A UK coffee lover, long devoted to her moka pot, has tiptoed gingerly into the world of coffee-derived drink products to find out whether any come close to the real thing. Tasting canned lattes, coffee-flavoured protein drinks, cold brew and next-gen instant coffees, she found the market teeming with examples, many in extra-unsustainable packaging.
Canned lattes and protein drinks
All the big players – Starbucks, Nescafé, Califia Farms – offer canned lattes with the typical three-quarters (or more) milk to one quarter (or less) coffee ratio. However, these drinks all have added sugar or sweeteners, turning the morning coffee into a liquid pudding. If they contain dairy milk, it tends to be UHT, although some use lactose-free or plant-based milks. The best of the bunch was Grind’s Iced Vanilla Oat Latte: less milk (57%), more coffee (40%) and less sugar, too.
Emmi’s Caffe Latte High Protein, the taster noted, is no higher in protein than any of the rest, striking her as a brand jumping on a hackneyed bandwagon catering to a health-anxious and possibly appetite-suppressed crowd. Yfood’s This Is Food, a ready-to-drink, coffee-flavoured “complete meal” with 30g protein per bottle and more than 20 ingredients, was deemed a sorry substitute for food and certainly not coffee.
Cold brew and instant coffee 2.0
Cold brew – coffee steeped in cold water for an extended period for a softer, more naturally sweet result – takes a fair while to make, so buying it off the shelf has appeal. Tesco and Nescafé both make inoffensive unsweetened cold-brew concentrates, a good option for an Indian summer. The next-gen flavoured instant coffees by Little’s and Beanies were also enjoyed, especially Little’s glazed cinnamon number.
Four coffee drinks worth attention
The taster highlighted four products: Grind Iced Vanilla Oat Latte (£2.25, 250ml, Ocado), described as the best example of the genre – a not-too-sweet, good-quality cold brew with oat milk; Tesco Finest Cold Brew Coffee (£4.50, 500ml), a concentrate to which water is added; Little’s Glazed Cinnamon (£4, 50g, Ocado), with doughnut vibes more in aroma than taste; and Union House Roast (£7.50, 200g, Ocado), her food shop stalwart, a balanced, slightly chocolatey all-rounder. Despite the discoveries, she concluded that nothing beats a home brew from her moka pot.
