Cafe culture in your living room, office, kitchen, bathroom..... (Nescafe Cappuccino)

Member Name: purplelynne

Product:	Nescafe Cappuccino
Date:	05/11/05 (933 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Frothy coffee without the price tag

Disadvantages: Has upped my caffeine intake to the hilt!

I am addicted to Cappuccino’s at the moment, and cannot go through a whole day without having one. I prefer Cappuccino’s from places like Starbucks and Costa, but this isn’t always possible because believe it or not, we don’t actually have a Starbucks on the Isle of Wight, and there is only one café that sells Costa’s coffee. So to satisfy my coffee cravings I buy Nescafe Cappuccino sachets.

They are really handy because you don’t have to add milk to them. This is a lifesaver at work, because most of the time someone forgets to buy the milk, so ordinary coffee and tea is out of the question. I have a store of Nescafe Cappuccino (now NC for short) in my desk drawer, and they are a great life saver in the mornings allowing me to stay wide awake without falling asleep amongst a pile of reports and emails.

NC’s come in a box of 10 and the cappuccino alone has three different varieties: normal, unsweetened and decaffeinated. For the purpose of this review, I am talking about the unsweetened variety, which is definitely my favourite out of the three. The decaffeinated tastes a bit like coffee flavoured gravy and the normal variety is sweetened with disgusting artificial stuff which leaves a sour tastes in your mouth.

Re-reading the last paragraph doesn’t really inspire much love for the product, but don’t get me wrong, the unsweetened version, when made correctly, is on a par with some proper café style cappuccinos. It took me a while to master the art of instant cappuccino making, but I have now got is sussed, and I will share my secrets with you all very soon.

Nescafe have cottoned on to the fact that café society/culture is big business, and have cashed in with an assortment of café style coffees. Other varieties include: Vanilla, Latte, Hazelnut, Mocha and Caramel flavours. I can vouch for the Mocha but haven’t tried any of the other coffees.

Each sachet contains 16g of coffee and milk powder, and the new packaging boasts that it is now mug size with even better froth.

Packaging
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Feel free to skim this bit if you want, because it is relatively boring, but some people like loads of unnecessary information, so sorry, here it is.

The NC come in individual sachets in an attractive brown and gold packaging. The new version has a sketch of the instructions, so you can check you are making the drink right! On the other side is the word UNSWEETENED written in an assortment of different languages:

Non zuccherato, ungessut, makeuttamaton……

Right, enough about the box, who cares?

Appearance
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The powder is brown and white, simple really, as it’s the coffee and added whitener which makes it that colour. The smell is the usual coffee smell which is not too overpowering. The only downside is, when you have made this drink, you don’t achieve the lovely coffee aroma, which is prevalent when using coffee machines or visiting a coffee shop.

Taste
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I am not a connoisseur of coffee, and actually prefer it on the weak side. I couldn’t drink an expresso for love nor money, but my taste buds crave the creaminess which can be found in a cappuccino or latte. This is why I enjoy NC so much, as the taste of the coffee is not too bitter. Perhaps I’m a wimp, and real coffee lovers will snort with derision at my preference. If you are a strong coffee drinker then NC is definitely not for you, unless you resort to adding another spoonful of instant powder to the drink, I don’t think you will be happy with the result.

The frothiness of the NC is very good; it appears almost instantly and remains in the cup until you have finished. I wouldn’t go so far as saying that you will have to spoon it out of the cup, like you would do in Starbucks, but there is a good amount left, which can be swirled around the mug and mixed with the remainder of the coffee.

How to make the perfect NC
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Step One – Boil the kettle and add the sachet to a large cup or mug. I have found the ideal cappuccino mug at home, which makes the perfect drink. This is also trial and error, and I really believe the choice of mug size makes all the difference to a good or bad cup of cappuccino.

Step two – It says on the box that you should use hot, not boiling water, but I don’t take any notice of this advice as I am too impatient to wait around until the water cools. The trick is to add a small amount of boiling water to your mug and stir vigorously for about 30 seconds. This will ensure all of the powder is dissolved in the cup. If you ignore this warning, you may find yourself faced with small clumps of undissolved powder which doesn’t taste very nice once swallowed. I think a lot of people make this mistake with instant cappuccinos and it really does put you off for a while.

Step three – Once you have stirred the mug and it’s contents for the recommended time, you then fill up the remainder of the mug or cup, stirring again, until the water reaches the top of the mug. At this point there should be a fair amount of froth at the top of the drink. It is a creamy colour and reasonably thick for an instant drink. Don’t expect the pure white frothiness you find in café’s because you will be disappointed, the NC provides froth but without the squirty nozzle thing you find in café’s, a perfect froth is impossible to achieve.

Step four – At this point, I add a little bit of milk, which not only cools the drink down, but also gives it an extra creaminess which I like. Stir the drink again, and then add the Nestle Chocolate powder which comes free with the NC box.

Step five – Drink it with a huge bar of Fruit and Nut. Or a Flake which can be dipped in the coffee!

So there you have it, the perfect cappuccino without having to leave home to achieve it.

Overall opinion
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I really like this coffee, and would definitely recommend it. However, if you are an expresso drinker or take three scoops of instant powder in your coffee, this probably isn’t the drink for you. If you are a wuss, like me, then go for it, you won’t be disappointed.



NC contains 74 calories and 3.8g of fat per serving, this may seem like a lot, but if I have one of these about 10.30am, it keeps me full until lunchtime – who needs Shreddies when you can have this!

NC can be bought in most supermarkets, and Tesco’s and Sainbury's usually have lots of offers when they have two boxes for £3.

www.nestle.co.uk

Nestle
PO Box 207
York
YO91 1XY

Thanks for reading.

Summary: A really nice instant cappucino drink which is great for when you run out of milk