Smooth operator (Kenco Really Smooth)

Member Name: dave27

Product:	Kenco Really Smooth
Date:	05/12/01 (352 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A great tasting cup of coffee

Disadvantages: Still not as nice as tea

I'm not the keenest of coffee fans, because my real preference is for a nice cup of tea, but there is one brand of coffee which I do make an exception for, and that's the splendidly smooth and rich Kenco .... Mmmm, deliciously refreshing.

Mrs D on t'other hand absolutely despises tea and everything about it - the taste, the smell, the appearance, the very idea of it - and consequently we very rarely get to sample the brew in our house because she just refuses to make tea for me. You know what it's like, you always want what you can't have and don't want what is sitting on a plate for you.

You maybe understand then my preference for tea, but please forgive me because it doesn't make me a bad person.


Kenco comes in an enormous range of versions and styles, and they are uniformly excellent. Here is a run down from the latest Tesco.direct information -
Kenco Cappuccino 8 sachets 168g - £2.29
Kenco Colombian Freeze Dried Coffee 100g - £3.08
Kenco Costa Rica Freeze Dried Coffee 100g - £3.09
Kenco Decaffeinated Rappor Coffee 100g - £1.98
Kenco Decaffeinated Superior Quality Coffee 100g - £2.56
Kenco Kenyan Freeze Dried Coffee 100g - £3.08
Kenco Purely 20 Instant Coffee Sticks - £1.49
Kenco Rappor Coffee 100g - £1.64
Kenco Rappor Coffee 200g - £2.95
Kenco Rappor Stick Pack 20's 34g - £0.89
Kenco Really Rich Coffee 100g - £2.14
Kenco Really Rich Coffee 200g - £3.98
Kenco Really Smooth Coffee 100g - £2.14
Kenco Really Smooth Coffee 200g - £3.98

Sorry for the anorakist overtones, but dave27 believes in giving you the full unexpurgated truth.


Now out of all that little lot, I have to say that it's the Really Smooth version which most appeals to me, purely because of the wonderful taste, but in reality all of these versions are excellent and you can't really go wrong with Kenco, so long as you make it right ... which means a hu
ge, heaped tea (coffee?) spoon of the stuff with absolutely boiling water poured all over it so that it's almost too hot to drink, and just enough milk to take off the bite. If you let the water go off the boil at all then it just won't taste right and under no circumstances should you do what Mrs D does, which is stick the milk in first and then put the water on afterwards. It does make it look nice and brown on the surface, but it tastes kinda funny.

Kenco is made, naturally enough, by the Kenco Coffee Co, who describe it as 'superior quality instant coffee'. going on to boast on the back of the jar "The Kenco Coffee Company brings you a superior blend of the finest beans, expertly roasted to capture the smooth coffee taste and rich aroma that is Kenco Really Smooth. Kenco ... the real coffee experts."

The boast is actually quite justified in this case, because Kenco do make an exceedingly wonderful cup of coffee, quite one of the best I've ever tasted, not harsh, or bitter, which is how I've found most other brands. Like anything, however, it's important that you don't go too over the top and have too much coffee, because it can do you harm when taken to excess, but that's like life, I guess....


If you want a decent rundown on the history of Kenco, you should visit http://www.kraftfoods.co.uk/kenco/history.htm where you learn, among other things, that in 1923 "a co-operative of Kenya coffee growers set up the Kenyan Coffee Company to distribute high quality beans into Britain. They established a popular coffee shop in Sloane Square and founded a mail order firm, John Gardner (London) Ltd, to supply the increasing number of hotels and restaurants around the City. As the business continued to grow John Gardner bought out the co-operative and expanded the catering side of the business."

More recently, in 1987, "Kenco was bought by General Foods (now Kraft Foods)
to form the biggest ground coffee company in the UK. The Kenco Advisory Service was set up to act as a source of information for both trade and consumers." Racy stuff, eh?

You even get the obligatory trivia page - "Kenco decaffeinated coffee is made by spraying steam over green coffee beans. Carbon dioxide helps remove the caffeine from the beans, which are then gently dried in warm air. The beans are then roasted to produce the appropriate strength and flavour. Ground coffee can be stored in a freezer for up to one year in an air-tight container. But do not freeze in glass containers. Brazil is the world's largest coffee exporter. Vietnam is second followed by Colombia and Indonesia.
Never use artificial, distilled or chemically softened water for coffee - it makes the coffee taste flat. Beethoven was a keen coffee drinker. He counted 60 beans for every cup he consumed." So you're among the rich and famous and deaf and dead - oh well!

Kenco are also the brains behind that splendidly awful series of adverts featuring Cherie Lunghi as the new female boss coming in to the company - how embarrassing! Dig this self important dross from the Kenco site - "'Good morning gentlemen' Christina announced back in 1991 when she entered the boardroom of the coffee company she had just inherited from her father. For the next ten years Cheri Lunghi, in the guise of the strong-willed, independently minded Christina, would be one of the best known advertising icons of recent decades. Boardroom, the first commercial to feature Christina, went on air in 1991. The cynical old members of the Kenco company board sit around drinking their coffee while dismissing Christina's new leadership in old-school chauvinistic tones. "At least she can't change the coffee," Jenkins says. Little does he know that it's Kenco's instant coffee that's in his cup - it tastes so smooth he can't tell the difference.
After that, Cheri never looked back. Time and time again, she showed the most stubborn disbelievers that real coffee taste was achievable in an instant - as long as Kenco was behind it." So tedious!


Now I'm all tuckered out with all this fact finding and I'm off to bed, carefully avoiding the last cup of coffee which I know will keep me up all night buzzing...

Night all

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