Expert ranks the seven major Aussie instant coffee brands amid disturbing prediction about how much café coffee will cost by the end of the year
The rising price of café-bought coffees is driving budget-conscious customers back to instant coffee for their caffeine fix.
Instant coffee has made a comeback after an expert recently predicted that we could be paying between $8 and $12 on average for a barista-made coffee by the end of the year.
The increase in café coffee prices comes after a recent spike in the price in the cost of coffee beans, driven by poor growing conditions and ongoing supply chain issues.
These higher coffee bean prices, coupled with other rising business operation costs, have resulted in an unfortunate but inevitable increase om the cost of café coffee.
As households grapple with cost-of-living pressures, it seems coffee lovers are increasingly turning to cheaper at-home alternatives - leading to the surprise re-emergence of instant coffee.
With so many brands on the market, Sydney nutritionist Lee Holmes has shared her verdict on popular supermarket instant coffees.
Speaking to FEMAIL, the wholefoods chef said Nescafe's two varieties - Blend 43 and Gold - were among her top picks.
'Nescafe Gold is slightly less acidic than other instant coffees, and Nescafe Blend 43 uses 100 per cent natural beans with no additives or preservatives and claims sustainable sourcing,' Lee said.
'However, if avoiding chemicals and ensuring ethical sourcing are your top priorities, you may want to look for certified organic and Fair Trade brands.'
The founder of Supercharged Food then ranked the following instant coffee brands: Robert Timms in second place, followed by Aldi Alcafe, Moccona, Coles and Woolworths.
Surprisingly, her least favourite was International Roast, which she placed last, describing it as a 'basic instant coffee option'.
Her rating comes after Martin Brown, Australian general manager for Nestlé - which owns Nescafé - revealed that while Aussies' love of coffee remains unwavering, they're now more willing to 'trade down' from barista made-coffee to at-home alternatives.
'So we are drinking more soluble (instant) coffee, and we are drinking more premium choices of [instant] coffee,' Martin told The Australian.
The company reported that its Nescafé Gold instant coffee is currently the fastest growing in the market.
His comments are backed by market insight statistics showing that the at-home coffee market is on the rise in Australia and is predicted to grow annually by 3.64 per cent over the next four years.
So, which instant coffee brew are we reaching for?
According to Canstar Blue's Best-Rated Instant Coffee Brand of 2024, the surprise winner - which scored top marks across almost all categories - came from Aldi.
Aldi's Alcafe range- which includes the Aroma Classic Instant Coffee (200g, $5.29), as well as Gold Classic and Gold Dark Instant Coffee (100g, $3.89 each) - proved popular among Aussie consumers.
The budget supermarket's coffee brand received five-star reviews in the categories of taste, texture and consistency, value for money and packaging. However, it received only three stars for variety and range.
A 200g jar yields around 40 cups of coffee, meaning Aldi Alcafe's Aroma Classic Instant Coffee clocks in at around 13 cents per cup.
Close behind in second place was Moccona, which similarly received five-stars for taste but was marked down for value for money, as well as in the texture and consistency categories.
Moccona Freeze Dried Instant Coffee Classic Medium Roast 200g is currently sold at Woolworths for $23.60
In third and fourth place were Nescafé's instant coffee varieties - Blend 43 and Nescafé Gold.
At Coles, a 250g jar of Nescafé Blend 43 costs $14.50 and a 200g jar of Nescafé Gold sells for $20.
Rounding out the top five was International Roast, followed by Robert Timms in sixth.
Both major supermarket's own instant coffee brands ranked at the bottom of the report, with Coles in seventh place and Woolworths in last.
A CHOICE taste test report from 2023 covered a broader range of instant coffee brands and consequently yielded different results.
The report crowned Bushells Classic Gourmet Instant Coffee as the winner, followed by runners-up Robert Timms Full-Bodied Granulated Coffee, Coles Classic Granulated Coffee Smooth & Bold and Vittoria Mountain Grown 100% Arabica Instant Coffee Freeze Dried.
The 2024 Canstar instant coffee brand winner, Aldi Alcafe, was also featured in the 2023 Choice report, where their Gold Dark Instant Coffee product placed seventh.
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