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The best part of wakin’ up is Folgers in your cup … if you don’t have anything else in the pantry. If you’re pursuing the grocery store, however, and are able to add a container of Starbucks instant coffee into your cart instead, we recommend doing so. In our ranking of nine popular instant coffee brands, we ranked Starbucks higher than Folgers.
Whereas Starbucks’ instant coffee is ground into an ultra-fine powder, Folgers instant coffee comes in a coarser granule, quintessential freeze-dried coffee crystal style. For our taste test, we sampled Starbucks’ dark roast instant coffee, but found the brewed flavor profile to be more comparable to a medium roast. Regardless, the brew was slightly bitter yet satiny and smooth across the palate, pleasantly strong and balanced.
The official Starbucks website describes its dark roast instant coffee as “bold and chocolatey … Sweet, roasty flavor with delicious notes of dark chocolate,” and made from 100% Arabica coffee beans. While we didn’t discover any multilayered touches of chocolate, this is a solid instant coffee (and at the end of the day, it’s instant coffee, so we weren’t expecting dimensionality). Also notably, this brew won the 2021 People Food Award for Best Supermarket Coffee. By sore contrast, as our reviewer reported, “I enjoy Folgers brewed via drip but was not impressed with the instant coffee. It’s a medium-bodied coffee that smells and tastes a bit burnt.”
Starbucks dark roast instant coffee belongs in your morning mug
Don’t get us wrong, Folgers is a solid, utilitarian choice that gets the job done. But, it does that job better with the forgiving help of a splash of flavored creamer. Starbucks Caramel Macchiato creamer is our favorite, for the record (even if it doesn’t taste anything like a true macchiato). Anything to take the burnt-tasting edge off. Folgers could also be used to whip up any of these instant coffee hacks, which incorporate other flavorful, masking ingredients into the mix.
It’s worth mentioning that Folgers wins the game on price point. A three-pack of Starbucks dark roast instant coffee runs for $23.94 on Amazon (roughly $7.55 per 3.17-ounce canister). Comparatively, Folgers clocks in at a much cheaper $7.49 per eight-ounce jar. Still, as we discovered in our taste test, you get what you pay for. Amazon reviews of Folgers instant coffee all seem to mention the words “fast,” “easy,” and “affordable” — all of which are true. No one seems to be blown away, but the job gets done without any frills. By contrast, Amazon reviews of Starbucks instant coffee compare the product to a properly brewed cup of coffee. Folgers remains a formidable little workhorse not to be overlooked, but for a cuppa joe that’s more than just convenient, Starbucks instant coffee is the way to go. To get the most out of your instant brew, there’s a measuring method you should know about, by the way.
