I love my coffee but I'm not a coffee drinker who dislikes instant. I use a cafetiere very often but don't believe that there is anything wrong with instant! It's convenient, easy, and provides a quick caffeine fix.

My usual choice of instant coffee is either Gold Blend or Carte Noire, but to save money I tried this Gold Roast instant coffee from Sainsbury's. Both the name and packaging seems to aim to imitate Gold Blend, and I guess it worked, because I bought it, believing it would be pretty much the same.

The coffee granules come in a rounded glass jar. It's available in 100g and 200g jars. The plastic lid is gold coloured and the label is brown and gold, with a photo of some coffee beans. The word 'GOLD' is emblazoned across the front.

Upon removing the lid, the top of the jar is covered with a gold foil lid. A simple pleasure is sticking your spoon right into the middle of it to hear it rip as you get to the coffee beneath. There's a slight coffee smell when you take the foil off, but it isn't as aromatic as the smell Gold Blend releases.

Needless to say you pour hot water onto this to dissolve the granules. They dissolve easily and when milk is added, the coffee is a very dark brown.

The label says this coffee is number '3' ie. medium strength, and indeed it isn't mild like Mellow Birds'; nor is it rocket fuel. However, despite using one heaped teaspoon in my mug, I could definitely taste hot water rather than rich coffee. I also found it a bit 'rough' and not at all smooth like the label claimed. Drinking a mug of Gold Blend afterwards really emphasised that this coffee is not smooth.

I generally take coffee with no sugar but I found with this that I needed a little honey or sugar to sweeten it. It made it more palatable. Without a touch of sweetness, I found that I grimaced a little when drinking it - the kind of coffee you sip and then make a face at!

While, in my view, any coffee is good coffee, I found this a tad too bitter, with an almost burnt kind of taste.

This costs £1.84 for the 100g jar, and £3.05 for the 200g jar. To compare, Gold Blend costs £3.28 for 100g and £5.99 for 200g.

I don't think I would buy this again. While cheap, I think it's worth spending a little extra on a bigger name brand. In this case I got what I paid for.