Not My Mama's Instant Coffee

I'm so glad that God made the coffee bean and that someone first figured out how to brew it up. Because mornings are just morning until...

 

What coffee do you drink, if any? Are you picky about your coffee? How picky are you? Would you, could you, give up your current brand or roast, or type of coffee. Or would you go to decaf or instant?

 

My mother drank Folger's coffee. And she drank a lot of coffee. She was so brand-loyal that she could not be fooled. My sister and I once filled her Folger's can with another brand. We had bet someone that she was just stubborn but wouldn't actually be able to tell the difference. We were wrong. We made a pot of coffee for her and with one sip, she knew.

I guess I take after my mother. I have cheaped out on a lot of grocery items but can be pretty brand loyal when it comes to my coffee. Once upon a time, I only drank Yuban or Gevalia (back when Gevalia had a subscription box and I could afford it). As I got older, I wasn't extremely picky about the brand as much as I was about the strength. I have never liked those weaker or less "bold" morning blends. I like my java full force.

For the past few years, I have loved the Dark Magic blend from Green Mountain Roasters. They make a decently-priced bag of ground and a higher-cost K-cup. I preferred the K-cup but often went cheaper by putting the ground coffee in a universal K-cup reusable filter. 

Here's the thing. Lately, I have been cutting way, way back on things. I am having to eat healthier - even more so than before and I have yet to find a Dollar Menu that my doctors will applaud. Basically, I have to cut back on the Wants and Wishes (certain coffees, specific hair products, etc.) and stay focused on the Needs and Musts.

I've done well in most areas by making my own hair care concoctions and just plain giving up some vanity-oriented things. However...

Coffee is my biggest indulgence. It's one of the few obsessions I have that has some health benefits. And it's something that I don't really over-indulge in. I just need my morning cup and maybe - just maybe - a second cup a little later in the day. After that, I am good until the evening when I have a nice cup of tea before bed. Yes, I am a woman of habits.

Knowing all this, a lot of my friends would be surprised to know that I have now switched to drinking mostly instant coffee. 

The idea of switching to instant didn't occur to me in the least until... 

I had some instant coffee around that I used only to make the delicious Dalgona coffee.

Other than that, I never touched my jar of instant. Until one day when my Amazon subscription was late. Actually, I had shared my coffee with a neighbor so I ran out a few days earlier than usual. Anyway, I wasn't up to walking to the store or making a larger enough order for delivery. I decided to have a Dalgona but then didn't want to deal with the hassle. So I just made a plain instant coffee. I had the Beaumont Instant from Aldi's so...

Wow. This stuff is good. It's got a deep, rich, kind of chocolate undertone to it. I had not enjoyed a cup of coffee so much in a long time. I made a second cup. Usually, I have a 12-ounce "mug" (that I often never even finish) but I was making 8-ounce cups of the instant.

Listen. I went online that very day and canceled my Subscribe and Save order for coffee. When the last box arrived a few days later, I didn't even open it. I didn't miss Dark Magic. And I wasn't wasting any of the instant that way I did the Dark Magic. 

I'm saving money for sure. Here's a breakdown:

• Green Mountain K-cups $15.80 (32 pods) = about $0.50 per pod
• Green Mountain ground  $10.49 (18-oz bag) = $0.58 per ounce
• Aldi's Beaumont instant  $3.09 (8-oz) = $0.38 per ounce
• Nescafe instant $5.45 (7-oz) = $0.78 per ounce

Yeah. I'm now a Beaumont gal. (By the way, I did try Nescafe and it's not much better than Beaumont, in my opinion.)

As tight as I keep my budget, I didn't truly fathom how much I was spending on coffee. And, as I said, I was sometimes just plain wasting coffee. The smallest amount my machine makes is about 12 ounces per pod. If I try making less than that with the universal filter, the taste is off - too strong or too weak. And I don't always finish 12 ounces before it starts to cool - even with my thermal mug. With instant coffee, I can get a good cup with just over a half-tablespoon of powder. And I can get 5 jars of Beaumont with what I was paying for 1 box of Green Mountain pods. 

As for my beloved Keurig, I plan to keep using it for making my green teas and hot chocolates - of which I have found store brands that are both cheap and tasty.  Also, whenever I'm going to go out for a bit, I will make a 12-ounce mug of Beaumont. 

Oh! And I almost forgot to mention THE most important part of this: I can actually drink this coffee black. It's not as good as 1) Luzinanne Dark Roast or 2) either French Market or the delicious Cafe Du Monde chicory coffees straight black, but... It's too hard to find those brands or find them at a decent price.

Now, I don't drink Beaumont Instant black as often as I did the others, but I have been trying to balance it out during the day. If I drink a cup with creamer/sweetener, I drink the next cup without. I discovered that black coffee works much better as an appetite suppressant than does coffee with cream and/or sugar.

Anyway. 

So, yeah. If you had asked me 6 months ago whether or not I would switch to instant, I would have noped hard. Now, I am happy with instant coffee. With the money I have been saving, I might get a chance to try some other brands of instants. Who knows?

I have read some things comparing instant to ground coffee. Apparently, in most opinions, ground tastes better and seems to have more health benefits. I think taste depends on the brand and personal preferences. As far as the health benefits, I'll have to look more into that. I am still not sure about ground coffee having more caffeine. Again, I think it depends on the brand.  I haven't noticed a difference yet.

Peace

--Free

P.S.: I started writing this post about 2 weeks ago and forgot to publish it! I would like to make an update to note that I am still drinking only instant coffee. I am saving the last of the Green Mountain for company or when I am waiting to order more of the instant. I have grown to like the Nescafe enough that I want to try a couple other brands just to see what's out there. I also got to try Community Instant Coffee and Chicory and... yuck! That was the weakest, blandest coffee ever. It was like drinking from sawdust shavings! But, yeah, I am not likely to go back to ground coffees unless I find something as cheap and tasty as the instant I have.