Sleepy in summer? Don't worry, this instant coffee cost-performance evaluation is for you

For professional baristas, please follow the coffee workshop (Wechat official account cafe_style)

For some people who are addicted to work and or study every day, how to ensure daily energetic devotion to work and study is a question worth pondering. Painstaking in one's study? NONONO! Drinking coffee is the right solution, and for office workers who drink coffee from nine to five, quick and convenient instant coffee is the best choice!

When it comes to the choice of instant coffee, office workers are often a handful in the supermarket, or a single choice in the company pantry, or follow the pace of advertising. How much caffeine is in the instant coffee we drink, and which one tastes better and is more cost-effective? Don't worry, this cost-effective guide of instant coffee is for you!

21food Evaluation column No. 01

First of all, to evaluate you first to 818, coffee circle this all-powerful instant coffee past life and this life!

After Japanese scientist SaetoriKato officially invented instant coffee in 1901, instant coffee officially began its own upgrade war! In 1938, Nestl é finally developed a more advanced spray drying method for the manufacture of instant coffee. The specific method is to use hot steam to vaporize the water in the coffee beans, leaving the dry coffee extract. Instant coffee can quickly dissolve in hot water, and it takes up less space and volume in the process of storage and transportation, so it is more resistant to storage, so it is very popular in the mass market. Instant coffee was first used in the battlefield of World War II, when allied soldiers used instant coffee as a daily drink, which improved efficiency to a certain extent. Now, with the development of coffee extraction technology, the emergence of the most advanced ultra-low temperature freeze-dried extraction method has greatly improved the taste of instant coffee and retained the flavor of coffee beans, thus improving the taste of instant coffee.

Instant coffee as a sharp tool for overtime, many of you are already very familiar with it. But you have to tell you that the raw material coffee beans selected by ordinary instant coffee are the lowest grade of commodity bulk purchase, so it is almost impossible for everyone to drink good beans.

With the continuous improvement of the quality of coffee and the increasing demand for coffee, the instant coffee industry is becoming more and more standardized. It is understood that large coffee enterprises such as Nestle Coffee have chosen the most convenient and economical way to produce coffee all over the world, constantly improving the quality of coffee with modern production technology.

Let's take a look at the five products tested today.

In order to make this evaluation more practical and people-friendly, the evaluation gentleman visited the major supermarkets and bought five products with a high shop rate on the market to carry out this evaluation, in order to experience the relatively good coffee quality. friends who don't want to spend too much time must collect this article!

Brands: Nestle, Mocha, Maxwell, Central Plains G7, Bic

Type: three in one instant solution

Evaluation items: packaging design, dry powder quality, coffee solubility, coffee aroma, taste

Taste standard: fragrant, sweet, bitter, sour, mellow

Price: Volkswagen price (price range of 1.4 yuan per package-1.8 yuan per package)

From this, it can be seen that the price of instant coffee on the market is generally around 14 yuan, which belongs to a very parity price range.

I. Packaging design

Easy to tear: in these five instant coffees, Maxwell, Nestl é and comparable have obvious text hints on the easy tear on the outer packaging, but mocha and Central Plains coffee do not. Under the same force, the mocha coffee bag can not be completely torn open!

Packaging logo: Maxwell, Nestl é and Mocha Coffee are marked with allergens on the box; Maxwell, Nestl é and Zhongyuan marked the coffee concentration or caffeine content on the box, while comparable did not mark the above information on the outer package.

Based on the above evaluation results, the ranking of packaging design:

Nestle > Maxwell > Central Plains > Mocha Coffee > comparable

In order to make it more convenient for consumers to experience, coffee manufacturers have formed a set of established packaging identification in practice. Instant coffee in red bags is generally thick; black bags belong to high-quality small fruit coffee; gold bags symbolize nobility, indicating that the bags are the best in coffee; blue bags are "caffeine-free" coffee; bags with more gaudy colors are coffee with unique taste.

2. Quality of dry powder

"three-in-one coffee", also known as "instant coffee", refers to a mixture of cream, sugar and coffee, while the proportion of cream, sugar and coffee in coffee directly affects the taste and quality of coffee.

