A few months ago, Starbucks announced that they’d found a way to create an instant coffee, called Starbucks VIA Ready Brew that tastes as good as fresh-brewed coffee. Named “VIA” after the Italian word for “road”, meant to conjure the idea that you can enjoy this coffee wherever you go. “Starbucks VIA Ready Brew is different,” the company says. “The magic is in a proprietary, all-natural process that we spent years perfecting.”
While most of the media and many of the coffee-lovers I know were skeptical, I was actually optimistic and, truth be told, a bit excited about the prospect and potential for high-quality instant coffee.
So how does it taste—what’s the verdict?
In a word: it’s good! But there’s more to this story.
My Past Life as a Coffee Geek
My friends know that I love green tea (Adagio’s Sencha is a great place to start if you’re curious). I drink it every morning, and it’s the primary way I get caffeinated these days. But it wasn’t always this way. I used to drink quite a bit of coffee.
In fact, I’d always considered myself to be a coffee purist. Back in the days before Starbucks was on every corner—before there were any Starbucks storefronts in Florida, even—I was overnighting freshly roasted beans and using an expensive burr grinder for preparation in—what else—a french press. I was discovering a whole new world of flavor, traveling the circuit of big roasters, from Starbucks to Seattle’s Best to Peet’s, trying them all. I even discovered a coffee underground made up of little-known local purveyors, running giant roasting machines out of dingy warehouses, garages, and otherwise abandoned shopping plazas. Talk about fresh roasted, these beans were just hours old when they hit the grinder and met my french press.
I had a thermometer to check the temperature of the boil. I only drank the coffee black. I had special mugs for “cuppings.” I would even heat the mugs with steaming water to prevent the coffee from cooling too fast when poured. I would remark about the delicate oil that forms on coffee’s surface when its prepared correctly (something you’ll never see with coffee made in a drip machine).
But despite all that, I actually have some history with, and a special place in my heart for instant coffee.
Pusan, South Korea, 2000
In 2000, I was visiting Pusan, South Korea with my wife, her mother, and her brother, spending time with their extended family. We stayed with them in their homes and lived, as they liked to call it, “Korean Style.” This meant both sleeping and sitting cross-legged on the floor, eating rice with kimchi and clam soup for breakfast, live octopus for dinner, and partaking of soju late into the evening. The works.
And, to my surprise, living like a Korean also means drinking instant coffee. That’s right, as a whole, the entire nation of South Korea loves instant coffee, prepared with a heavy dose of sugar and powdered creamer. At home, in fine restaurants, and in vending machines on every block, instant coffee is a ubiquitous and quintessential part of the South Korea experience. Brands like Maxim dominate this space, but American varieties like Folgers are available as well. In fact, as we quickly learned, a big jar of instant coffee makes the perfect gift when visiting family and friends.
At first, I was baffled. Why would this country with its deep, ancient traditions and venerated culture embrace something that seemed so disposable, almost devoid of character. Then it hit me … it’s about the preparation. Asia is well known for its love of tea, and if you think about it, preparing instant coffee is a lot like brewing tea. No new techniques, devices, or tools are required. It’s affordable, portable, easily stored, and available pre-mixed with creamer and sugar. And somehow, the instant-ness of instant coffee seems to meld perfectly with a culture that’s at once outwardly fast-paced, formal, and competitive, but privately peaceful, calm, and warm.
And would you believe me if I told you that upon returning home—eager to make a press pot of “proper” coffee to shake our jet lag—that it was “Korean Style” coffee I was craving?
It’s been about 9 years since I spent those weeks in Pusan and Seoul, but I still keep a small jar of instant coffee and powdered creamer in the back of the cupboard, you know, just in case.
Acquiring Starbucks VIA
Last week I was at my local Starbucks, talking with the Barista about VIA and asking when it might be available here. She was actually surprised that I was so interested in trying it. I guess she’d been exposed to the same skepticism I’d seen. She explained that it was only available in select areas right now, specifically Chicago and Seattle.
