Tasting L’Or Essenso Microground Instant Coffee: My Review, Photos

by Nigel Ong

With people wanting to make their coffee faster, coffee companies now offer pre-mixed instant coffees. These are often a mixture of coffee, creamer, or sweeteners. 

L’Or Essenso is one of the popular options for these pre-mixed coffees, selling well online and on grocery shelves. Curious, I picked up a bag to give it a try.

I will sample and review the L’Or Essenso Microground Coffee in this post. I’ll sample coffee and compare it with other microground instant coffee in my collection. 

PreparationTaste and Flavor
Hot Coffee– Rich and creamy appearance- Dominant creaminess with a hint of earthy bitterness- No inherent sweetness; bitter taste- Sediments towards the bottom from microground coffee
With Sugar– Light and creamy, enhanced by brown sugar- Sugar adds a pleasant twist, making it more enjoyable- Works well as the coffee is not too earthy or smoky
With Sweetener– Balanced and enjoyable with artificial sweetener- Sweetener slightly reduces creamy notes- Sweetness lingers longer, creating a slightly unnatural taste
Iced Coffee– Enhanced creaminess with more pronounced bitterness- Ice helps balance the flavors, especially in sweetened coffee- Cold temperature mitigates excessive sweetness in sweetened coffee

About L’or Essenso 

L’Or may sound hard to pronounce but it is a premium European coffee brand. “L’Or” itself means “gold” in French, and the brand was first introduced by Jacobs Douwe Egberts in 1992.

Jacob Douwe Egberts is an American-Dutch company founded in the Netherlands in 1780. Today, it has merged with Jacobs, the American food company. Today, Peet’s Coffee is also part of Jacob Douwe Egberts.

L’Or offers a wide range of products, catering to diverse tastes and preferences, featuring different intensities and flavors. These include: 

  • Ground coffee
  • Whole beans, 
  • Instant coffee, and coffee pods compatible with Nespresso and Tassimo. 

L’Or’s commitment to sustainability is also notable, with efforts to source coffee responsibly and improve packaging recyclability.

The popularity of L’Or is attributed to its consistent quality, rich flavors, and sophisticated branding. It has become a favored choice in many households and cafes, especially in Europe. The brand later expanded into North America and the Asia Pacific region.

First Impression

My L’Or Essence package comes in plastic packaging with 20 sticks inside. The packaging is given a black and gold color look, giving it a premium look. 

The gold-black color also labels it as a 2-in-1, which means every stick contains coffee and creamer. Aside from that, the color also helps to separate it from the 3-in-1s, which contain coffee, creamer, and sugar.

L’Or Essenso claims to use 100% Arabica coffee beans to make instant coffee. This should help the coffee taste better, with a good fragrance and aroma. To make the coffee, you only need to add hot water to the pre-mix.

L’Or Essenso also makes it a point to mention that their instant coffee contains 1% coffee micro grounds instead of just freeze-dried coffee. Micro grounds are coffee grounds, but so fine you would not notice it when drinking.

This should help make the coffee taste better and more intense without the weird sensation of having coffee grounds in your mouth.

When I tore open the coffee stick, the contents inside were powders of different colors. The brown powders should be coffee, while the white ones should be creamer.

How Does L’or Essenso Microground Instant Coffee Taste?

I took note of the preparation instructions on the packaging and made the coffee accordingly. On the print, it advises you to add about 5 fl oz (150ml) of hot water to the content of the sachet. Then, give it a good stir before drinking.

As for the water temperature, the recommended temperature is 176°F (80°C). Each sachet is about 16 grams (slightly over half an ounce).

Hot

After making the coffee, it looks like your regular cafe-au-lait. It looks rich and creamy and should be a hearty cup of coffee. 

Creamy bubbles are floating on the top of the coffee, but these bubbles are not as fine as the crema on your espresso. However, they give the impression that the coffee will be creamy.

The aroma only came out after I poured in the hot water. The powders dissolve easily and only require a couple of stirs with a teaspoon to go into the hot water. The aroma smells of coffee, with a strong creamy flavor. If you like creamer in your coffee, you will like this.

I barely picked up any coffee taste on the first sip, only cream. Only after the initial creaminess hits does the earthy bitterness of the coffee shine through. This is indeed a very creamy cup of coffee.

The coffee tastes bitter, without much flavor. The taste from the cup reminds me of the Old Town Asian White Coffee, with a cream-first, coffee-second taste.

There is no sweetness in the coffee since it is, after all, a 2-in-1. If you want any sweetness in your cup, feel free to add sweeteners of your choice.

I noticed some sediments as I drank towards the bottom of the cup. These are likely the coffee micro grounds mentioned on the coffee packaging. 

With Sugar

Since this is a 2-in-1 instant coffee, I thought I’d try to see if the coffee would taste better with some sugar. 

But here’s one thing – I am not a fan of having sugar in my coffee. To me, sweetness masks the original bitterness of the coffee. It makes it harder for me to appreciate the drink better.

