Got some Starbuck’s Via Ready Brew for Christmas – the Starbuck’s venture into instant coffee that boasts a flavor as good as regular coffee.  Cost comes to $1 per 8 oz cup, or roughly the same cost of their regular drip coffee.  So, is it really as good as they boast?

Not so much.

It has a distinct difference both in taste as well as in body.  The flavor itself is just as strong as Starbuck drip, along with the overcooked bean taste that defines Starbucks in general, but with a stale “instant” taste.  The body is thin and more like water than the full body of a decent cup of coffee.

Now I haven’t had much instant coffee (ok, this is my first instant coffee), but I can say that this is the “best instant coffee” that I’ve ever tried.  Will I switch to it over regular coffee?  No.  Will I carry it around for a quick Starbucks fix?  No.  Might I keep it around to help doctor up bad church coffee once in a while?  Maybe.

Overall, I’ll stick with the brew and leave the powder for tiramasu.