Realizing that my interest was genuine, she introduced me to the manager who, it turned out, had a similar experience in Russia to the one I’d had in South Korea: they love instant coffee there too.
“Hmm,” she said, tapping her chin and furrowing her brow a bit, “don’t go anywhere.” She disappeared into the back room and returned, handed me two individual packets of VIA: Colombia and Italian Roast. It’s not for sale yet, she told me, “But give it a try. I prefer the Italian Roast.”
The Taste Test
The next morning, it was time to give it a try. I decided to try the Italian Roast because it was the manager’s favorite. I just followed the instructions printed on the packet, starting by emptying the coffee into a mug.
The grounds were incredibly fine (Starbucks calls them “microgrounds”) far finer than any expresso roast I’ve ever seen, and completely unlike the Folgers instant coffee grounds you’ve probably seen, which are huge and gnarly by comparison.
There wasn’t much aroma from the grounds, but once I stirred in the recommended 8oz of boiling water, I could detect that familiar smell of brewed coffee. It wasn’t as intense as as you’d get if you brewed a whole pot of course, but it was there.
I didn’t add any cream or sugar of course. Things like this are best tried in their original state. So then, I gave it a taste. And you know what?
It was pretty good. On the whole, a nice experience.
Sure, I’ve had better coffee. Fresh roasted, burr-ground, french pressed, yeah, that’s better. Sitting in Stumptown Portland talking with James Duncan Davidson, yeah, that was a whole world better. But generally speaking, Starbucks VIA is about as good as the coffee I’ve made here at home in our drip pot. It’s as good as most of the coffee we make with our Keurig B60 single cup machine (my favorite K-Cup coffee is Black Tiger). It’s as good or better than the coffee you’d find in a decent restaurant. It’s much better than any coffee I’ve made in a hotel room, while camping, or while on a road-trip. And of course, it’s far superior to any instant coffee I’ve ever tasted. The Colombia was good too, but I agree with the Starbucks manager: the Italian Roast is the better of the two.
Final Thoughts
At $9.95 for a box of 12, that’s a cost of about $0.83 cents a cup. That’s about twice the cost of a K-Cup ($0.42), and a whole lot more money than a cup of coffee from a french press or drip maker. But for a completely portable, long-lasting, instantly-brewed cup of good-tasting coffee anytime, it’s well worth the price.
If you don’t want to wait for it to arrive in your town, it’s available from the Starbucks online store.
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Ben Reubenstein
18 March 2009 at 11:11 am
I am addicted to K-Cups. It is so convenient and I really hate brewing an entire pot just to waste most of it. If I had my rathers I would always be drinking a fresh Americano. Interested to try out the VIA though.
monkeyinabox
18 March 2009 at 11:45 am
Prior to some time in Australia, my only instant coffee experience was Foldgers (blah). In countries where instant coffee is “the norm”, there is certainly a quality bump-up, however I’m still not convinced that a better cup of coffee can come from an instant mix. Interesting that it’s coming here where the huge number of drive-thru coffee huts are large in numbers, where in foreign countries they are not.
Kyle Meyer
18 March 2009 at 11:50 am
It’s pretty great that Starbucks has been on a kick of actually improving their coffee products. The more exposure everyone in the country gets to borderline-good coffee, the more demand there will be for specialty roasters like Stumptown. live in downtown Portland and am sitting here as we speak with a large mug of black, pressed, Columbian from Stumptown. It leaves me hating other forms of coffee, especially at restaurants where they drip Folgers.
I may be a bit of a coffee snob, but I’ll admit Starbucks new house coffee (Pike’s Roast or whatever) really is much better than restaurants or any large coffee brand you’ll buy at a store. It’s good to hear their other products are keeping up.
Manton Reece
18 March 2009 at 12:04 pm
I’ve gotten pretty used to making espresso and lattes with our machine at home, but we’re going camping this weekend so I’ll give the VIA a try if it’s in stores here. Good timing, thanks for the tip.
