For a very long time the people of the specialty coffee community sourced, roasted and brewed coffee with only hot, freshly-brewed cups in mind (whether it be pour-over, drip machine, Aeropress or whatever else). That’s changed in the last few years.
Some of the best specialty coffee roasters in America have developed and released various permutation of ready-to-drink coffees — canned frappucinos, lattes and cold brews especially — and, albeit to a lesser degree, even instant coffee, a space more bemoaned than any in the coffee world.
Outfits like Equator, Reanimator, Tandem and Swift Cup are all making it with specialty-grade beans that are levels removed from the stuff you remember drinking on your first hiking trip.
But according to Coffee Review, a site dedicated to dissecting and analyzing coffee quality, one stands out above the rest: Voila Coffee. Voila’s single origin instant coffees claimed first, second and third (tied) on the site’s breakdown of the best instant coffees you can buy. Voila buys good beans from a solid company of roasters and turns them into single-serve packets of pre-extracted instant coffee (the exact process it uses is proprietary).
The first place-winning instant coffee, a natural Ethiopian single origin from Augie’s Coffee Roasters, became available on Voila’s site at the end of last week. A box of five cups-worth of it is $16
We already knew about Voilà’s affinity for making instant coffee something more than a convenience product.
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