Coffee Quick (Kenco Really Rich)

Member Name: suehome

Product:	Kenco Really Rich
Date:	10/11/08 (189 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Quick, easy and relatively flavoursome

Disadvantages: Not as tasty or aroma rich as the real thing

I have to confess that my all time favourite hot drink has to be piping hot freshly brewed ground coffee. The aroma infuses the air, and the expectations from those first few sips are for a warming, welcoming and vibrant experience. However, like many I simply do not have the time, inclination or the means to always indulge myself. For other occasions it has to be 'instant'. Now I say instant advisedly, since there is a wealth of difference between freeze dried coffee and the dry powder sort........

Freeze Dried or Not?

The Kenco Rich Roast blend I am reviewing is freeze dried soluble coffee. This means that after the coffee beans have been roasted and blended, then a coffee extract is prepared by brewing up in a giant kind of percolator. Pressurized water at high temperature is used to force more of the bean into the solution. On freezing this solution the water ant the coffee extracts naturally separate, and vacuum is then used to effectively sublime this liquid directly to the solid state without passing through a liquid phase. This has then advantage of retaining more natural flavour and aroma. Afterwards the solids are granulated or turned into flakes.


The powder sort of coffee is typically a spray dried coffee product. In the manufacture of spray-dried coffee the coffee extract is fed into the top of a tower of hot air. This dries the extract into a powder, which can be recovered from the bottom of the tower. Unfortunately this process loses much of the natural aroma and flavouring, so much so, that often manufacturers will spray a coffee oil back onto the powder to artificially add back some of the aroma. This process is known as aromatizing, explaining why aroma rich is frequently plastered on the labels of cheaper powder coffees.

Naturally freeze drying is the more expensive process but the benefits to true taste and aroma make it the choice for me.

The Kenco Brand

In the early 1920's the Kenya Coffee company started trading as London coffee house with most of its coffee sourced from Kenya. Subsequently premises in Bermondsey and Earlsfield were acquired to roast, blend and pack fresh coffee as demand increased. During the 1960 's the amount of coffee sourced from Kenya substantially decreased so the name was changed to Kenco to reflect this diversification. Typically the beans from Kenya would have been the robusta variety, and the premium coffees today tend to rely more on the arabica variety from Central and South America. By the early 1980's General Foods had acquired the Kenco brand and this is where it still sits today in the Kraft Foods UK family: which includes, Carte Noire, Maxwell House, Philedelphia Cheese and Dairylea,...........

75% of the beans which Kenco source for freeze dried coffee come from Rain Forest Alliance farms as part of their sustainable development policies. Further you can buy refill packs of coffee to re-use the glass jar which is already 35% recycled glass. I must admit to never actually having seen these, but in truth probably have not really looked. So now I can feel quite good as I sit back and enjoy my brew.

My Appraisal

The coffee is attractively packaged in a smart squat glass jar which contains 100g coffee. These have recently been on offer in the supermarkets for just £2 per jar. The lid is a decent size, plastic and easy to unscrew, with lots of room to manoeuvre your spoon. This jar will make a very useful storage vessel once emptied......The top of the jar is sealed with a gold paper/foil seal which is easily pulled off. The aroma from the freshly opened jar is pure coffee, fresh and wholesome. Unfortunately that lovely smell does not last for the lifetime of the jar, so please don't forget to savour it as you open the jar for the first time. The coffee itself is 1 to 2 cm granules, light brown in colour. Although it claims to be really rich (which probably just means that the beans have been roasted for longer), I still need between one and two teaspoonfuls per mug to produce a flavoursome brew. As with real coffee to preserve the flavour and aroma, never use boiling water, just a few degrees below makes one heck of a difference. Also, mixing the granules and a drop of milk together in the bottom of the mug, helps to produce more foam or froth on the surface of the brew making it even more appetising.

No, it's not as good as the real thing, but it ain't half bad!

I'm off to look for some biccies to dunk now.......




Thanks for reading

Posted on Dooyoo and Ciao under the same author.

Summary: Convenient alternative to the real thing