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Claudia Münch BrasileiroNOK 19,00 – 100 g/10 liters (offer price)A classic Brazilian coffee with notes of chocolate and nuts. Particularly suitable for coffee drinks with milk, such as iced coffee, cafe latte, but also suitable for those who prefer a strong dark coffee taste. With this coffee you can make iced coffee at home! ATTENTION! Normal price is NOK. 39,00 |
It is said, at least before, that the taste is like the butt, and that is true. It is different and if you think something is best, it is a subjective opinion that is correct for the individual. The sum of such opinions can be used to say something about what the majority thinks is best. A test is a test based on the test's assumptions, so congratulations to the test winner, COOP, is of course in its place. Most of us are probably co-owners in COOP (as they say, a little yours), so we can take some of the credit, but...
None of our instant coffee types were included in the test, even though we may be the one that sells the most of this kind in Norway. It is probably only because the Food Control in TV2 does not have an overview, and because as of today we have not chosen to launch our coffee in grocery stores. We ended 2019 by distributing instant coffee equivalent to more than 100.000 glasses/packages as they are sold in stores. That should mean that we deliver more than all brands in the test (see below).
The three "best" are the chains' cheap coffee, also called EMV (own brand) or Private label. Private label products are often products in product categories that sell a lot, that are produced and sold at a low price.
TEST OF POWDERED COFFEE: Cheap coffee shocks (TV2)
The taste is indisputable. Those who tested these types of coffee gave their honest opinion. No reason to doubt it, but why did both "night owls" and "experts" like the cheapest ones better than the others? They clearly taste better than the more expensive brands, and to a certain extent we might agree with that, although we know why, but first look at the test result and we can give our opinion as to why:
The night ravens' rating:Xtra Powder Coffee: 5 |
The experts' assessment:Xtra Powder Coffee: 5 |
From TV2 Matkontrollen
We who partly live for coffee and from selling coffee investigate this in a slightly different way than TV2 and their experts. We can say that we know what makes one coffee taste better than another. When we choose coffee beans, we look for a balanced fruitiness and sweetness. An exciting taste picture. What we call a sensory profile.
Everything has a sensory profile, as long as it has a taste, but perhaps not many of those in the test have one, with descriptions that have something to do with a normal sensory profile for coffee. Now we put a little restraint on ourselves and skip the descriptions and instead shift back to the question why do some taste better than others?
Everyone likes sugar!
When a food manufacturer wants to make a product cheaper, one ingredient is often replaced by another. This also seems to be the case here, because when the test's winner costs only NOK 100 per kilo, there must be an explanation. We know how much this kind of coffee costs to produce, so there must be an explanation, and we have revealed it in the section's heading.
There are several methods to be able to produce an instant coffee cheaper. Chicory which is a well-known coffee substitute is one. Does not contain caffeine, but the taste is reminiscent of coffee, so mixing it in will not make it so that a consumer will detect it. The second method of making a coffee cheaper is as the title indicates; sugar!
Private label coffee Contains up to 50% more sugar!
We couldn't test for chicory content and we don't claim that any of the coffee types in the test have it, but we bought the test winner, because we couldn't quite get this to harmonize. So we brewed two of our own types, Claudia Münch Back in Black, essentially a freeze-dried one Café Pele. The second one we "brewed" was our most affordable Claudia Münch Brasileiro (Norway's best-selling instant coffee).
We used an electronic Brix meter to measure sugar and solids in the coffee. Yes, it is normal for coffee to contain sugar. From nature, but what is called "agglomerated" or "spray dried" coffee, where maltodextrin is added to be able to make a powder. Maltodextrin is a carbohydrate-containing food that is often used as a substitute for sugar. Maltodextrin is easily digestible and is as easily absorbed by the body as sugar.
The test winner was "clocked" in around 1,5°Bx, which is then more than 50% over Claudia Münch Brasileiro. One could then perhaps say that the sugar content corresponds to 15% of the sugar content in Coca-Cola.
Yes, it is normal for coffee to contain sugar, even filter coffee, but it is not maltodextrin. Maltodextrin is often used as a sports supplement because it causes a faster rise in blood sugar, so if you have diabetes, or are on a carb diet, or are on a diet, then perhaps you should rather consider a freeze-dried coffee, if you prefer the simplicity of instant coffee. Of course, if you only drink a cup or two a day, this makes little difference.
Our conclusion is that people like the sweet and that it will always be as we have claimed before, most sweetness wins taste tests, but not the nutritionists' tests.
For spray-dried coffee (and agglomerated, which is the same coffee), producers are not required to declare the sugar content, as this is considered part of the production process. This applies to all instant products. The vast majority use maltodextrin in the production of instant products. The exception is our instant products which instead uses prebiotic dietary fiber as a "carrier".
Do you have a favorite coffee?
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