Many people think that you need to pay £5 or more to enjoy a high quality, fresh tasting coffee, but that is simply not the case! Instant coffee, if made right can rival your favourite local coffee shop, and at a fraction of the cost.
So let’s start by saying coffee is very much a thing of personal taste – some like it strong, some like it weak, some enjoy it black and other prefer milky, so there isn’t really a ‘one size fits all’ solution.
Good Quality Instant Coffee
Firstly, you need to start with a high quality instant coffee – it simply must be freeze dried, which is the more premium process for drying out coffee beans which preserves the flavour. Country of origin also makes a big difference; we are (obviously!) huge fans of Colombian coffee due to the bold taste it gives, and Colombian coffee is highly regulated by the FNC ensuring a high quality product.
Use a generous amount of coffee
The common belief is that you use one teaspoon of coffee per mug, and for those who like their coffee relatively weak this isn’t far off. However if you like your coffee closer in strength taste to your professional barista brewed coffee, we recommend between 1.5-2 teaspoons of coffee per mug.
Don’t skimp on milk or creamer!
Similar to the ‘one teaspoon’ rule, generally when people make instant coffee, they use too little milk - and this will be especially evident if you increase the amount of coffee as above. For someone who enjoys a cappuccino type white coffee, we recommend using one third of a cup of skimmed milk, or around a quarter of a cup of semi skimmed or full fat milk.
Don’t burn the coffee!
OK, so the jury may be out on this one and you do find people who swear by both sides of the argument, but we at Quokka HQ think it does change the flavour, so we either let the kettle cool for a minute or so after boiling, or we add the milk first. Probably just in our heads, but we’re sticking by our guns!
Extra bits and bobs
Keep your kettle clean – a de-scale or good clean out every now and again will keep your kettle performing well and the water that comes out tasting good!
Use filtered water – Okay, okay, we might be going a bit far here but as we have a Brita filter in the office, we quite often filter water which we then fill the kettle with.
Try a double strength, milky coffee; use a smaller mug (or only fill a normal one half way!), use the same amount of coffee and sugar as you would for a full mug, add quarter of a mug of milk and a quarter of a mug of hot water. Strong, full of flavour – trust us, you’ll love it!
Know any other tips or tricks that we are missing? Drop an email to us on CustomerService@QuokkaCoffee.com, we’ll give it a go and if we agree we will add them in to this blog!
