Our household is a coffee drinking household. Neither my husband or I ever drink tea (I'm pretty sure my mother feeding me tea laced with whiskey when I was a baby to help me sleep is the reason I now like neither tea nor whiskey!) and so we usually have 3 or 4 different jars of coffee lurking around in our cupboard. Whilst I do love coffee I'm what I like to call a "coffee commoner" and just like the straight forward instant type - the "proper coffee" is way too strong for me and, as I do the shopping in our house, I always buy a general instant coffee - usually whichever happens to be on offer at the time.

Hubby on the other hand, whilst he's happy enough with normal coffee on a day to day basis, if we're ever at someone elses and he gets offered the proper, stronger stuff, will always accept. But as there's no point brewing a caffetiere full just for him (and he would never get up in time to do the whole process properly anyway!) we tend to just have whatever's in the cupboard as our daily brew. Until, that is, we stayed with my parents one weekend and my mum had a tin of this Kenco Millicano. I get my taste in coffee from my parents so they usually just have the normal instant coffee too but my brother has lives in the States for 10 years now and has got used to their stronger brews and mum had bought a tin of this for when he came home.

WHAT IS IT AND WHERE CAN I BUY IT?

If you haven't heard of Millicano - or seen the advert on tv...you know, the one where the husband comes down with the baby monitor in his hand and the couple start getting jiggy with it on the kithen table until they knock the coffee all over the place and then panic ensues? - it's an instant coffee but that is meant to taste the same as a ground coffee. The front of the packaging states that it is "instant and roast and ground arabica coffee" and the back of it tells us that it is the first wholebean instant coffee from Kenco and that it contains finely-milled wholebeans. So effectively, you get the taste of a ground coffee without having to grind the beans yourself or spend the time preparing the coffee pot.

It now seems to be widely available in all the supermarkets and I've even seen it in my little local Spar shop so you should be able to find it on all good coffee aisles. Having said that it pays to be choosy about where you buy it as the price can vary widely. It's usually £3.99 for a 100g tin in Tesco and £3.29 for the 85g refill, although that is actually on offer at the moment for £3. In Asda, however, the tin costs £3 and the refill £2.50 which is a big difference in price.

PACKAGING

The standard packaging for this Millicano is a tin rather than a jar like most coffees. It's about the size of a tin of beans but rather than having a metal lid it has a plastic cap type thing which you just have to prise off (the word prise makes it sound like a difficult process but it isn't, it comes off easily, I just couldn't think of a better word!). The first time of opening the tin it is sealed undearneath the lid so you just have to pull the seal off. I really like this style of packaging for coffee as it's a lot less bulky than the big glass jars you get.

Another major bonus for me with regards to the packaging is that it is made from metal which contains "at least 50% recycled material and can be recycled again after use" and in addition to that, once your tin is empty, rather than buying another one, you can buy a refill pouch so you just empty that into your tin. Thumbs up to Kenco from me on that score.

As far as the appearance goes, the tin is fairly attractive I suppose. It's a silver colour with red and brown accent colours although I think the fact that it's a tin rather than a jar is what will make it stand out on the supermarket shelf. According to the back of the packet 100g will make 55 cups and all you have to do is add a teaspoon of the coffee to your mug then fill with hot water just off the boil. It also tells us that you'll get a smooth full-bodied taste and rich aroma. The usual company contact details are also provided.

OUR EXPERIENCE

After hubby had tried this at my mums he decided he really liked it and so now we have a tin in our cupboard (courtesy of mum!) which he drinks from on weekends. As, compared to other coffees, it is quite expensive, it's a "treat" coffee for him rather than an every day one.

This coffee really is as easy to prepare as a cup of regular instant coffee and so it takes away any of the fussiness of the preparation of brewed coffee. The actually coffee itself is sort of a cross between a powder and usual coffee granules. The pieces are much much smaller than normal instant coffee but not quite a powder form, hence why it's such a light weight coffee I suppose.

As soon as you take the lid off the tin you can smell that it's much stronger than your average instant coffee and immediately brings about the atmosphere of a coffee shop rather than a bog standard cuppa in your kitchen! Once you've added hot water to the coffee the fragrance remains really strong and I can always tell when my husband's made himself a cup of this rather than the normal stuff.

Whilst we both tried this coffee I have to admit I still prefer my bog standard instant! The blend of instant and ground coffee does give a really nice smooth cup of coffee and Kenco are completely right with their claims of a smooth, full-bodied taste and rich aroma, as that is exactly what you get but for me personally it is still too strong. It would probably be a good one to make if you're selling your house and have a viewing as it really does give off that coffee shop vibe.

CONCLUSION

For me personally this coffee is way too strong for me to drink, but my husband loves it. Having said that, it does get some thumbs up from me - I like the tin it comes in and feel that it does a good job of keeping it fresh when stored in the cupboard, I like that Kenco do a refill for it rather than having to buy a whole other tin every time you run out and the environmental credentials of the packaging are a big bonus for me.

So, if you like your brewed coffee but don't always have the time to make it properly on a morning then I would highly recommend this option. It gives you the taste and smell of a ground coffee with the ease and speed of an instant and whilst I think it's slightly expensive for a coffee and more than I would normally pay, as my husband is the only one to drink it and then only on weekends, a tin does last us quite a while so it doesn't work out too bad. If I were just going on my own personal coffee tastes this would only get 2 stars from me, but as I know I'm in the minority when it comes to coffee and my husband loves it, I'm going to give it 4 stars.