Wake up and smell the cappucino (Nescafe Cappuccino)

Member Name: Delicate_Orchid1

Product:	Nescafe Cappuccino
Date:	02/10/05 (389 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Quite tasty

Disadvantages: Not the real thing

***The coffee society***

Let's face it, with today's hectic lifestyle not everyone can afford to make freshly brewed coffee in the morning. And if you are a cappucino lover on a student budget, well, that cappucino machine is way out of your budget. Of course there are the likes of Starbucks, Costa and Cafe Nero that offer you the opportunity to purchase freshly (not always!) brewed coffee for a hefty price-tag. But hold on, have you ever added up what a coffee habit will cost you at one of these places? If I bought just one grande cappucino at Neros five times a week, this would cost me £9.50 a week or £38 a month! So when I opted to buy an expensive gym membership, I knew my coffee fix would have to come from somewhere else than one of these coffee chains.


***Nescafe Cappucino Range***

I spent a substantial amount of time in the coffee section of Sainsbury's examining my various options. I never have been a fan of instant coffee. Reading the nutrition facts on the side of all the packages confirmed my aversion to such products. Almost every pack contains some pretty bad stuff for your body, worst of all they contain hydrogenated vegetable oil, which is a really cheap fat manufacturers use to produce economical products. The downside to this product is that it is extremely hard to break down for your body.

Sadly, this hydrogenated stuff is contained in most biscuits and in many chocolates as well as ready made meals. I have cut down my consumption to zero, so I felt that a bit of this substance coming from one cup of cappucino a day would not necessarily kill me.

The Nescafe instant cappucino range gives you a number of option to choose from:

Cappucino (original)
Cappucino (unsweetened)
Cappucino (decafeinated)
Mocha
Latte
Cafe Vanilla
Cafe Caramel
Cafe Hazelnut

I have tried all three Cappucino's and Cafe Vanilla. The Cappucino boxes contain 10 individual sachets of powder and a little chocolate shaker with chocolate powder to sprinkle on to your cappucino. The Cafe Vanilla pack contains 8 individual sachets, no chocolate shaker included.

The instructions are fool proof, you basically open the sachet, empty it into a mug and add 200 ml of hot water. It is very important that you add this water slowly and stir the mixture all the time, otherwise you will add of with large clumps of substance that taste foul and bitter. Make sure that all the powder has disolved before you actually drink the cappucino.

While the chocolate shaker looks rather small, it actually contains a very generous amount of chocolate. I sprinkle loads of it on top, but still find that I have plenty of it left once I finished all my sachets. I have therefore started adding it on top of the Vanilla Cafe as well.

Another hint to make this tastier: Sprinkle a bit of cinnamon on top. I think this makes it taste like Christmas. I do not know if anyone can relate to what I feel Christmas tastes like, but I just instantly associated every sip with a cold December day, fire place, quiet and peaceful feeling, sitting underneath a tree, sipping away on my coffee.


***The verdict***

The four products I have tried from this range all taste rather different. My favorite one is the unsweetened Cappucino, my least favorite is Cafe Vanilla.

Cappucino original: This is really good, but I feel like there is simply not enough sugar added to it. I always have to add one extra sugar, but this occassionally fails and makes it too sweet and sickly.

Cappucino decaffeinated: Like the original cappucino, this product already contains sugar, but it is not enough. Be careful when adding your own! As for the lack of caffein, I do not feel or taste a difference at all to the original version.

Cappucino unsweetended: This one is great, because I managed to figure out that two teaspoons of sugar give it the perfect sweetness.

Cafe Vanilla: This one does contain sugar, but also not quite enough of it. You have to watch while adding on to this. The taste of this product is slightly bitter and I am not very impressed with it. It also tends to clump more than the Cappucino products in this range. I will not buy it again.

So how does it compare to freshly brewed cappucino? Well, it does not compare, naturally, to a well-done Italian cappucino with loads of froth. But I do actually prefer this to the Starbucks Cappucino, which often tastes burnt and bitter. It does not come close to a Cafe Nero Cappucino, though and I do treat myself to the 'real thing' from time to time.

But if you are on a budget and in a hurry in the morning or if you simply want a treat stocked in your desk at work - the Cappucino does present a very good option!

Happy drinking!


***Product info***

£1.79 per box at Sainsbury's.

www.nestle.co.uk

Summary: The best of instant cappucinos.