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So I took the taste challenge…

I wanted to see if my palate could tell the difference  between Starbuck’s new instant coffee (just add hot water) and stuff the has been brewed the proper way.

After much contemplative mouth swishing, I correctly determined which coffee was the Folgers 2.0 and which one was the Pike Place blend. The assistant manager of the store looked a little heart broken, so I told him that it was really hard to tell the difference.

It might have been a lucky guess too. I think they purposely used some older brew  for the Pike Place in order to throw the testers off. Still, I guess the stuff was not too bad, better than most of the instant crap, but it still lacked the total flavorocity of fresh roasted coffee.

According to what I over heard, the VIA is actually microground coffee, meaning the grounds are so fine that you can drink them. They claim that it is just like drinking a cup french pressed coffee. I guess thats pretty accurate, it is a lot like sipping on some stale french pressed.

Therein lie the rub…

Well, I might need to use the dollar off coupon they gave me and purchase some VIA for some further testing, I am pretty sure I know what the problem is. Coffee starts to lose a lot of its flavor immediately after you grind it and expose it to air. I can only imagine what microgrinding it does.

Then again, maybe Starbucks has a special process where they microgrind their beans in a  vacuum sealed chamber to keep it from degrading until it reaches their costumers cup. Maybe the have a special facility in space or on the moon where they produce the VIA packets in a near total vacuum to ensure no flavor escapes.

Or , maybe they assume the average joe drinker is not going to notice the difference underneath all the cream and sugar anyway.