Instant Coffee, 3.5 OZ

Chances are, you have a not-so-exuberant, pretty-well-defined, strongly-held opinion about instant coffee. If we told you we thought we could change that opinion with a single cup of coffee, would you give us the chance?

Trader Joe’s 100% Colombian Instant Coffee is the instant coffee that rocked our tasting panel’s world. It comes to us from a Colombian supplier that grows, harvests, roasts and packs their own beans. (Modern business lingo calls this type of operation vertically integrated; we just call it very intelligent.) Where many instant coffees are freeze dried, our 100% Colombian Instant Coffee is agglomerated, which literally means “formed into a round ball.” In this case, it specifically means that the beans are granulated using a steam-heat process, which makes the coffee incredibly soluble; a heaping teaspoon dissolves quickly and easily into a cup of hot water—no stubborn granules left behind.