. I somehow enjoy how the fat and cream in milk mellows down coffee, making it nice to sip.
Here, I added a shot of warm, whole, UHT cow’s milk into my cup of coffee. A shot is about 30ml, or an ounce to those on imperial.
The coffee instantly turns a cloudy, brownish color, looking very inviting to me simultaneously.
The milk actually made the coffee taste creamier and mellower. It turns down the smoke and softens the chocolate note in the coffee. It made the coffee much smoother to sip and glide easier in my mouth.
On top of that, the milk’s lactose also helps sweeten the coffee slightly. This is an indulgent, almost decadent cup of instant coffee.
The Davidoff Espresso 57 Instant Coffee tastes excellent with milk, and I thoroughly enjoyed my cup here.
With Creamer
Not all are happy with having milk in their drink and actually prefer non-dairy creamer. As a result, I thought I’d experiment with this too.
I added a stick of Coffee Mate creamer to my cup of Davidoff Espresso 57. I stirred them up before sipping.
I usually prefer the taste of milk over creamer, and I would say I have the same preference here.
Creamers generally can replace milk in many ways, but to me, not totally. Something is missing with creamer; to me, it’s the depth in the creaminess. The sweetness creamers bring is also not as satisfying as milk.
I do not mean the Davidoff Espresso 57 Instant Coffee tastes bad with creamer. It tastes just right and is a great replacement for milk. However, for my palate, I will enjoy it with milk every time.
Iced
Finally, I decided to try the iced coffee. I added the instant coffee into a shaker with some water. After shaking to ensure everything was dissolved, I added ice and continued shaking.
I poured out the drink into a glass and went for it. Instant regret.
The coffee is too bitter and strong. In my experience, ice usually elevates the bitterness of coffee. Since the Davidoff Espresso 57 Instant Coffee is already bold and bitter, ice simply pushed it over the limit.
For fun, I put the coffee back into the shaker, and this time, I added a milk shot. After shaking, I tried the coffee again.
Much better. The iced milk coffee version of the Davidoff Espresso 57 is much more enjoyable than the black one.
Davidoff Espresso 57 Instant Coffee vs Other Davidoff Coffee
It is only natural that I compare the Davidoff Espresso 57 Instant Coffee with my other Davidoff instant coffees. These are:
- Davidoff Rich Aroma
- Davidoff Fine Aroma
If I drink this coffee black, I would choose the Fine Aroma anytime. The reason? It is a balance of flavor, boldness, and punch. It is mild and has this unique mushroom-like flavor that I thoroughly enjoy.
However, if I add milk into these coffees, the equation changes. In this case, the Espresso 57 wins here. The bold, chocolatey taste of the coffee just blends nicely with milk, while the Fine Aroma loses some of its soft notes when blended with milk.
The Rich Aroma does well with milk, although its spice-like note does not give me as much satisfaction as the Espresso 57.
Davidoff Espresso 57 Instant Coffee vs Premium Instant Coffee
I looked at some of the premium instant coffee I have in my collection. I then picked a few and compared them with the Davidoff Espresso 57 Instant Coffee:
As usual, I made black coffee out of each and then drank them individually.
Here, I have to say the Espresso 57 sits last. Its bold and strong flavor may appeal to those who enjoy dark roasts, but not me. I usually enjoy light and medium roasts and prefer medium or lighter-flavored instant coffee.
The Illy Classico wins it for me, followed by the Cap Colombia and Maxim.
Davidoff Espresso 57 Instant Coffee vs Regular Coffee
Davidoff Espresso 57 Instant Coffee may be a premium instant coffee. However, will it beat out your regular $1 brewed coffee from gas stations or convenience stores?
I picked up a regular Americano from 7-Eleven just for this.
As much as the Davidoff Espresso 57 is great, it is still instant coffee to me. It comes close but fails to edge out a freshly brewed cup of coffee.
Is Davidoff Espresso 57 Instant Coffee For You?
After trying the Davidoff Espresso 57 Instant Coffee, I would say it is an excellent instant coffee. I do not regret spending money to pick up a jar of it to try out.
Despite its dark roast, It is smooth, intense, and has a great chocolatey earthiness. I particularly enjoy the coffee with milk. The iced milk coffee version is also nice to sip on.
I can see this as a great instant coffee to begin a busy day, especially if you are the type that drinks dark roasts. If you have found yourself gravitating towards darker and darker roasts, this may be a great instant coffee to try, too.
However, if you are like me, enjoying lighter or medium-dark coffee, this instant coffee may be too intense. Some milk may help to mellow the coffee down, especially if you want the boldness of coffee and the creaminess of milk simultaneously. Now that you have read a detailed review from my side, it’s time for some homework. Go to Amazon, check out the reviews, and see if you want to try this coffee. Have fun!