Here, I added a single stick of brown sugar to the coffee. After a quick stir, I went in for a drink. 

Flavor-wise, I think sugar works well here since the coffee is light and creamy. Sugar brings a bit of a twist to the creamy taste of the coffee, making it nicer to sip.

Since instant coffee is not too earthy or smoky, it also helps make it more enjoyable with sugar. I usually have issues with sugar and smoky coffee. 

These two tastes do not jive well and usually ‘fight’ each other in coffee. There is no such issue with the L’Or Essenso Microground Instant Coffee.

With Sweetener

Not everyone does sugar these days, with diabetes more and more prevalent. I decided to have my coffee with sweeteners, too. In this case, I dropped two droplets of Equal artificial sweetener into the coffee. 

Equal uses Aspartame as its sweetening agent, which means the way the sweet flavor is delivered will differ from sugar. 

Taste-wise, it is about the same. The sweetener does not have to compete with the earthiness of the instant coffee, making the cup nice to drink.

The sweetness also takes out the creamy notes slightly, helping the coffee to be more balanced and enjoyable. 

I, however, prefer the sugared version. Equal’s sweet tastes seem to come a bit later and stay in my mouth too long, making the whole experience unnatural.

Iced

For my second cup, I decided to load the coffee into my cup and add a generous load of steel ice cubes to chill the coffee down. With steel ice cubes, I prevent the melting ice from diluting the coffee, affecting its taste.

I am also keen to see if ice could affect the taste of the coffee – cold temperatures can elevate or mute certain flavors in the coffee. 

The hot version of the L’Or Essenso can be a little bit too creamy for my liking, to the point that it supersedes the coffee itself. The iced version, fortunately, is better. 

I think the ice helped bring out the creaminess of the coffee and brought up the bitterness of the coffee more. 

The sweetened version is about the same as well. The colder temperature helps to take away the sweetness, which could help if you accidentally add too much sweetener to your cup.

L’or Essenso vs. Microground Instant Coffee

Since L’Or Essenso is a microground instant coffee, I thought I could compare it with other microground instant coffee I have in my collection. These are:

  • Starbucks Instant Premium Medium Roast
  • Illy Clasico Instant Coffee
  • Lavazza Prontissimo Clasico

I added some creamers to the instant coffees to equalize the flavors in this instant coffee. I use Nestle’s Coffee Mate here, and each cup receives four teaspoons of coffee creamers to make them super creamy, just like the L’Or Essenso.

From the taste, I would say I prefer the flavors from Starbucks Instant Premium with creamers. There is a stronger taste of coffee, which helps to make the drink more enjoyable. The Illy Clasico comes second here.

L’or Essenso vs. Asian White Coffee

Since L’Or Essenso’s taste reminds me of the Asian White Coffee, I decided to pick up some Instant 2-in-1 Asian White Coffee to compare the taste. Here, I picked up a stick of Old Town’s White Coffee.

Here, both are very creamy coffee, with creaminess as the main flavor in the drink. There does not seem to be much difference between the two. 

However, if I am to nitpick, I would say the L’Or Essenso may have more coffee flavor. This may be because it has coffee micro grounds. 

I may be trying to pick a needle from a haystack, though – you may not notice the difference between the two.

L’or Essenso vs. Regular Coffee

Finally, I compare the L’Or Essenso Microground Instant Coffee with those cheap, regular coffees you can get for a dollar at gas stations or convenience stores. 

The idea here is to see if you can find premium instant coffee that tastes better than regular brewed coffee. In this case, I got myself a cup of regular Americano from 7-Eleven.

Then, I added a hefty dose of creamer into the coffee to match the taste of the L’Or Essenso Microground Instant Coffee.

After drinking both coffee side by side, I still have to give regular brewed coffee the win. The brewed coffee may not taste too good. Still, it has a deeper, more complex flavor than the L’Or Essenso Microground Instant Coffee. It is, after all, brewed from actual coffee.

L’Or Essenso Microground Instant Coffee is an instant coffee, after all. With flavors removed from decaffeination, it lacks depth in taste. This made it unable to compete against regular brewed coffee.

Should You Try L’Or Essenso Microground Instant Coffee?

After giving the L’Or Essenso Microground Instant Coffee, I can see why they may appeal to some drinkers. It has a dialed-up creamy flavor to the point that it supersedes the coffee. 

This means if you are a sucker for creamy things (like me), you will greatly enjoy this coffee. It also comes pre-mixed with creamer, meaning you will get a consistent taste in every cup. You also do not need to worry about lactose problems with milk. 

On top of that, since it does not come with sugar, you can decide if you want to add sugar. If you are like me, drink it just like that, without any sweetening. 

However, if you are searching for actual coffee flavor, L’Or Essenso Microground Instant Coffee may not work. There’s little coffee flavor, and it may not satisfy you.

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