Rick Lobrecht
18 March 2009 at 12:48 pm
I have the same two packets sitting on the shelf behind me. Being a Starbucks Card holder, they sent me a free offer to try it. I haven’t gotten around to trying it, but I think after hearing your review I may just have a cup. The cost is awfully high. I guess that’s the Starbucks influence.
Bradley Wright
18 March 2009 at 12:51 pm
As an Australian (a coffee country, if you like the Italian style) and as someone who has had a lot of coffee in Italy, I can conclusively say that Starbucks is not, in any way, a good indication of quality coffee.
Tom Carmony
18 March 2009 at 1:22 pm
I’ve been meaning to give Via a shot (Starbucks has major displays of it in every store I’ve wandered into recently here in Seattle) and I think your review here will be my tipping point. Sounds like the perfect thing to have handy when needing a single cup in a pinch (in my case, most likely preceding a late night of design work).
Brad MacDonald
18 March 2009 at 5:04 pm
Thanks for the review and background. I am both surprised and yet not that it’s a decent drink. I can’t imagine Starbucks investing in the R&D and marketing if the stuff was awful. I’ll have to pick up a few samples to try and have around for those times when I can’t fire up the grinder.
Jough Dempsey
18 March 2009 at 6:03 pm
I’m not surprised it’s good - the Starbucks T-discs for the Tassimo single-cup coffeemaker are generally pretty decent to very good. I’ve always thought that the single-serving machines like the Keurig or Tassimo were somewhere in quality between fresh brewed and instant, leaning closer to freshly-brewed, but am now curious to try the new Via instant as an alternative (which is almost twice the price of what you can get the T-discs for online). I’m in Chicago, so hopefully they’ll be available in the local Starbucks locations on every other block.
Tanner Christensen
18 March 2009 at 8:05 pm
The real question I have, Dan, is: are you a Starbucks, Dunkin, or home-brew man?
Mike Morrow
19 March 2009 at 11:35 am
Being in Chicago, where it seems like you literally cannot avoid VIA right now, I can concur: It’s pretty good!
Chikabird
19 March 2009 at 12:29 pm
It’s definitely pretty good hot, and you can also make it with cold water for instant iced coffee. I think it scores higher as iced - definitely better than a lot of watery iced coffee out there.
Joe
20 March 2009 at 12:57 pm
Your review of this product stands in rather stark contrast to the vast majority of the others online. So I ask: are you being paid? In bucks or possibly Starbucks?
Dan Benjamin
23 March 2009 at 9:32 am
@Tanner - I live about 20 minutes or more from a Starbucks and work from my home office, so it’s rare that I get a cup from them. I brew mainly at home.
@Joe - I don’t receive payment for my reviews. The RSS Sponsorships are paid for, but they are marked as paid sponsorships.
J. P.
27 March 2009 at 12:20 am
I tried a complimentary packet of VIA recently and thought it was decent.
If you are craving a Maxim fix (or a hundred packets of it), and aren’t near a Korean supermarket, check out hmart.com, specifically http://tinyurl.com/d3zzfb and http://tinyurl.com/dxxrv7. :)
Andrew Green
27 March 2009 at 6:40 am
I suspect this won’t be available here in the UK for some time.
At the risk of sounding like a shill (I’m not, honest) — I’m a recent convert to the Aeropress. I’m curious: have you tried that? If so, what did you make of it?
Dan Benjamin
27 March 2009 at 9:47 am
@Andrew - I haven’t tried the Aeropress but I’ve heard that it’s amazing and I’d love to try it.
Andrew Green
27 March 2009 at 10:30 am
First one to buy it on your Amazon wishlist gets a T-Shirt!
Sean
27 March 2009 at 6:21 pm
I’ve been living in South Korea since 1997. Yes the love of instant coffee is insane here, however it’s changed a lot since the first Starbucks arrived in July 1999 (just down the road from where I lived at the time).
