Instant coffee is typically freeze dried crystals of a prepared coffee that can be added to hot water to make a quick coffee drink. I guess the ultimate goal is making a coffee drink that’s not fresh brewed coffee that still tastes like fresh brewed coffee. Via is Starbucks answer to your father’s Sanka instant crystals. Via has a new form of instant mixed with some very finely ground coffee (they call it micro-grounded).
My bottom line: Via tastes like correctly brewed stale coffee with a bitter finish.
When I first opened the package I noticed a strong bitter smell. I got some of the Via on my fingers and smelled it for a while. The smell reminded me of the bitter coffee oils from a dirty espresso machine. I dumped the Via into my cup of hot filtered water and noticed the Via didn’t want to easily come out of the packet. Maybe steam had condensed inside the packet or it was static – I don’t know. I tried the two varieties of Via I found and drank 3 cups of Via for my test (not all at once!)
My first thought was, “WOW”. Instant coffee is disgusting. Via isn’t disgusting. Right off the bat I give Starbucks my award for best instant (I haven’t tried many). As I drank I noticed a pretty obvious bitter finish that bordered on “bad aftertaste”. I drank the cup and thought, “this almost tastes like brewed coffee”. After the second cup I decided it did taste like brewed coffee, just stale coffee. I’ll confess I’ve had WORSE coffee in many local coffee shops. I would attribute that to the fact many shops leave coffee sit too long or brew it improperly.
Via is expensive. It comes in small single serve packets that cost about $1 per prepared up. That’s about 10-12 times the cost of most instant coffee. Unless you are nowhere near a kitchen to use a pourover, and there are no coffee shops nearby, I can’t see Via being a great option.
Try it, you may like it. It’s expensive and not as good as properly brewed coffee.
jim barnard
i am holding out for a via version of a caramel white mocha.