Starbucks’ Caffe Mocha Instant Coffee - Review

With summer comes a need for quick coffee that is easy to carry on camping and hiking trips. Since we do a lot of outdoor activities, and I love to have my coffee along, I wanted to explore some instant coffees that you can find at the store. Hopefully we will find one this month that is a great companion to summer fun, without the insipid sip that we often associate with instant coffees.

To start us off, I sought out the Caffe Mocha Instant Latte from Starbucks. This is a slightly pricey option – about $10 for 5 packets. But, I have been enjoying mocha more and more and thought this would be fun to drink.

Unfortunately this drink fell short. I expected something similar to a hot chocolate with coffee, which I find really delicious (2:1 if you want to make it at home). However, I tasted no coffee flavors, which is important to me even in a latte. When I tried this drink again, knowing that the coffee flavor was not there, it was a bit more enjoyable.

This is made out of Dutch chocolate and natural cocoa. Dutch chocolate is made with cocoa beans that have been washed in an alkaline solution in order to reduce the natural acidity. The process balances the beans to a PH of 7, which is the same as water. This process makes Dutch chocolate easier to dissolve with earthy and woody notes. 

Because of the Dutch chocolate, this brew carried more of a bitter, dark chocolate flavor. At first it tasted like burnt milk chocolate, but understanding this Dutch chocolate process helped make sense of the more bitter notes of the mocha.

Although this drink is not one of my favorites, Mr. Brew was reminded of his childhood and drinking Maxwell House French Vanilla coffees. If you are a fan of dark chocolate, and are searching for a lighter version of a hot cocoa, this might be something you would enjoy. 

Better luck next week!

Cheers,

Mrs. Brew