The Best Instant Coffee

A strong cup from a packet

Pike Place Roast is Starbucks' everyday medium roast, a blend of Latin American coffees with cocoa and praline notes, and VIA mixes a little very finely ground coffee in with the instant. Starbucks has made VIA since 2009, and it also comes in Italian Roast, Colombia and Blonde. Chowhound found the darker Italian Roast surprisingly like it was freshly brewed: strong, full-bodied, slightly smoky, and good black over ice.

Each packet has 130 to 140 mg of caffeine according to Starbucks customer service, more than a typical cup of light-roast drip at about 110 mg. At about $20 for 20 packets, you're paying about $1 a cup, four times the Mount Hagen jar.

Not everyone loves it black. Treeline found it almost as rough as Nescafé, and bitter, and stretched it with more water or hot cocoa. Use hot water: VIA doesn't fully dissolve in cold.

Dark enough to stand up to milk and ice

Tasting Table calls it one of the deepest instants, with a signature dark espresso bite, and says fans of lighter coffee may find it too harsh. With cream it keeps its bold, deep notes, which makes it a good base for lattes and flavored coffee drinks. Over ice, Chowhound found it smooth and not bitter, though not as strong as a real espresso; add another spoonful if you want more punch.

The granules look almost like coarse ground coffee but dissolve with very little stirring, and Bustelo says it mixes with hot water or milk. On Amazon it's about $26 for two 7.05-ounce jars, about $13 a jar.

The camp-stove cup

Alpine Start was founded by the climber Matt Segal, and it's made for the trail: one packet into a mug, 8 to 10 ounces of hot water or milk, stir. The only ingredient is instant Colombian Arabica. It's a mild medium roast, smooth and well balanced, without chocolate or fruit notes, and Treeline found it wasn't bitter or astringent even when they added too much water. It mixes with almost nothing left at the bottom of the cup.

Cold works too: Treeline shakes it in a bottle of cold water for about 30 seconds. Each serving has about 120 mg of caffeine. The 30-serving bag works out to about 67 cents a cup; individual packets are easier to pack.

A smoother cup with less caffeine

Waka's Colombian medium roast is freeze-dried, and CleverHiker rates it among the best-tasting instants, alongside Swift and Verve, easy to drink black or with milk. Waka describes it as smooth and balanced with citrus undertones. Treeline found the finish darker and a little bitter, and wanted cream with it.

It's lighter on caffeine than most instants, about 55 mg for two teaspoons, so it works well for an afternoon cup. The 3.5-ounce bag makes up to 35 servings, about 34 cents each, and there's a bigger 8-ounce bag good for about 80 cups if you settle on it. Waka also makes a decaf.

The everyday jar, at about 9 cents a cup

Taster's Choice House Blend is a light-to-medium freeze-dried coffee: a teaspoon in 6 ounces of hot water makes a cup. Two 7-ounce jars make up to 210 cups for about $19, which comes to about 9 cents a cup, the cheapest here by a wide margin. Nescafé also bills itself as the world's best-selling coffee brand.

300 mg in one packet

Each Death Wish packet holds 4.9 grams of coffee and 300 mg of caffeine. That's close to three regular cups in one mug, and three quarters of the 400 mg a day the FDA says most healthy adults can have. It's an organic blend of Arabica and Robusta, made with 8 ounces of water or milk at about 170°F, well below boiling.

Flavor comes second. Some owners love it, especially on the road; others find it bitter, with no aroma. At about $1.50 a packet, it's the most expensive cup here.

Decaf made without chemical solvents

This is the Mount Hagen jar without the caffeine: the same Papua New Guinea Arabica as the regular jar, organic and Fair Trade, decaffeinated with water and CO2 rather than chemical solvents. The listing says 99.99% of the caffeine is removed; Caffeine Informer puts a serving at about 6 mg.

A jar makes about 50 cups for about $15, roughly 30 cents a cup. For more on why the decaf method matters, see my guide to chemical-free Swiss Water decaf.