Now you can’t go more than 200 meters without seeing a starbucks, coffeebean or similar style restaurant. And the prices are about double what I paid on my last trip home to Canada.
Instant coffee is still popular, but it’s not the only contender anymore. I’d like to try some of this instant coffee from Starbucks, but it hasn’t yet arrived in Korea. Until then…
Tareq
02 April 2009 at 1:26 pm
They have VIA in about 30 Starbucks stores in West London
notashilleither
03 April 2009 at 6:42 pm
Unless you count the fact that they sent me free samples in the mail, I’m not a shill, either. I"m trying the Italian roast now, and agree with your review: it’s pretty durn good. It has none, I mean zero, of that sickly, charred taste I associate with instant. It tastes just like halfway decent brewed coffee. However, I really can’t justify close to $1/cup, even for camping use…
-T
Edgardo
04 April 2009 at 4:12 am
The night of the fight, you may feel a slight sting. That’s pride f*cking with you. F*ck pride. Pride only hurts, it never helps.
79aa93a1b4afdbddf7cea8ba95b95939
Micael Mannings
10 September 2009 at 3:55 am
VIA is freaking awesome, it instantly dissolves the minutes it touchs the hot water and the quality is exact to having a freshly brewed cup. you can even drop it into a bottle of cold water and barely give it a shake or two and bam! INSTANT ICE COFFEE (minus the ice) Go starbucks!
sheryl
29 September 2009 at 8:41 am
I like via! I’m usually a food snob and this includes drinks. but i tried the italian roast and it was just like a cup of dark rich coffee. I’m particular about getting the darkness just right: I prefer the size of 2 shots of espresso, but i like it just a little weaker, but not as weak as an americano turns out if you order a tall. Via is great because I can make half a cup—i try to limit my coffee intake. Now i can make a half a cup in the office and not have a pot enticing me to drink more, or I’m not disappointed in ordering a small coffee somewhere and being disappointed that it’s not strong enough.
DEAN
04 October 2009 at 4:02 pm
I love this product! Especially the Italian Roast! It taste so much better than the origial Pikes Peak blend of the original brewed Starbucks coffee! I’m a fligh attendant and it is so easy just to take the instant on the plane with me and drink it as oppose to airplane coffee. Kudos Starbucks Via Italian roast! =)
ed every
27 October 2009 at 8:20 am
All kinds of variables affect the taste/comsistency of coffee - even instant coffee.
Instead of all these broad sweeping proclamations from the gut that Via is good or bad, why not offer something useful? Why not experiment with Via and discover processes that truely optinse the end result?
When you talk about coffee you are talking about subtle variations. The idea that the temperature of the water has zero effect on quality is very unlikely. (This would imply that there no subtle oils etc. present to boil off). The idea that optimum water temperature you should use does not vary as one departs from the recommended 8 oz of water is also unlikely.
> What is the effect of just stirring immedeately?
> How much stirring?
> What is the effect of stirring after letting it stand?
> What is the optimum time to let it stand?
Just because it’s quick doesn’t mean one should be able to obtain optimum results regardless of the procedure.
This product could be very useful if only occasionally. Let’s do something useful too. We have the raw material, let’s see if we can get it tuned it up!
Yoludemoqa
27 January 2010 at 11:28 am
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julie
30 January 2010 at 7:18 pm
I like those Starbucks instants for those pick-me-ups in the afternoon when I don’t have a chance to either brew a cup or go out for coffee at work. If done right, they’re like an Americano, Starbucks Americano, that is.
As for really good coffee, though, I use a Keurig and grind my own Stumptown beans, using the reusable cartridge. NOTHING beats Stumptown, out of Portland, OR. I wish they’d start making K-cups for convenience.
So for you K-cup conneseurs (sp?), what’s the best, balanced brew? Green Mountain is too weak and watery when you do the 8oz. size. Newmans is good, but any others?
Julie