In dried coffee powder, the black part is coffee powder; the milky white part is cream; and the small crystal is sugar. Through observation and comparison, we can see that the particles of Maxwell's dried coffee powder are more obvious and the proportion of cream is higher; the color of mocha coffee dry powder is the lightest of the five; the color of comparable coffee dry powder is the most uniform and delicate. Nestle and Central Plains dried coffee powder is slightly inferior to comparable.

Based on the above evaluation results, the ranking of packaging design:

Comparable > Nestle > Central Plains > mocha Coffee > Maxwell

Third, coffee solubility

The most prominent advantage of instant coffee in the coffee family is the simple brewing condition. However, there are not many people who can really achieve "instant solution". Among the five kinds of instant coffee, under the same conditions, the dissolving effect of mocha coffee and Central Plains is the best, followed by Maxwell, and the dissolution rate of Nestle and comparable is slower.

According to the above evaluation results, the ranking of coffee solubility:

Mocha Coffee > Central Plains > Maxwell > comparable > Nestle

IV. Aroma of coffee

The characteristics of the aroma indicate the essence of the taste of coffee beans, the sweet smell indicates that its taste is sour, and the pungent smell indicates that its taste is irritating. The strength of the aroma indicates the freshness of the coffee, that is, the time it takes from roasting to grinding into powder. The aroma consists of the most volatile aromatic compounds, especially those containing sulfur, such as methyl mercaptan. At present, there is little people can do about how to keep these substances in coffee beans.

When the coffee is fully stirred, the aroma of the coffee will come out. The coffee aroma of Nestl é and Central Plains has more coffee aroma than the other three, but unlike Maxwell's sweet aroma, Coffee and Mocha Coffee has obvious milk flavor.

Based on the above evaluation results, the ranking of coffee aroma:

Nestle > Central Plains > Maxwell > comparable > mocha Coffee

Fifth, coffee taste

Coffee taste can affect the degree of stimulation due to temperature, and paying attention to responses in different sensitive areas of the tongue can help capture different characteristics. For example, because temperature reduces sensitivity to the sweetness of sugar, acidic coffee initially produces a tingling on the tip of the tongue rather than sweetness. Hold the coffee in your mouth for 3-5 seconds and focus on the type and intensity of the taste. Put the coffee water in your mouth for a few seconds, then swallow a small part. Quickly suck the throat to send the water vapor left in the back palate into the nasal cavity, you can find the smell of the heavier molecules left in the back palate.

The aromas of various compounds felt in the aftertaste are sweet, similar to chocolate; or bonfire smoke, or cigar smoke; sometimes, there are similar irritating spices, such as cloves; sometimes, like resin, similar to turpentine; sometimes, there are all these smells. The last is to evaluate the taste of coffee. The tongue slips gently across the palate of the mouth to feel the texture of the coffee. The feeling of oily quality and smoothness, while the "heavy", thick and sticky feeling of coffee constitute the mellowness of coffee.

In order to test the taste just right, he found five friends in the office to try it, and summed up their feelings and came to the following conclusions.

Maxwell classic original taste: the first taste of sweet will instantly seize the taste buds, slightly bitter aftertaste, the overall taste is more silky.

Nestle 1: 2 original coffee: the acidity of the imported coffee is obvious, the aftertaste is more sour, and the taste of the coffee is slightly thick, giving people a feeling of high alcohol.

Central Plains G7 three-in-one instant: the entrance has a touch of milk, a little astringent aftertaste, the overall taste is more mellow

Mocha caramel macchidol mouth: the imported milk has obvious aroma and no acidity, the aftertaste is still sweet and greasy, and the overall coffee taste is slightly affected by the milk flavor.

Comparable Italian mocha: the sweetness of imported chocolate is obvious, and the taste is more delicate, but the taste of coffee can no longer be felt.

The ranking of coffee taste based on the above evaluation results:

Central Plains > Maxwell > Nestle > mocha Coffee > comparable

Combining the above five evaluation criteria, the final evaluation results are as follows:

Central Plains > Nestle > Maxwell > mocha Coffee > comparable

This evaluation, the choice is also the public instant coffee products on the market, and the evaluation method and professional coffee appreciation is still some distance. The purpose of this evaluation is to hope that more friends can know more about the instant coffee on the market so that it is convenient for everyone to choose according to their own needs. If you have any new findings, please leave a message in the comments area.